There are a lot of stuff that bugs true Gunnies in TV and Movies… But the number one thing that bugs me?
1. Pistols Akimbo
I’m not talking about just Dual Wielding… but pointing two different guns in two different directions. We see this in far too many otherwise decent movies. Note to Directors: STOP IT. Doing this can actually ruin what could otherwise be a decent movie. I’ve actually turned off movies I was watching when this stuff started happening. Worst offender:
2. Tea Cups.
It’s one thing if James Bond does it. He’s British and they are into Tea Cups and Saucers like no one’s business… But still. Bond is supposed to be the consumate professional with a license not just to carry a gun, but to use it at his discretion. I mean you wouldn’t see Jack…
Oh come on… Jack Bauer too? He’s killed more terrorists than a dorm full of Call of Duty players. And he’s not even just Tea Cupping – but taking it to the extreme from of using his finger tip to brace the trigger guard. That’s some hard core tea-cupping there. Still… I’m looking forward to the new series of the Bam-Bam-Bauer-Power-Hour. But this photo right here makes me wonder why.
3. Crossed Thumbs.
This just makes the Trainer in me get all twitchy in my right eye. I hate seeing this. That image is from the movie HEAT. A movie that actually does very well in the gun handling department… until That Guy. That Guy is supposed to be a veteran detective, a pro. You see this all the time on TV and it grates my nerves. But in a movie with a director like Michael Mann? It’s distracting. Not only that, but…
It’s going to be painful… watch the 3rd shot. Try not to cringe.
4. Glock Safeties and Cocking.
That was almost enough to make me stop watching The Walking Dead. But we’ve seen this in countless shows… Phantom Safety Syndrome and Ghost Cocking sounds. Why do Directors insist that they actors do something that is mechanically not possible? What are they trying to accomplish? It’s worse than the Dramatic Cocking.
5. The Walking Dead.
The Chickenwinging, no rear sight, laying his head down like he’s making out with it, Evil Governor. Who also does this:
Right Hand shouldering… to the blind eye. Let’s just point out that this doesn’t work.
And then there is RICK. Who can’t hold up the barrel of his Python.
I hate Rick… almost as much as I hated his wife. Most every episode of The Walking Dead is a parade of bad decision making and bad gun handling… The show gives me a headache every time I watch it. It’s morbid curiosity that I keep watching.
BTW, the only guy that has his wits about him is Glenn.:
Glenn has the sense to at least put on some body armor. He also scored the Hot Chick as his Main Squeeze. And for a traveling companion here, a cute chick with luscious Ta-Ta’s. Glenn Wins.
“That Guy is supposed to be a veteran detective, a pro. ”
You know that just because a person is a police officer does not mean they are a pro when it comes to handling firearms.
In the movie those guys were supposed to be the elite team…
So… Who knows. But still… He’s supposed to be better than that.
Instead of bagging on the actors who typically know little to nothing about firearms how about finding out who the technical advisors are and shame them out of a job? They are the ones responsible for letting the actors get away with tea cupping, thumb overing and other small missteps. Akimbo is the director’s fault, but basic handling lies from poor technical advisors who are telling the actors how to handle weapons. Maybe you should try to break into the entertainment industry as an advisor. If you’ve never thought about that then you should at least give it a look.
Maybe “the walking dead” takes place in an alternate universe
where glocks are DA/SA? Or not.
There is/was a company that did retrofit a Glock for a manual thumb safety…I doubt the Walking Dead meant to reference that particular non-factory modification, but there is/was such a thing.
Yes… But you can clearly see that this gun isnt thusly modified.
In defense of #4, I find myself swiping my thumb on the slide occasionally on a pistol that lacks a manual safety… muscle memory from too many 1911’s. (is there such a thing as too many 1911’s?)
Do you make clicky sounds too?
Ogre-San?…Really? You think you can explain basic firearms functions to people who work in “hollywood”(Reynolds/Heston/Selleck aside).?They care not for facts…The story/agenda is more important….
The post is shouting into a hurricane, I know.
US Marshals — key scene at the end:
In the hospital Tommy Lee Jones suddenly realizes Robert Downey Jr is the villain. TLJ asks to hold RD Jr’s Glock, where he slyly drops the mag and inserts an empty mag that he happens to have in his coat pocket (?). RD Jr takes the gun back and holsters it. 5 minutes later RD Jr points the empty gun at TLJ and pulls the trigger but only gets the sound of a dryfire.
Problems:
(1) TLJ never racked the slide to remove RD Jr’s chambered round (assuming one was chambered).
(2) Or – if no round had been chambered, tell me how RD Jr was able to dry fire? It’s not possible on a Glock unless you rack the slide. So I guess we’re supposed to assume RD Jr had racked the slide before inserting his own mag which makes no sense.
(3) RD Jr didn’t notice that his own gun was 2 lbs lighter when he got it back?
IIRC, what was swapped into Downey’s gun was a different caliber mag that was TLJ’s reload. That was part of the storyline, having Downey being a maverick about different guns and calibers.
Don’t recall anything about the chamber situation, though.
The movie “Shooter”. Mark Walberg racks the handle of his Barrett SEMI-AUTO after every shot. I asked a guy at the Barrett booth about that and he said “because blanks”. I wonder if a good gunsmith could build a blanks only action. Maybe lightweight blowback.
I know one prop house that has that. It cycle blanks easily.
An uncocked 1911 is my biggest peeve… Another all time goof was in a book where the author mentioned a Glock revolver. I tossed the book across the room and have never read another book by that author!
Yeah… I hate it when I see that too.
Gah, Season 4 of Justified managed to pack that and many of the others into a single episode.
A comment on The Walking Dead… Why does Rick have to lug a 6″ .357? Not my first choice for zombie protection.
Looks cool on camera and most of the watchers know a revolver. No other reason.
Don’t even get me started on that one… LOL…
“Tears of the Sun” and “Salt”.
Both have optics mounted backward. Bruce Willis has an Aimpoint the wrong way in TotS and a tac team operator has an Eotech reversed in “Salt”. The geeky soldier in “The Hurt Locker” has a magically magnified Aimpoint as well.
I can’t rip Hollywood on that too much as we’ve seen Police Officers doing the same thing.
Last night I watched nearly 2 hours of Jack Bauer and his blonde CIA co-star running around London with their finger on the trigger. Is it possible that when a person reaches such an elite level of training and experience, the usual rules of firearms safety no longer apply?
Only on TV Shows made by people who support Gin Control.
‘Do you make clicky sounds too?’
I don’t have to; some of my joints take care of the sound effects.
Yes, they made Ice T sound like he was some kind of badass. I don’t think he even kills anyone and dies so quickly. The cops must of been thinking “here’s an easy target.”
Ice T is always trying to burnish his “street cred” even though in the real world the only thing he’s ever been arrested for was pot and he got a citation….
I remember a book where a glock 22 was a .22.
The actor that plays Rick….is a Brit. What he knows about guns….probably wouldn’t fill this comment space.
Now, Michael Rooker should have taken him aside and said, “Here, dumbass……this is how…..”
And let’s not forget using concealment as cover (car doors, file cabinets, anything remotely made of metal)
.50 caliber machine guns leaving recognizable corpses (just some nice, neat holes), and heroes shot through the scapula with a .45 half an hour into the movie that keep on driving, shooting, mma fighting and even having some “private time” with their buxom co-star.
Actually, upon magnifying the Jack Bauer photo, his left index finger is on the right side of the trigger guard. Which is an even weaker grip than was first intimated.
Agree with the comments about the show firearms “experts”. If they can’t get it right, they’re either being over-ridden by the directors (in which case why are they even staying on the show), or they should be fired for not doing their job. Either way, they need to go.
Here:
http://www.everydaynodaysoff.com/2011/04/06/glock-revolver/
Its like the petite lap giraffes – they must be real since I’ve seen them on the internet!
I had to stop watching The Walking Dead after the 2nd season, I was tired of rooting for the zombies. It is, without doubt, one of the stupidest shows on TV, filled with people so stupid that they would be lucky to survive BEFORE the zombie apocalypse.
As for the rest, I once thought about setting up a training system and website especially for actors and writers to provide screen-friendly firearms training (looking good with a weapon on screen being not quite the same as real life usage) as well as technical information for the people who write screenplays and books that involve weapons use. As I discovered there is very little interest in correct technical details in the writing department nor in looking like the actors have some knowledge or experience with weapons, even when the plot demands it. One genius (an actor who made is mark as a TV “Warrior”) told me he didn’t need to know how to do anything like that since the audience had no idea what was right or wrong anyway.
You lasted longer than I did. Early on the men disarmed one of the women because she wasn’t trained enough or hadn’t been a cop or something. I was done with it right there.
What annoys me to no end is actors blinking every time they pull the trigger on a handgun. I just want to hand them a dope slap every time I see that.
My biggest one is the hammer down on single actions i.e. the 1911 or BHP. Its on many many movie posters as the cover shot. Someone is pointing around not cocked then shooting the next second…maybe hammer down on a live round haha