Am I The Only One Who Notices Things Like This?

[ATLDave]

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

Yeah, they might. The idea that "muzzling" someone with a loaded gun is a mortal sin is, again, relatively new.

Of course, accidental firearm death rates were much higher even 20-30 years ago than they are now.

 

[doubleh]

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

Everyone that carried a lever action rifle in a movie carried it with an empty chamber. They always work that lever when confronting someone and sometimes after shooting and stopping. Then they work the lever to make a point and no empty cartridge ejects. I can't keep from laughing. It's almost a required thing in western movies.

 

[TarDevil]

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

Everyone that carried a lever action rifle in a movie carried it with an empty chamber. They always work that lever when confronting someone and sometimes after shooting and stopping. Then they work the lever to make a point and no empty cartridge ejects. I can't keep from laughing. It's almost a required thing in western movies.

Same with semi-auto pistols. How many times do you see characters racking a handgun?

 

[Kendahl]

I expect carrying an old fashioned single action revolver with the hammer over an empty chamber became standard practice after a few accidents. There is a reference to it in John Wayne's last movie, The Shootist. He mentions loading six if necessary. What always amuses me is cocking the revolver to confront someone and then letting the hammer back down on a loaded chamber with no further action.

 

[jeepnik]

I have a different take on the move with the rifle raising the hat. Perhaps had it been someone else Mitchum would have simply pulled the trigger.

 

[Trunk Monkey]

One of the things that drives me nuts and again it's not movie Magic but I see it in westerns all the time two guys face off throw down on each other and then they talk it out and they going to the saloon and have a drink together.

I don't care who what when where or why if you point a gun at me it's certainly not going to end well and we are not going to go drinking together right afterwards

 

[Trunk Monkey]

I have a different take on the move with the rifle raising the hat. Perhaps had it been someone else Mitchum would have simply pulled the trigger.

Empty chamber remember?

 

[LiveLife]

From what I have seen in historical documentaries, life in the wild west was nothing like what Hollywood portrayed.

Due to harsh living environments, people depended on each other and were often polite and friendly with no display of bullying and dangerous gun waving with most towns being "gun free".

And as to high noon shoot outs? Total Hollywood myth as most deaths from gunfire were result of being shot in the back.

You know, our mundane life in 2020 is nothing like scenes from superhero movies ... except for that guy in Texas church shooting.

 

[ATLDave]

One of the things that drives me nuts and again it's not movie Magic but I see it in westerns all the time two guys face off throw down on each other and then they talk it out and they going to the saloon and have a drink together.

I don't care who what when where or why if you point a gun at me it's certainly not going to end well and we are not going to go drinking together right afterwards

Again, you’re bringing modern mores and norms to works of fiction depicting earlier times. In many honor cultures, people could end up in lethal confrontations or duels. Once honor was satisfied, some of these men would resume friendships. We don’t have much honor culture left in most of American society, and any violence is considered a gross breach of cultural norms.

like the change of attitudes and practices towards gun safety, this is generally a good thing. But when viewing historical events, or fiction set in some historical past, you have to remember the old saying: “The past is a different country. They do things differently there.”

 

[WestKentucky]

For me, westerns get a pass. They don’t deserve one, and they are far from being realistic, but they define an entire era (however incorrectly) in which America became what it is. Is all of the land west of St Louis a gigantic desert full of gorges inhabited by wolves rattlesnakes and hostile natives? Heck no.

But even with the pass that I typically give, there are some scenes which are just beyond me. Raising a sleeping mans hat with a rifle muzzle, shooting a blasting cap on a bridge from 1/4 mile away with a revolver as a train rolls in, basically every time a gatlin is seen on film... it’s dumb and it shouldn’t have been done whether in reality or in Hollywood but it was.

 

[Thibaut]

No, Trunk Monkey, you are not. When I first started shooting, I thought everybody used only one hand to shoot and that the sixth chamber was for a rolled-up bill to pay the undertaker. I will say, however, that Robert Mitchum was one manly man.

 

[Trunk Monkey]

the sixth chamber was for a rolled-up bill to pay the undertaker.

Speaking of things that are extremely likely to cause your revolver to lock up and make sure you need an undertaker.

I will say, however, that Robert Mitchum was one manly man.

You wouldn't let him stick a rifle in your face though right?

 

[Sistema1927]

I am guessing that the faux pas noticed in El Dorado probably happened far more often in real life during those days than we could begin to imagine.

 

[Thibaut]

You wouldn't let him stick a rifle in your face though right?

LOL. Only if he said "please," first. We're talking Robert Mitchum, Trunk Monkey. Come on. He'd never, ever, do that to a girl.

 

[bangswitch]

If you look closely when John Wayne knocks her [Michele Carey] down the seat of her pants is wet before she hits the water.

I suppose the seat of her pants was wet because she was 23 and playing close to The Duke, Robert Mitchum and James Caan.

 

[jmohme]

No, you are not the only one that notices these things. You're just one of the few that let it bother them.
It's just a movie.

Part of the fun in movies is watching for mistakes, and inaccuracies. I think it annoys my wife when I point them out. Maybe thats why I like doing it.

 

[jmr40]

Not just firearms, but mistakes are made in movies. Always have and always will. It is hard to get the details right the way they are filmed. It is impossible to have experts on everything available throughout filming and editing.

A 2 hour movie will have hundreds of hours of film for editors to piece together to make the movie. And they are not shot in chronological order. They shoot all scenes at one location then pack up and may move hundreds of miles to shoot at another location and start over.

Sometimes scenes that are only seconds apart in the movie we watch were filmed months, and sometimes over a year apart. I've seen actors walk out of a door, and when they came back in seconds later were 20 lbs heavier because the scenes were shot months apart. Bad guy is holding a Glock one minute, next time they are on camera they are holding a Sig. Blinds are up one second, down the next. That sort of thing

Sometimes they know it isn't accurate, but they are working with the props available.

 

[doubleh]

You wouldn't let him stick a rifle in your face though right?[/QUOTE]

If I happened to be the unarmed dude asleep on the bench I would. Matter of fact if I was awake and unarmed I probably wouldn’t have done anything but politely, very politely in fact, asked him to please remove it. You don’t bring fists and indignation to a gun fight unless you are really stupid or have a death wish.

 

[peterk1234]

I'm a bit different when I watch movies that have guns. Even to this day I continue to be amazed at their ability to shoot a guy a block away with one shot and 38 snubby...one handed. And the recoil management these guys have shooting one handed, even when using full sized 1911s, simply incredible. Man I wish I could shoot like that.

 

[Obturation]

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.

Maybe sleeping on a bench is a crime, gotta keep your muzzle on scalywags and ruffians you know.

 

[bangswitch]

No, you are not the only one that notices these things. You're just one of the few that let it bother them.
It's just a movie.

Part of the fun in movies is watching for mistakes, and inaccuracies. I think it annoys my wife when I point them out. Maybe thats why I like doing it.

I agree, but sometimes when you're really enjoying it and something happens that is just way over the top wrong, it sort of ruins things.

One of my favorite Westerns, and it isn't old by Western standards, so you'd think they would have a handle on some things, is Open Range, with Kevin Costner and Robert Duvall. In the scene where the last gunfight starts, right after Costner shoots the gunslinger between the eyes, everybody is shooting at them, and Costner fans his six gun ELEVEN times in about four or five seconds. That sort of blew my mind that something like that wasn't caught.

 

[BSA1]

As for playing fast and loose with the facts how about James Caan buying a short barrel shotgun from The Swede without filling out a Form 4473 and not applying and paying for a Tax Stamp.

They did get the scenes right where Mississippi shot the sign that fell and hit the bad guy that was running away and Mississippi shooting J.W. in the leg at saloon gunfight at the end of the movie. Mississippi was such a bad shot that even with a open choke shotgun he kept missing his target.

 

[FLIGHT762]

What do you think of the WW II fotahe on the History channel?

My wife's uncle was killed by his friend, in the So Pacific, while cleaning his .45

Friendly fire, isn't.

Someone being Shot / killed by someone "cleaning" a gun has been an excuse since time began. The sad reality is, it is someone who was fooling around with a loaded gun and it went off doing it's damage.

Any firearm owner knows that when "cleaning" a gun, you would open the action or take it apart which would not result in the gun firing.

This is just an excuse that has been accepted for many years.

 

[theotherwaldo]

What happens in movies should stay in movies.

Reality has nothing to do with it.

 

[1KPerDay]

I think it annoys my wife when I point them out. Maybe thats why I like doing it.

LOL