Moore and the PPK
AlphaOmegaSin
EnglandPosts: 10,926MI6 Agent
Has anyone noticed how odd Moore's handling of the PPK was? (As in the way he held it)
1.On Her Majesties Secret Service 2.The Living Daylights 3.license To Kill 4.The Spy Who Loved Me 5.Goldfinger
Comments
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Ahh, but that's because Gardner knew about the Quell System. Well ahead of its time.
Moore knew how to handle a pistol, that is for sure. But it was an old system he was taught.
Aspy, could you give me a brief synopsis of the Quell System - I'm no firearms expert. Also, John Gardner was in the Royal Marines 42 Commando near the end of World War II in the Far East theatre of war. I believe that the two-handed grip is standard form there? Plus, Roger Moore is the only James Bond actor to use the two-handed grip in his gunbarrel sequence. It might be an old system, but as Moore was the oldest actor to play Bond at least in the Eon series (and only Barry Nelson, born in 1920 was older, unless one counts David Niven, born in 1910) it's fitting. The two-handed grip is probably best seen in For Your Eyes Only, where Bond fires at Locque's car. In fact, one of the most famous publicity photos comes from that scene with Moore dong the two-handed grip in the tunnelway.
He holds them incorrectly, usually by not seating them correctly in his hand (most women do this when picking up a pistol), and he limp wrists when firing. You can see it at the most extreme when he is using the P99.
The old system used by Moore was an isosceles stance. In a nutshell, this stance has been replaced by the much better Weaver system which uses opposing forces applied to the firearm by each arm to give a more stable platform (think Don Johnson's Sonny Crockett shooting form).
The Quell System is and was very radical and uses the non dominant eye. It takes a Hell of a lot of learning and unlearning to become second nature, as well as weeks of practice. It's not very well known. Gardner knew of it after he researched the ASP pistol.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Theodore
Thanks for all of the additional information on the ASP and firing techniques, Aspy. You seem to be AJB's resident firearms expert. Could you tell me your source for all you know about John Gardner and the ASP 9mm. I'm very curious if there is a book/article/online journal that contains this information. As a resident Gardnerist on AJB, I'd really love to hear more on this. I do hope that you can point me in the right direction, Aspy? Thanks so much.
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