I know, I know, another easy target. But, it's Friday night, and my online beer tasting is about an hour away.
Rather than point the glaringly obvious Hollywood-isms like the pistol of never-ending ammo, the LAW that takes out two stories of a building, or the one-handed MAC-10 sniper shot, I'd like to look into the more damaging aspects of Hollywoods treatment of guns and gun issues.
- The gun as the Bad Guy.
- The gun as the Fashion Accessory.
- The Super Accurate gun.
A perfect example of this was in the newest version or "War of the Worlds" when Our Hero digs his pistol out before getting on his way. The music changes, Our Hero looks concerned, and we all know this is going to turn out bad. The damage to the gun cause is obvious, as it's a common tactic of gun grabbers everywhere to refer to "gun crime" rather than "criminals and idiots who used a gun"
I blame James Bond. Posing, waving, and looking cool became the norm after 'ol JB came on board. Holding a gun out like that isn't very smart, when fighting for your life. It does, however, but the focus on the gun. Again.
This is perhaps one of the worst things TV and movies do. Whenever a gun goes off, somebody is hit. No matter if its a dozen people mowed down by a guy shooting a submachine gun with one hand, hanging by a rope attached to a helicopter, or a guy with a snubnose .38 taking the bad guys out from 100 yards. The message sent is: Guns are designed to kill, and they will do so every time they are around, without fail. Guns are all-powerful: Fear them.
These are just a few, feel free to add your own examples.
10 comments:
and how everyone drops with one shot!
--
SayUncle
Can't we all just get a long gun?
By sayuncle at 2006-07-08 04:55
Hollywood & Reality
Voolfie
I recently watched a show about the reconquest of the Phillipines. At one point the Japanese launched a probing attack against a three man outpost. Though heavily outnumbered, and with both his buddies dead one of our soldiers stayed at his post and in a four hour fire fight fired over four hundred rounds at the enemy through three different M1 Garands. He killed at least 13 of the enemy. That's not a very good ratio by Hollywood's standards, but it was enough to get PFC Atkins the Congressional Medal of Honor. Oh, and also unlike Hollywood, he was hit three times and survived.
By Voolfie at 2006-07-08 08:02
Good Story Voolfie!
Unfortunately, those stories are usually told in documentaries or by Ollie North instead of feature films. Audie Murphy's story was probably the last one Hollywood did.
By Rustmeister at 2006-07-08 12:46
Hollywood
Voolfie
Rustmeister,
There are so many inspiring and amazing stories of selflessness, bravery and heroism coming out of the current struggle against the Islamo-fascists, that Hollywood could easily make a mint.
I greatly fear that this will not happen because of the ideological obtuseness of those in the motion picture industry.
I am of the opinion that we won't see one picture come out of "Hollywood, Inc."
There are people who dare not make a movie that acknowledges the efforts and successes of our military for fear of being 'blacklisted' by the leftist 'thought police'. And there are others who would rather forego a large profit than portray our military in a purely positive light.
My guess is we'll see some independent movies, but nothing from "the industry". Mel Gibson, where are you?
By Voolfie at 2006-07-10 06:39
Bad examples?
The One-Handed Bazooka
Handgun bullets will always penetrate car windows and metal, generally resulting in the car exploding. This is even the case when the weapon is chambered in a round normally reserved for poodles.
Ricochets are a myth - firing and hitting cinderblock wall from two feet away will never result in injury.
Even fired with one hand while running, at ranges much farther than pistols are rated for, using iron gate sights, no individual bullet will be off target by more than two feet.
Rifle bullets, however, will be stopped by drywall, and pistol rounds, even those from massive calibers, will be stopped by a single inch panel of pine.
Bullet Time
As we all know, as an object gets closer to the speed of light, it begins to be affected by the normal flow of time. At such a high fraciton of the speed of light as bullets normally fire at, it is fairly normal for a gun's firer, when inside this distorted field, to see everything occur in slow motions.
In some situations, the gunman is suddenly capable of moving and aiming at speeds normally impossible for humans. A few extreme examples can be found in such great documentary films as the recent Charlies Angels movies.
Magazines are for Wusses
James Bond Will Never Reload.
By Gattsuru (not verified) at 2006-07-10 12:35
James Has a Reload Pass
I think you qualify for one if you say your last name first, then your first name, then your last name again.
On a similar note, I saw MI 2 on Tee Vee last night. Them guys were really good at all that stuff.
By Rustmeister at 2006-07-10 12:53
Audie Murphy's story was probably the last one Hollywood did
Blackhawk Down
By pignock (not verified) at 2006-07-16 14:00
I think you qualify for one if you say your last name first...
LOL
I guess " Pignock, Keith Pignock" Doesn't have the same cashe.
I'll have to carry spare mags.
Keith
By Pignock (not verified) at 2006-07-16 14:03
Ha!
Good one! And, I have to agree, both with your movie and the extra mags. =)
By Rustmeister at 2006-07-18 13:41
Zombies and Guns!
In the wonderful zombie movie Shawn of the Dead, our hero tries to shoot zombies with a Lever action rifle, across the length of a pub (it is set in England). Hilarity ensues, but mostly through misses. Critics even noticed that the gunplay in this dark comedy was more realistic than in most other movies.
By Austin Mike (not verified) at 2006-07-31 22:59
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