I was briefly involved with the movie Props Master near Calgary before filming started and had an opportunity to review and comment on the script. I also was about 10 m behind the camera when the Indian raid on the trappers camp and their race to get on the boat to escape at the beginning was filmed. That and other early sequences were shot on the Morley Reserve west of Calgary along the Bow River. The bear attack scenes were filmed in the Lower mainland area of BC - note the different terrain and vegetation. The fur traders fort was built near Engedine Lodge at the south end of Spray Lake in Kananaskis Country west of Calgary. Yes, there are two scenes where our hero fires 2 shots with the pistol without reloading IIRC: once when fleeing the French and shortly after when fleeing the Indians before riding over the cliff. The other inconsistency I noticed was when he was dismounting his horse to pursue Fitzgerald on foot near the end of the story - the frizzen was open and #### was down.... not good practice for surviving a fight. Leo's rifle was a recently-made custom Maryland style longrifle built at significant cost by some well known builder from the East but then the barrel was shortened and the gun was "Antiqued" to look beat to rat s..t. However, there were about a dozen rubber copies cast from a mold made off the original and painted up so well you would have a hard time picking the real one out of a rack of them - I saw them. One of them would have been a neat souvenir from the movie! Several trap-doors were used, as were the Cooeys for shooting smoky blanks in the background and there were others as noted. I believe I contributed 2 things to make the scenes realistic: in the rain scene early in the movie several riders have Cow's Knees over their rifles to keep the lock area dry and in the scene where he builds a fire to cottarize his neck wound he strikes a flint against the back of his knife to start the fire whereas there were no details in the script as to how he would start the fire.
Having seen the movie, I had one nagging question: he used the bear skin fur side out for survival, whereas I think in those circumstances I would have kept the fur inside against my body to keep warm - any comments on that?
It was really fun to be involved, even if only for a couple of days...
I wrote the firing without reloading off to the fact that they left him his possibilities bag and it may well have had 2 pistols in it. Many of the mountain men carried 2 rifles and more than a few pistols.
The hide side out...well I guess that's the ways bears where them. I have a buffalo robe on my couch and if you pull it over yourself hair in or hair out you r sweatin pretty quick.
I liked the movie as a whole. It is not a biography of Glass. It is a movie inspired by a book inspired by the story of Glass. The best parts were
1) bear attack...very realistic
2) Fight scene at the end...probably most realistic fight scene I have ever seen
3) Raid at the start...awesome
4) Filming and Scenery
Parts I like the least
1) Director seemed unable to convey that the story takes place over 6-8 weeks so Glasses healing seems speedy if you don't account for that much time
2) River scene was absolute BS. 3-4 minutes in the drink and he would have been totally incapacitated never mind the joy ride he took
3) WTF was up with those awful, terrrible cgi buffalo / wolves. Did the director hire his 12 year old nephew to do that on his iPhone?
4) What was the horse made from???? Yanking that hard to get the guts out was a bit much
5) What came out of the horse? Looked like an old couch cushion and a leather jacket wrapped around a pillow. Can you really pick gut parts up like that? Show did not hesitate to show blood and gore so at least stuff that gelding full of sausage and a bag of liquid.
6) At the end when the horse chase was on they were quite obviously riding on cat trails and cutlines. Shoulda moved the camera or left a bit of that on the cutting room floor.
Not to bad a show but the river scene was so unreal it was actually offputting.
