Club Obi Wan

Did Indy use two different size holsters in Raiders? As I've been working on a Raiders era gear set-up, I've been looking at a bunch of pictures and it looks to me like Indy has a longer holster in the beginning of the movie then he does once he gets to Egypt. Anyone else see this, or am I just going crazy?

You could be on to something. AFAIK both barrels on the Smith and Wesson's were the same size but he also uses a Browning HP. I always assumed be just had the one size holster.

You're not imagining it. The Hawaii holster appears longer, shinier, and less distressed than the Cairo version.

It's likely considering there are usually several versions of any prop, the number of filming locations, and the 3 different hero pistols used. If you look closely while Indy is clinging to the front of the truck, you can for a split second see a semi-auto awkwardly protruding from the holster. My theory is that the strap had two holes to accommodate both the revolvers and semi-auto.

All that said, I've learned that screencaps can be misleading due to lighting, camera angles, and color filters.

I agree with Cajunkraut, lighting, filtering, etc. will affect what you see in screengrabs. Don't forget, the beginning of Raiders was actually at the end of principle photography, they filmed the Chachapoyan temple last so everything looked say " newer" in the beginning of the movie ( which makes sense anyway) than during Cairo or towards the end of the movie. The Raider's holster is the only really handmade holster out of all four movies.

Addendum: ToD was a surplus British Webley holster as was LC and KotCS was a pocket type revolver holster for the Webley as well. Whether in some scenes in these movies the holster may have been hand made or surplus can be questioned/argued. The Raiders holster in real life would have been hand made specific to the customer and in this case hand made for the movie. I don't believe there were different sizes for fiming as both revolvers ( Bapty and Stembridge) were cut down to the same 4".

Apparently for ToD there were three guns on the list for filming (rubber prop, the actual revolver that is in the car and a Webley) ... presumably it either didn't turn up OR they realised it was surplus to requirement (for story reasons) but the Webley sized holster was the one used on the costume. no point having a Webley and a holster thats too small?

micsteam wrote:they filmed the Chachapoyan temple last so everything looked say " newer" in the beginning of the movie ( which makes sense anyway)

Maybe I'm missing something. Wouldn't filming last with the same props lend itself to the gear looking more distressed?

Cajunkraut wrote:

micsteam wrote:they filmed the Chachapoyan temple last so everything looked say " newer" in the beginning of the movie ( which makes sense anyway)

Maybe I'm missing something. Wouldn't filming last with the same props lend itself to the gear looking more distressed?

That's what I was thinking as well. On the other hand, they had to replace the hat when they got to Hawaii (stuntman walked off with the Cairo hat), and the jacket as well (because of the bullet hole, I think?). For all we know, they might have just given Ford a whole new costume when they got to Hawaii.

Mulceber wrote:For all we know, they might have just given Ford a whole new costume when they got to Hawaii.

That makes sense, and would obviously be irrelevant to the filming sequence.

Yeah - for my part, I don't think we should dismiss the idea that there was a second holster out of hand. I doubt they would have cared too much (especially on the first movie) about making it identical from scene to scene. They may even have needed a different holster for the Stembridge, which was used in the opening scene, since, to my eye at least, it looks a bit heftier than the Bapty.

The Chachapoyan temple/idol grab scene was filmed towards the end of principle photography(Hawaii)/end of production so I'm saying they used newer costume items (fedora, holster, jacket, etc.). Would you use a leather holster that was being dragged behind a truck (truck chase scene) for how many takes ?? They did not film the movie in the progression we see the final movie in, they started in La Rochelle France at the sub pens (U-Boat docks built during WWII) and made their way through Tunisia, etc. They made hats, not a lot, for both Ford and stuntmen, there were several.

Someone has to say it...