# Films with average gunmen **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 16, 2007, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-with-average-gunmen/392463 "2007-02-16T07:08:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BabaBooey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dfb087/32.png) [@BabaBooey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BabaBooey)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-with-average-gunmen/392463/1 "2007-02-16T07:08:33Z")
Open Range is the only one that comes to mind. Everybody kind of sucks, but every individual, bad or good, can hit their target. This is just as much about average shooting heroes as it is average shooting villains. ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-with-average-gunmen/392463/2 "2007-02-16T07:29:51Z")
**Unforgiven** - the point is made that keeping your cool and actually aiming in a gunfight is more important than being quick on the draw but aiming poorly. Also, their aim is just average when they shoot the younger of the two cowboys. ---
**Author:** ![BabaBooey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dfb087/32.png) [@BabaBooey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BabaBooey)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-with-average-gunmen/392463/3 "2007-02-16T07:32:55Z")
Should have remembered Unforgiven. Great flick with human gunmen. ---
**Author:** ![LVBoPeep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/858c86/32.png) [@LVBoPeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LVBoPeep)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-with-average-gunmen/392463/4 "2007-02-16T07:39:49Z")
It doesn’t show so much in the movie- but in _Lonesome Dove_ , Gus is the only one that is a real crack shot. Call is good but not great but Jake Spoon was the “famous gunslinger” that all of his fellow rangers knew was a repuation based on one lucky shot (and later, one unlucky shot that made him have to run from justice). ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-with-average-gunmen/392463/5 "2007-02-16T12:25:52Z")
“Support Your Local Gunfighter” and “Support Your Local Sheriff” are both films that play on the gunfighter mythos in different ways. In “Gunfighter” Garner plays a lady’s man who is mistaken for a gunfighter. He convinces the local rubes that a stable bum he’s befriended is actually the gunfighter. Garner’s character knows he is a mediocre gunfighter at best, and his stablebum friend can barely get his gun out of his holster. When the REAL gunfighter shows up … well, don’t want to give away the plot and all. But it’s a very nice parody of “For A Fistful of Dollars” when you think about it. In “Sheriff” Garner plays a guy who IS lightning fast on the draw, but who has a low opinion of gunfighting and gunplay generally, so he does things like, when he’s challenged to a duel by a young punk gunslinger, he follows him out into the street, and instead of shooting at him as required by the Code of the West, throws rocks at him and yells at him, chasing him out of town. It’s sort of the “Get Off My Lawn, You Stupid Kid!” approach to a gunfight. Both movies have a lot of fun with the conventions of Westerns. ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-with-average-gunmen/392463/6 "2007-02-16T14:42:06Z")
“Shaun of the Dead” Every single person with the gun sucks. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-with-average-gunmen/392463/7 "2007-02-16T15:08:44Z")
Dolph Lundgren’s _Masters of the Universe_. Most of the weapons used are “laser” pistols—with rotoscoped-in slower than light energy bolts, and squibs for impacts—so it’s pretty easy to see where the shots are landing. The heroes _miss_ most of the time. Skeletor’s minions, while not exactly sharpshooters (with one or two notable exceptions) are actually more consistent marksmen. That, and the G.I. Joe movie. In a continuing tradition, no one on either side manages to hit anyone with a firearm (or firearm stand-in), and not for a lack of trying. Bare hands and melee weapons rule the day. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-with-average-gunmen/392463/8 "2007-02-16T16:07:37Z")
[QUOTE=Tangent] **Unforgiven** - the point is made that keeping your cool and actually aiming in a gunfight is more important than being quick on the draw but aiming poorly. Also, their aim is just average when they shoot the younger of the two cowboys. [/QUOTE] See also, Bruce Willis in the second part of his story in Sin City. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-with-average-gunmen/392463/9 "2007-02-16T16:39:45Z")
[QUOTE=Evil Captor] “Support Your Local Gunfighter” [/QUOTE] That wonderfull scene where he deals with the left handed gunfighter. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-with-average-gunmen/392463/10 "2007-02-16T17:07:42Z")
[QUOTE=carnivorousplant] That wonderfull scene where he deals with the left handed gunfighter. 🙂 [/QUOTE] Miss Sadie, I’m going to have to ask you to look away … :crunch: ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-with-average-gunmen/392463/11 "2007-02-16T17:18:54Z")
FWIW, in _Transformers: The Movie_, the Autobots (good guys) never seem to hit anything at all, while the Decepticons hit them most of the time. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-with-average-gunmen/392463/12 "2007-02-16T17:26:44Z")
[QUOTE=Evil Captor] Miss Sadie, I’m going to have to ask you to look away … :crunch: [/QUOTE] You know, Latigo, from the way that feller was wearin’ his gun, I’d say he was _left_ handed. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-with-average-gunmen/392463/13 "2007-02-16T18:17:44Z")
[QUOTE=RandMcnally] “Shaun of the Dead” Every single person with the gun sucks. [/QUOTE] But of course…they were all British. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-with-average-gunmen/392463/14 "2007-02-16T18:26:25Z")
Star Wars Stormtroopers are all incredibly bad shots. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-with-average-gunmen/392463/15 "2007-02-16T18:43:12Z")
[QUOTE=silenus] But of course…they were all British. [/QUOTE] Yep. And though they like to make fun of our “gun culture” as a proper American I can’t truly respect a person who can’t hit what he–or she–is aiming at. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-with-average-gunmen/392463/16 "2007-02-16T18:45:17Z")
Especially a slow-moving target at close range. Weren’t they paying attention during gun-handling lessons in kindergarten? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-with-average-gunmen/392463/17 "2007-02-16T18:49:03Z")
Re: Stormtroopers. That’s the exact opposite of what this thread is about. In Star Wars, gunplay is all plot driven. Good guys always hit, bad guys always miss…unless there is a need for a good guy to be killed or injured for plot reasons. Of course, “realistic” gun scenes work the same way in that hitting or missing is done for reasons of plot. It’s just that it’s not so blatant, and it seems a lot more like how things really would work in real life. I might nominate “Pulp Fiction”. John Travolta casually waves his gun around, and suddenly his buddy is missing a brain. Total accidental shooting, with deadly consequences. And this sort of thing happens with distressing frequency in real life but almost never happens in the movies. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2007, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-with-average-gunmen/392463/18 "2007-02-18T18:48:04Z")
[QUOTE=RandMcnally] “Shaun of the Dead” Every single person with the gun sucks. [/QUOTE] Except for the end where… the army show up and shoot the zombies about to surround and consume our intrepid heroes ---
**Author:** ![interface2x](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@interface2x](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/interface2x)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2007, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-with-average-gunmen/392463/19 "2007-02-18T19:34:27Z")
[QUOTE=RandMcnally] “Shaun of the Dead” Every single person with the gun sucks. [/QUOTE] They were still better with the gun than they were with the darts. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2007, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-with-average-gunmen/392463/20 "2007-02-18T20:13:54Z")
**Pulp Fiction**. The kid who bursts out of the bedroom unloads an entire revolver at John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson, and misses them with every shot (of course, it may have been divine intervention). Later on, Travolta’s casual ignorance of gun safety causes him to accidentally shoot Marvin in the face. The only one who hit anyone he intended to with a bullet was Bruce Willis. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-with-average-gunmen/392463.md?page=2)