Author Topic: 5 Ways Movies Get Gunfights Wrong (Based on Experience)  (Read 520 times)

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Offline Machiavelli

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5 Ways Movies Get Gunfights Wrong (Based on Experience)
« on: September 08, 2014, 03:12:17 pm »
Being a Cracked article, this contains the expected gratuitous profanity.

Robert Evans,  Greg Spyridis
Cracked
September 7, 2014

Quote
Everybody knows action movies are fake, but that doesn't change the fact that they're responsible for approximately 100 percent of our education on the subject of guns and combat. That's why the average person's knowledge of those things is hilariously, sometimes fatally, wrong.

To sort out fact from fiction, we interviewed two decorated combat veterans who also have experience working in Hollywood. Matt Wagner is a former Army Ranger who saw combat all over the world, including Africa, South America, and Afghanistan, then was a technical consultant for a number of Hollywood productions, including Stargate SG-1 and The Colt. Greg Spyridis was a private military and security contractor who worked throughout Central and South America and spent time as a stuntman and fight choreographer. They told us ...
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Offline EC

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Re: 5 Ways Movies Get Gunfights Wrong (Based on Experience)
« Reply #1 on: September 08, 2014, 03:19:57 pm »
It's a good one. Very accurate, I read it earlier.
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Offline alicewonders

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Re: 5 Ways Movies Get Gunfights Wrong (Based on Experience)
« Reply #2 on: September 08, 2014, 03:35:02 pm »
That was very interesting.  Thanks!

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Re: 5 Ways Movies Get Gunfights Wrong (Based on Experience)
« Reply #3 on: September 08, 2014, 03:43:40 pm »
Only 5?

My favorite was the part in #1 about using things like car doors as cover.  I suppose if you're trying to hide so nobody knows you're there in the first place, a car door might be useful, but once they've figured out you're there hiding behind a car door probably makes it easier to hit you - your body will tend to center within the geometry of the door itself, and it's a lot easier to hit near the center of a bright square(ish) object like a car door than it is a squiggly thing like a moving human body.  Besides which, if a passing round happens to strike something heavier, like the locking mechanism - poof! instant metal fragments spraying out.


I think another one they missed is the Hollywood "myth" of the endless clip:  the semi-auto pistol that, miraculously, can shoot 20, 30 or more rounds before it runs out.  Or the six-shooter that can shoot 12 rounds before it needs reloading.

A more minor nit is what happens with all that brass?  I used to go shooting at a public range when I was in college (plinking around with my Ruger P89 9mm).  On one of the first few times out I finished shooting a clip of 10 only to have the gent sitting next to me calmly look over and say "do you mind" - seems I was standing a little too close to the right-hand side of my spot on the range and my brass had been hitting him.  Thank God he was the polite sort.  It's not just getting hit by the litter, but also running around on those hard floors after hundreds of rounds have been fired - brass shells are hard, roll-y little things and trying to run across a floor full of 'em is probably a bit like trying to run across a floor covered with ball bearings.

Offline EC

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Re: 5 Ways Movies Get Gunfights Wrong (Based on Experience)
« Reply #4 on: September 08, 2014, 03:51:15 pm »
I think another one they missed is the Hollywood "myth" of the endless clip:  the semi-auto pistol that, miraculously, can shoot 20, 30 or more rounds before it runs out.  Or the six-shooter that can shoot 12 rounds before it needs reloading.

Robert Evans covered that one in another article.

http://www.cracked.com/article_18576_5-ridiculous-gun-myths-everyone-believes-thanks-to-movies.html
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Offline NavyCanDo

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Re: 5 Ways Movies Get Gunfights Wrong (Based on Experience)
« Reply #5 on: September 10, 2014, 01:13:38 am »
Good link.
It always bother me when I see them shoot a gun indoors without the sound making them deaf or making bystanders flynch. Like the story says firing a gun without ear protection can be deafening. Firing one indoors can be downright painful.
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