Colors is a 1988 crime drama directed by Dennis Hopper and starring Robert Duvall and Sean Penn as LAPD officers assigned to CRASH ("Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums"), the department's controversial anti-gang unit at the time. The film is notable for being one of the first Hollywood attempts to realistically depict the Los Angeles gang problem (the production hired actual LAPD officers and former gang members as extras for the film). Colors also featured many now well-known actors in minor supporting roles including Don Cheadle, Damon Wayans, and Glenn Plummer, all of whom played gang members here.
The following weapons were used in the film Colors:
LAPD Officer Danny McGavin (Sean Penn) carries a 6" barrel Smith & Wesson Model 14 as his on-duty service handgun. At the time, this was one of the approved handguns to be carried by LAPD officers (although it was unusual to see a younger officer carry this firearm).
Officer Rusty Baines (R.D. Call) carries a Smith & Wesson Model 15 as his sidearm, which he notably uses in a fatal shooting. The S&W Model 15 was one of the standard issue revolvers for the LAPD before they began to issue 9x19mm semi-auto Beretta 92F's in 1987.
McGavin (Sean Penn) also carries a Smith & Wesson Model 36 compact revolver in an ankle holster which is only ever seen for a second during the scene in the restaurant where High Top (Glenn Plummer) is arrested.
LAPD Senior Officer Bob Hodges (Robert Duvall) carries a Beretta 92F as his service pistol throughout the movie, which was just entering service with the LAPD at the time of the film. Several other LAPD officers can be seen using the Beretta, and at least one gang-banger also uses one during the shootout at the climax.
Hodges can also be seen using a Taurus PT92 during the scene where CRASH busts the drug dealer Oso (C.E. Grimes) in his home. This is a continuity error (read below), as in all other scenes, Hodges' carries the Beretta 92F. Several gang members are also seen wielding PT92s.
Trivia Note: Several Berettas and Taurus' were on the set of this film. While getting ready for the scene, Robert Duvall, not being a firearm aficionado, picked up what he thought was a Beretta just like he had been using. By the time someone realized the error it was too late to fix it. This is an honest mistake since the two firearms look very similar - Anyone who did not already know the difference would not know.
When McGavin and Hodges confront the 21st Street Gang after one of its members, Felipe (Romeo De Lan), throws a rock at their car, McGavin takes out an Ithaca 37 extended mag-tube riot model (specifically, the LAPD version with rifle sights). Hodges tells him to put the shotgun back in the car, embarrassing him. Later in the film, when the 21st Street Gang gets busted, several other LAPD officers can be seen with identical shotguns.
A sawed-off Remington 870 is seen several times in the film. A Remington is first taken from house of Oso (C.E. Grimes). A full-size pistol-gripped Remington later appears again in the hands of at least one 21st Street Gang member in the final shootout. This may also be the shotgun that Rocket (Don Cheadle) uses in the drive-by shooting at the beginning of the movie, though this is uncertain.
The Micro Uzi is depicted in the film as the weapon-of-choice for many of the gang-bangers. Rocket (Don Cheadle), the leader of the Crip gang in the movie, and Larry "Looney Tunes" Sylvester (Grand L. Bush), a 21st Street Gang leader, both use Micro Uzis when they square off against each other in the climactic shootout.
