What are the most ANTI-gun movies?

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"Grand Canyon" by Lawrence Kasdan 1991:

Simon (Danny Glover): I've gotta ask you for a favor. Let me go my way here. This truck's my responsibility, and now that the car's hooked up to it, it's my responsibility too.
Rocstar: Do you think I'm stupid? Just answer that question first.
Simon: Look, I don't know nothing about you; you don't know nothing about me. I don't know if you're stupid, or some kind of genius. All I know is that I need to get out of here, and you got the gun. So I'm asking you, for the second time, let me go my way here.
Rocstar: I'm gonna grant you that favor, and I'm gonna expect you to remember it if we ever meet again. But tell me this, are you asking me as a sign of respect, or are you asking because I've got the gun?
Simon: Man, the world ain't supposed to work like this. I mean, maybe you don't know that yet. I'm supposed to be able to do my job without having to ask you if I can. That dude is supposed to be able to wait with his car without you ripping him off. Everything is supposed to be different than it is.
Rocstar: So what's your answer?
Simon: You ain't got the gun, we ain't having this conversation.
Rocstar: That's what I thought: no gun, no respect. That's why I always got the gun.
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Also -- Steve Martin plays a producer of shoot-em-up action movies. He gets shot in the leg by a punk and decides to make movies that are "better for society". At the end, he goes back to making violent action movies IIRC.

It's the guns and the violent movies that create criminals...don't 'cha know.

I went to this back in the day hoping for a good follow-up by Kasdan to "Silverado" and "The Big Chill". Very disappointed.
 
In one episode Niles gets a gun, and his dad the retired cop admonishes him for it saying "I don't believe in civilians owning guns!"
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Sounds pretty "slice-of-life" to me.
 
Dr. Who's Hatred of Guns is more a Factor of the Character. Not a Political Message. Tourchwood is made by the same people and has a good bit of Gunplay in it. Capt. Jack is a bada** with a Revolver.

As for Anti Gun movies:
American Gun
Bowling for Columbine
Runaway Jury
Liberty Stands still.

Those are the ones that come to mind for me.
 
Not a movie but the TV series "The A Team". It showed that even a bunch of ex military guys couldn't hit anything when shooting.
 
Not counting BFC.....

Though American President and Runaway Jury are good candidates, I have to give the prize to "Jakob the Liar", a film about the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. The main character, played by Robin Williams, is part of the uprising. But at the end, when he finally gets his hands on a gun, he turns it over the Nazis and surrenders himself, rather than use that evil gun against the Nazis...but it's ok, because the Russians save the Jews on a train from the Ghetto en route to the concentration camps. :rolleyes:

Honorable mention to "Road to Perdition" - at the very end, the young boy promises to never touch a gun again even though he just use a gun to save his own arse.

What's with these otherwise very good movies which take an ugly turn and become anti-gun/anti-freedom only at the very end?

I took "Lord of War" as intending to convey a slightly anti-gun message, that is true, but that's not the main gist of it, and I like the movie - have it on CD.
 
Apparently I have been fortunate to miss most anti-gun movies, but I have some views on some passing comments:

Now I have to re-watch Blue Steel to see how the revolver was reloaded one-handed.
I was surprised at the venom shot at Brad Byrd. I haven’t seen the Iron Giant, but The Incredibles favored meeting force with force, and the chorus praised it (“That’s the way to do it. That was old school!”) Guns were not even in the movie, only high-tech weaponry and needs to protect society.
Grand Canyon was neither pro nor anti, I think. The gun got respect, but I agree that that’s not the way it’s supposed to be. THR members may go armed, but it is to protect the good guys. Glover's comments seemed more of an observation of a certain segment of society.

And there is a reason why my kids watch John Wayne Westerns with me: In the hands of a good man, the gun is a good tool; in the hands of a bad man, the gun is a bad tool. (Stagecoach last weekend.)
 
Any movie directed by Richard Donner is going to have anti-gun propaganda written into the plot or displayed in the background.

48 Hours also had anti-gun statements with Nick Nolte exclaiming dismay at least twice over the fact that the bad guys were carrying .44 magnums with speedloaders.

The Trigger Effect was an entire movie based around the notion that guns make you shoot other people.
 
am a fan of Doctor Who, but the show is profoundly anti-gun, anti-weapon, anti-violence, anti-self-defense.
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Only the revival. The original series featured a number of firearms, like the Birmingham fowler shown below. The Doctor was always anti-war but didn't hesitate to cap off a Dalek or a giant rat.

Birmingham.jpg

Even Sarah Jane, who is now a violent anti, was an able shot back in the day. She used a sporterized Mauser in "Pyramids of Mars" to blow up a large house.
 
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Wow. The Trigger Effect is one of my favorite movies. I don't see how it is anti-gun at all. I guess I will have to watch it again.
 
1. Bowling for Columbine was of course unashamedly an anti hack job, but excuted poorly. I do appreciate the open attack, even if it was dishonest at it's core.

2. Shoot 'em up was not only a horrible movie but also vapidly anit-gun posing as an action movie. IT wasn't even bad enough to be funny it was digusting.

3. Liberty Stands Still was also a terrible movie.

3. American Beauty was actually a decent movie. I don't know if people in cities in California live like that or not, but that is how I imagine them to be. But of course it was anti as well.
 
I would contend that nearly every action movie ever made is "anti-gun", in the sense that the films rarely, if ever, give nods to the notion of the human right to self defense (or even attempt to discuss it for that matter). Think about it, in most Hollywood films "the gun" is an instrument of mayhem and/or revenge. Consequently, the message absorbed by the viewing public, is that "the gun" is only good for mayhem and/or revenge.

The list of movies that I can think of that fairly portray the use of "the gun" in a positive light is....let me see....zero movies long.

You get "Death Wish" and all of its variations, imitations and such. This serves to only reinforce the "gun vigilante" stereotype.

You have endless versions of "Die Hard", in which super-cops or former commandos take up "the gun" to save the day. You can lump nearly every war movie in with this. These films have "professionals" as the protagonists and almost never have plane jane civilians wielding firearms. This type of film only serves to promote the stereotype that "professionals" are the only ones qualified to operate firearms.

Then you have the outright anti-gun films. No explanation needed.

So what are you left with?
 
Well it is a common Hollywood template ...

The only people with guns are cops, soldiers, and bad guys. Usually a regular person with a gun is instantly considered to be the bad guy once the gun is revealed.

We watched a movie called "Chain Reaction" (I know, dumb movie) last night and there was one scene where the Morgan Freeman character goes to his closet, removes a folded sweater and reveals a gun. He picks it up and puts it in his pocket. Up until that point, his character was considered (suspiciously) to be a good guy, but the act of acquiring a gun suddenly solidified that he was a bad guy.

Most other movies, normal people acquire guns only if they take them off the dead bodies of a cop, soldier or bad guy.

It's just very atypical for normal people to have guns. In fact even in TX only 1-2% of the population have a CHL, and I think it is reasonable to consider that only 1% probably carry a gun regularly. So would it really make any sense for Hollywood to make a movie featuring characters that only relate to 1% of the population?
 
I would contend that nearly every action movie ever made is "anti-gun", in the sense that the films rarely, if ever, give nods to the notion of the human right to self defense (or even attempt to discuss it for that matter). Think about it, in most Hollywood films "the gun" is an instrument of mayhem and/or revenge. Consequently, the message absorbed by the viewing public, is that "the gun" is only good for mayhem and/or revenge.

The list of movies that I can think of that fairly portray the use of "the gun" in a positive light is....let me see....zero movies long.

You get "Death Wish" and all of its variations, imitations and such. This serves to only reinforce the "gun vigilante" stereotype.

You have endless versions of "Die Hard", in which super-cops or former commandos take up "the gun" to save the day. You can lump nearly every war movie in with this. These films have "professionals" as the protagonists and almost never have plane jane civilians wielding firearms. This type of film only serves to promote the stereotype that "professionals" are the only ones qualified to operate firearms.

Then you have the outright anti-gun films. No explanation needed.

So what are you left with?
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One of the best football movies ever -- "Remember the Titans". Denzel Washington doesn't ever shoot it, but the scene where he grabs the shotgun after a brick goes through his window is EXACTLY what we need more of in Hollywood.

No big deal was made of it, it was just a tool. He didn't shoot off his foot or blast his little girl, he didn't blast away randomly down the street. Not even a mention of it in the film. Just a quick access shotgun to protect his family.
 
Most anti-gun movie I ever sat through was "Runaway Jury". The whole thing felt like a lecture ... "did you know handguns kill 13 billion children per second in the United States while all other nations have become a crime-free paradise?" [my exaggeration].

I was there watching it with the in-laws but had it been just my family we would have walked out five minutes into the movie. Geeze I felt dirty for having tolerated that BS.
 
I am a fan of Doctor Who, but the show is profoundly anti-gun, anti-weapon, anti-violence, anti-self-defense.

Only bad guys ever carry weapons, and the stalwart good guys surrender without a struggle whenever the bad guys show up, but somehow always prevail with their wits alone.
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Not so, Leela carried a knife and a poisoned edge weapon (Janis Thorn) that was depicted as being even more lethal than a gun. Maybe she was the only one, my memory grows hazy at this point on Dr. Who, except on her. Her costume has indelibly marked her in my memory.

leela4_lg.jpg
leela3_lg.jpg
 
Not so, Leela carried a knife and a poisoned edge weapon (Janis Thorn) that was depicted as being even more lethal than a gun. Maybe she was the only one, my memory grows hazy at this point on Dr. Who, except on her. Her costume has indelibly marked her in my memory.
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Ahhh! I forgot about Leela. When I used to watch the old series, I adored her.:eek:

Has the fourth series of the remake aired in the States yet? There was kind of a strange insight at the end as to why the Doctor doesn't carry a gun.

Made no sense, really.
 
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