💾 Archived View for remyabel.flounder.online › 2021-10-25-movie-gun-scenes.gmi captured on 2022-01-08 at 14:17:17. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
⬅️ Previous capture (2021-11-30)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
With milsim (military simulator) games becoming trendy, there's been a bigger call from gamers for more realistic depictions of firearms and tactics. However, this is something I rarely see depicted in Hollywood. Just like how action movies use rapid edits and motion blur to hide poor choreography in fight scenes, gun battles in movies seem over-engineered.
First let's start with movies that do it right. Sicario is a crime thriller about a by-the-book FBI agent that gets attached to a joint task operation and sees the darker side of the Mexican drug war. One of the most famous scenes in the movie is the border scene:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=IBJbqV3IROM
The extras feature actual operators, real military tactics and the scene is very tense and over very quickly. There's no slow motion, overemphasis on tacticool or unrealistic jargon.
Another movie that gets a lot of praise in Heat. See:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZL9fnVtz_lc
The characters are ex-military and the cops are woefully undergunned, which is remiscient of real life shootouts.
On the other hand, a lot of movie shootouts feel more like gun range advertisements or are so obviously choreographed with stunt doubles that it's hard to stay immersed. Once you go to the other hand of the sliding scale to having guns that have way too many attachments, the actor's motions looking like a video game character or the people being shot at falling over like zombies, it feels very unrealistic. Indeed, I feel like this is intentional. Partially because movie executives think it's cool and also the cartoonish quality makes it feel less "gritty". However, it does feel very shitty. Example, Den of Thieves:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=NkK40iib8uE
They have a shootout with a bunch of civilians around, constantly run around like chickens with their heads cut off, shout reloading and have very expensive guns. Must be a well funded sheriffs department. It's worth pointing out that the movie itself is also just not very good.