Am I The Only One Who Notices Things Like This?

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Trunk Monkey

Trunk Monkey

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I was watching El Dorado last night. There's a scene in the movie where John Wayne and Robert Mitchum are doing a patrol of the town. Robert Mitchum walks past a guy sleeping on a bench with his hat down over his face and uses the muzzle of his rifle to lift the hat off the guy's face. I literally cringed when I saw it. I want to be clear what I'm saying, Mitchum put the muzzle of the rifle right in the guy's face. Not someone he was taking into custody just some random person he was checking out.

I am completely aware that I'm talking about a movie with a script writer and (likely) fake guns but that just doesn't seem like the kind of thing a person who has any understanding of firearms or firearms safety would do. Movie or not I don't think I could do something like that and I notice unsafe gun handling when I see it in a movie.
 
“I’m looking at a tin star with a drunk pinned on it!” - it is a movie, it is an old movie, it was produced at a time before people sought so much social media attention. “You’ll find two bullets in him; one of ems mine. The other one - he was hurting so bad; had a handgun I didn’t see - any other questions?” One great movie!
 
Only one who notices?
Nope. I do too.

Do I care?
Nope. No more than about the ridiculous holstered shotgun or deliberately shooting a saguaro cactus or J.W.'s idiotic *test* of Caan's ability to shoot.

I don't think these things really teach viewers bad habits to any alarming degree but I certainly understand them *bugging* folk.

Now, what do I DO care about?.... Well, easy - Michele Carey!

Todd.
 
Fyrstyk said:
In the "Revenant" you can see flint lock rifles firing with out pulling the hammer back, and multi-shot flint lock rifles. Hollywood has no idea how firearms work or should be handled. How many times have you see those 20+ shot revolvers?
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I understand that but I'm not talking about Hollywod movie magic. There's a point I'm trying to make and I'm not sure how to communicate it. A loaded gun is part of my daily dress and (I think) because of that The Four Rules are tattooed on my brain where I think I'd phyically balk if I ever tried to do that. So I watch that scene and I wonder how much exposure Robert Mitchum (or John Wayne for that matter) actually had to real guns.

That said, I watch To Hell and Back and Audie Murphy's trigger discipline is ATROCIOUS. I don't think anyone would question his exposure.

ApacheCoTodd said:
Now, what do I DO care about?.... Well, easy - Michele Carey!.
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If you look closely when John Wayne knocks her down the seat of her pants is wet before she hits the water.
 
Trunk Monkey said:
I was watching El Dorado last night. There's a scene in the movie where John Wayne and Robert Mitchum are doing a patrol of the town. Robert Mitchum walks past a guy sleeping on a bench with his hat down over his face and uses the muzzle of his rifle to lift the hat off the guy's face. I literally cringed when I saw it. I want to be clear what I'm saying, Mitchum put the muzzle of the rifle right in the guy's face. Not someone he was taking into custody just some random person he was checking out.

I am completely aware that I'm talking about a movie with a script writer and (likely) fake guns but that just doesn't seem like the kind of thing a person who has any understanding of firearms or firearms safety would do. Movie or not I don't think I could do something like that and I notice unsafe gun handling when I see it in a movie.
Click to expand...

I am sure that if you watched any police procedurals or something like the A-team, you would find lots of issues. The so-called Sabrina hold was famously associated with Sabrina in Charlie's Angels because they wanted her face and the pistol in the same frame.

Did not realize it until I looked for images that the Charlie's Angel pose is a thing for women on instagram etc.
 
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It bothers me occasionally, particularly in modern movies where the person holding/gesturing with the gun is ostensibly a highly trained agent or something.

One conspicuous example is from RED where the Karl Urban hotshot CIA agent, after getting his butt kicked by Bruce Willis, points his P220 Sport all over another agent or fireman or something while giving vehement instructions with his finger on the trigger. Makes me cringe every time.
 
I already said this in Post 9 but I think I can be clearer.

Casually sticking a rifle in someone's face is incongruous to me. It's not (IMO) anyone who is experienced with firearms would do but again Audie Murphy.

It's like how Clayton Moore never acted in public in any way that would discredit the moral character of The Lone Ranger. Or those of you who have ever seen Heartland you will never see a scene where Amy drinks because Amber Marshall doesn't drink and she made a decision that she wasn't going to portray that on screen. Similarly Lisa Welchel (The Facts of Life) refused to do a Story line in which her character lost her virginity outside of marriage because she had a moral conviction against that type of behavior.

I realize it's not the same but it's as close as I can Get
 
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bdickens said:
Hollywood is fake.
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Yup Hollywood movie gun notions so totally off reality ...

Even John Wick movies, which I like with attempt at realism of Action Pistol/3-gun match style shooting with MMA tossed in for good measures, fail to portray reality and natural law of physics, when the shooting scenes don't express RECOIL of any guns fired ... Like so many other movies ...

And no one is wearing HEARING PROTECTION and act like they aren't bothered by painful ringing "Zing ....." from gun blast (I accidentally fired M60 in concrete bunker in the Army without earplugs and could't hear for 3 days with painful ringing in the ears ... Yeah, stupid me)

This shooting scene from the movie Heat shows no recoil and technical adviser failed on the effects of loud gun blast inside the car not affecting the shooters. They at least showed realistic ejection of spent brass and magazine changes.

BTW, that's some light weigh bag of money that moves like a feather pillow when bumped. :rofl:

​


When I start my 4 hour defensive point shooting training/sharing, after basics/safe gun handling are covered, I proceed to shatter every one of Hollywood gun myths and notions to clear shooters' mind of what they can achieve in reality ... Fast point shooting with 2 fingers to control any caliber pistols with eyes closed.

When they see tight groups on multiple targets, especially small framed female shooters and elderly with shaky hands, they are shocked as they expected the guns to fly off the "weak" 2 finger grips. :rofl:

And for younger shooters, I tease them with Morpheus sounding voice, "Do you think that's air that you are breathing?" :D And by the end of the 4 hour session where they practice proficient point shooting, even unsighted point shooting with eyes closed, they get it ... They have been "brainwashed" by the "Matrix" of the world since birth.
 
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Am I The Only One Who Notices Things Like This?

No, but I've stopped worrying about it. ESPECIALLY with older Westerns, because I love those movies. Gun-handling in the old days was egregious compared to what we know now. Nobody worried about "The 4 Rules" and everyone who picked up a firearm put their finger on the trigger. Muzzling someone was hugely common (hell, when I was a kid in the '60s out in deer camp where whisky was common along with guns, it happened all the time).

Can't speak to habits in the old West, since I wasn't there, but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have been unheard of for a town sheriff or marshal to roust a drunk with a loaded revolver in his face.

At this point in my life, I'm just gonna enjoy the movies and stop obsessing about silly goofs. Though I will ALWAYS point out to family when stuff such as the OP talks about occurs in the flick, and make sure they understand why that's not acceptable today.
 
I learned many years ago not to get bent about anything I see in a movie. Yes, I notice mistakes but life is too short to waste time being annoyed by something you see wrong in movies, TV or in novels for that matter. Just gloss it over and enjoy the story---or not. There are far too many mistakes and it's just fake any way. For example, can a few cops/good guys with pistols defeat a large group of bad guys with automatic rifles. It happens all the time in movies and TV plus where do the bad guys get all the automatic rifles? From the prop company of course but that's not part of the story.
 
LiveLife said:
Or in Under Seige 2, Steven Seagal character applies "external safety" on a Glock that doesn't have any.

Or in True Lies, AK magazine with capacity of 120+ rounds before needing to be changed. :rofl:
Click to expand...

Again I'm not talking about movie magic. I'm talking about people doing things that should be completely out of character.
 
Complete lack of respect for gun safety rules is not necessarily unrealistic for movies showing anything earlier than the last 30 years. Photos of WWII combat units posing away from combat routinely show fingers on triggers, for instance. The "4 Rules" are not some ancient thing... they're actually relatively recent in their expression and widespread adoption. They're good rules, and we know today that we should follow them. But a character in the 1880's would never have heard them.
 
ATLDave said:
The "4 Rules" are not some ancient thing... they're actually relatively recent in their expression and widespread adoption. They're good rules, and we know today that we should follow them. But a character in the 1880's would never have heard them.
Click to expand...

Would a character from the 1880s need the four rules to know not to stick a gun in someone's face?

Although it occurs to me that it seemed like everyone in that movie carried with an empty chamber.
 
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