Earlier today I had the opportunity to get Chuck Taylor's take on what happened at Gunsite with Jeff Cooper and James Caan.
Chuck's recollection.
Feb. 1980 James Caan and Michael Mann showed up at Gunsite with a couple of Hogue long slide 1911s. Rather than use colorful language I will say Chuck did not think highly of Caan or Mann. A meeting took place in Cooper's office (The Crow's Nest) in his home. From the get go Cooper thought they both were the southbound end of a northbound horse and blew them off even though they were paying handsomely for a private tutorial. Mann wanted Caan to have some idea about what he was doing. Caan did not want to be there. Caan's hobby was rodeo. There was a rodeo in Denver coming up and Caan wanted out and to get to the rodeo.
The intention was for Caan to get five days of training. Cooper was offended because the hero, Caan was a bad guy. Cooper purposely dropped the whole thing in Taylor's lap. Chuck told me that Cooper used Taylor to get himself off the hook because Mann had paid for the training. Cooper did not refuse to give Caan training Cooper just refused to personally provide the training. Chuck said this all took place during the "off season" when nothing else was going on at Gunsite.
Chuck told me that he did some significant work on the script making the action realistic and was promised screen credit which he said he was "screwed out of".
Chuck said Caan did not want to listen or pay attention because he did not want to be there. He said Caan had a terrible trigger mash and decided that the only thing he could accomplish with Caan was make him look like he knew how to handle a weapon.
The conversation went off topic because Chuck continuously kept expressing his disdain for Caan and how it was nothing like when he worked with Gene Hackman on Uncommon Valor. Chuck spoke very highly about Hackman and said that he was an "absolute pleasure to work with". According to Chuck the M1 Hackman used in the movie was Hackman's personal weapon. John Milius had Taylor do some significant script polishing. Chuck said he included a lot of stuff he was involved in in Vietnam. Chucks unit 1st Battalion 11th Infantry Recon Team Arizona (his LRRP Team designation). Chuck wrote that into the script. Chuck said he got screen credit for the training but not the script work. Screwed again! Chuck doesn't speak highly about the Hollywood moguls. Said he was given the song and dance about having to join the Screen Writers Guild (Union) in order to receive on screen credit.
According to Chuck the "famous" Glock 17 is now at 327,000 rounds and still running and will shoot into 1" at 25 yards.
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Originally Posted by JohnO
