'44 Minutes: The North Hollywood Shootout'. (1 Viewer)

[Douglas*A*R]

I'm making that assertion based on the radio traffic recording from the link a few posts up. I listened to the whole thing yesterday afternoon, and, while I don't recall the exact timestamp, it was quite some time before someone notified dispatch that the suspects might be wearing body armor.

I don't recall how the film dealt with this since I watched it while on the treadmill and held a couple conversations with other people during the course of the movie.

I'm unsure when Frank McGregor (the man Madsen portrays) actually showed up on the scene. I'll try and find out and post that info.

 

[Pete M]

Does anyone know the name of the actress who played Mario Van Peebles partner??

Alex Meneses - I remember her from Sherman Oaks on Showtime a while back.

I thought the way they handled the commercials was pretty smart. Maybe other networks do this - I don't know as I don't watch many TV movies. But they started out probably the 1st half hour with no commercials, then the segments in between commercials seemed to decrease over the next hour and half. Reel them in and then bombard them with commercials at the end - interesting strategy. Thank God for TiVo!

 

[Ken Chan]

I hit pause on the ReplayTV at the first commercial break, then did something else for about a half-hour. When I came back and hit play, Commercial Advance automatically skipped over the breaks. Wonderful technology

They were hitting the shoulder's, legs, torso and arms...but not the heads. Anyone care to give me a plausable reason as to why not?

The funny thing is, if someone wrote a movie where this happened, the forum would be filled with messages how it was BS and "would never happen in real life".

//Ken

 

[Garrett Adams]

Also, if I remember right, didn't one of the crooks accidentally shoot himself when his gun backfired? The film shows him committ out right suicide.

I only saw the death once during the live TV coverage. On later news reruns of the event the kill shot was edited out due to its' graphic nature. My recollection is one moment seeing the robber standing on the sidewalk firing his assault rifle and then suddenly dropping like a ton of bricks. My immediate impression was he had taken a head-shot fired by a police officer.

 

[Rhett_Y]

You might want to take into account, cops are trained to shoot the torso. High percent of hitting your target, hence the scenes you see where they are hitting the chest,stomach etc. Most agency's shoot from 25yards or less. 90%+ of all police shootings are within 25yards or less, most are within 10feet. You have a situation where most of these guys are not military, some are, most arent, yes you are trained to do police work, but know you are faced with dealing with military weapons, not necessarly military tactics (especially by the robbers). When you consider alot of rounds where thrown in the direction of the police officers..........and none of them were killed...
Heck everybody else was running away, yet you see the cops keep coming and coming..........

For some reason monday quarterbacking these guys for what they did and where facing, just doesn't seem right.

Now as for the movie...I thought it was pretty good, but waaaaaaaay to many commercial.....jzzzzzzzzz.

R~

 

[Gary->dee]

Wow. I saw this FX movie for the first time today and I have one word to describe it: Raw. Besides that I think it was incredibly good for a TV/cable movie. Very powerful, compelling and tough stuff. The technical credits were amazing. Wonderful cinematography(the overhead shots were awesome), excellent special effects, and pretty damn good acting. I didn't even really like Mario Van Peebles before I saw 44 Minutes. He put in quite a performance, not over-acted and after all these years he's finally earned my respect. I also thought Michael Madsen put in a strong performance and that guy from Office Space was good too.

I can't believe I actually like a made for cable/TV movie!

Bravo

 

[Paul_Medenwaldt]

Also, if I remember right, didn't one of the crooks accidentally shoot himself when his gun backfired? The film shows him commit out right suicide

The first suspect to die, he put the gun under his chin and fired and that exact same time a bullet went through his neck from a police officer. The unedited footage shows this happening.

I believe then the 2nd suspect bled to death.

Paul

 

[Douglas*A*R]

That's right. His family had the gaul to sue the LAPD for not providing medical attention in time to prevent his death.