# Maddening weapons use in film **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 29, 2014, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maddening-weapons-use-in-film/694337 "2014-07-29T17:06:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2014, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maddening-weapons-use-in-film/694337/101 "2014-07-31T04:55:57Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > It has been a while since I’ve seen that film, but how can you tell, with all the black powder smoke? The sound. Blank BP rounds, especially small rounds, fired individually have a sound more like a phhhhffft than a crack you would expect from a ball being shot out. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2014, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maddening-weapons-use-in-film/694337/102 "2014-07-31T05:00:34Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > You’re going to have some legal problems trying to arrange it otherwise. > > At that point, you might as well be complaining that injuries in movies are all obviously fake. Getting actors to submit themselves to real ones would be a tough sell. Nonsense. This is what Foley artists are for. It is more embarrassing for the movie since there was a special on Foley artists done on a cable channel where they showed the movie’s Foley artists firing loaded muskets for the proper sound. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2014, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maddening-weapons-use-in-film/694337/103 "2014-07-31T05:03:50Z")
> [@Mr.Miskatonic](#): > > Nonsense. This is what Foley artists are for. . . . Oops: I thought you were basing the complaint on the way the smoke and langridge came out of the ends of the barrels. You can see they’re firing blanks. But, yeah, definitely, the sound could have been fixed to depict live fire. ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2014, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maddening-weapons-use-in-film/694337/104 "2014-07-31T09:58:21Z")
> [@Mr.Miskatonic](#): > > Archer wins points just for the reminder that guns are loud. How many times have the various characters had hearing loss from irresponsible gunplay? Sylvester Stallone did in _Copland_: the bad cops intentionally deafened him by firing a pistol next to his head. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2014, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maddening-weapons-use-in-film/694337/105 "2014-07-31T13:22:14Z")
A minor complaint, observed in Lord of the Rings: a man directing a group of archers to loose at the enemy by yelling “fire!”. Anacronistic! 😃 [Yes, a fantasy movie, and far worse sins of weapons use were committed, including the ever popular “flung backwards with great force when hit with an arrow” - I just thought it was a bit funny.] ---
**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:** [July 31, 2014, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maddening-weapons-use-in-film/694337/106 "2014-07-31T15:26:16Z")
I recall a Western where the Indians have a guy on a ridge top guiding indirect fire from bows. I guess it would work, but I kept expecting the spotter to yell, “Fire for effect, Two Dogs Fornicating!” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2014, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maddening-weapons-use-in-film/694337/107 "2014-07-31T17:04:57Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > A minor complaint, observed in Lord of the Rings: a man directing a group of archers to loose at the enemy by yelling “fire!”. Anacronistic! :D… Ah, but isn’t “fire” here supposed to be based off of “fhaire”, an Elvish word meaning throw or launch? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2014, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maddening-weapons-use-in-film/694337/108 "2014-07-31T17:08:51Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#): > > Ah, but isn’t “fire” here supposed to be based off of “fhaire”, an Elvish word meaning throw or launch? 🙂 Nice try. 😃 But specifically - it was that one-eyed dude at the siege of Helm’s Deep. So not an elf. ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2014, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maddening-weapons-use-in-film/694337/109 "2014-07-31T17:10:36Z")
> [@FXMastermind](#): > > Well I had to check. > > [http://youtu.be/6o0Co4kbRZo](http://youtu.be/6o0Co4kbRZo) > > Listen to the sound. The shotguns sound exactly like the pistols. Not realistic at all. Not even close. And there is no reverb, no echoes or ringing of the shots off all the stone surfaces. The gunfight sounds nothing like a real gun battle. > > It’s why I mentioned the sound aspect. By adding in the sound later, the realism is absent from almost every gun scene. And yeah, I’m also an audio expert, so the sound parts really bug me, as much as the other unrealistic aspects of weapons. Well, to be fair, usage/handling/tactics are a separate category from sound effects. I get that, as a “sound guy,” poor sound effects grab your attention/provide a distraction more than the average person, but the weapon handling/usage in Way of the Gun is definitely a cut above typical Hollywood fare. ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2014, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maddening-weapons-use-in-film/694337/110 "2014-07-31T17:12:32Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > In _Black Hawk Down_, one of the characters, an American soldier, played by William Fitchtner, is depicted as going deaf for a long time after someone fires an M-249 SAW too close to his ears for too long. Ewen Bremner, not William Fichtner. ---
**Author:** ![FXMastermind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fxmastermind/32/7289_2.png) [@FXMastermind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FXMastermind)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2014, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maddening-weapons-use-in-film/694337/111 "2014-07-31T17:34:04Z")
> [@ExTank](#): > > …the weapon handling/usage in Way of the Gun is definitely a cut above typical Hollywood fare. That is a valid point, and I loved how he threw himself into the dry fountain as well. Ouch. ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2014, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maddening-weapons-use-in-film/694337/112 "2014-07-31T19:18:48Z")
> [@Grestarian](#): > > Originally Posted by wguy123 View Post > All Glocks have an external trigger safety. So, “easing off the safety” on a Glock is slowly pulling the trigger. > > You mean that little tab that sticks forward between the ‘halves’ of the trigger? I thought ‘easing off’ would mean slowly (for lack of a better term) un-pulling the trigger – i.e. shifting the fingertip off the trigger so the ‘safety tab’ is no longer depressed. > > —G! I think you could read it either way but having the safety on means that you cannot pull the trigger until the safety is disengaged or turned off. So, easing off the safely could mean prepping to fire. The other way to read is as you did: For pressure safeties (like the Glock trigger safety or the grip safeties of 1911’s, easing off could be releasing them. ---
**Author:** ![aa6vh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@aa6vh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aa6vh)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2014, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maddening-weapons-use-in-film/694337/113 "2014-07-31T20:27:01Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > A minor complaint, observed in Lord of the Rings: a man directing a group of archers to loose at the enemy by yelling “fire!”. Anacronistic! 😃 Of course they were speaking “common tongue”, not English. That English you heard was dubbed for our benefit. So technically, you should blame the dubbing. 😃 ---
**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:** [July 31, 2014, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maddening-weapons-use-in-film/694337/114 "2014-07-31T20:30:24Z")
> [@aa6vh](#): > > Of course they were speaking “common tongue”, not English. That English you heard was dubbed for our benefit. So technically, you should blame the dubbing. 😃 “Irefay!” ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2014, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maddening-weapons-use-in-film/694337/115 "2014-07-31T21:04:36Z")
How about when Rambo fired an anti-tank weapon INSIDE a helicopter in Rambo: First Blood II? Umm…backblast anyone? He would have killed everyone in the back of the helicopter AND probably set it on fire. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2014, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maddening-weapons-use-in-film/694337/116 "2014-07-31T21:29:58Z")
> [@RikWriter](#): > > How about when Rambo fired an anti-tank weapon INSIDE a helicopter in Rambo: First Blood II? Umm…backblast anyone? He would have killed everyone in the back of the helicopter AND probably set it on fire. Or the backblast effect in Clint Eastwood’s “The Killer Elite.” Nice bit of fun, but…the guy was a trained military ordnance specialist, demonstrating a LAW for a group of civilians. No way in hell he would have been so blind as to let a civvy get within danger range of the backblast. Really cute scene. (First time I’d ever been made aware of backblast.) But it was a “stupid” scene (one that could only have happened by someone being stupid.) ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2014, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maddening-weapons-use-in-film/694337/117 "2014-08-01T02:06:21Z")
ITYM The Enforcer. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2014, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maddening-weapons-use-in-film/694337/118 "2014-08-01T02:31:34Z")
> [@RikWriter](#): > > ITYM The Enforcer. Right you are! Been a long time. Fun movie, and that specific bit was fun, too. Just stupid. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2014, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maddening-weapons-use-in-film/694337/119 "2014-08-01T16:32:00Z")
> [@RikWriter](#): > > How about when Rambo fired an anti-tank weapon INSIDE a helicopter in Rambo: First Blood II? Umm…backblast anyone? He would have killed everyone in the back of the helicopter AND probably set it on fire. I laughed out loud at that scene, which got me puzzled looks from those around me. I realize that a lot of these gaffes are for dramatic effect, and that most people don’t notice them or care about them. I almost wish I knew less about guns, as the more obvious flubs take me out of the movie immediately. I’m sure it’s the same for people knowledgeable in other fields. Most recently, we were watching _Stand By Me_, which was being shown on a big screen locally. Early in the film we see Chambers showing La Chance his dad’s 1911. At the end of the film, during the confrontation between the two groups of boys, Ace moves toward Chambers with a switchblade, when we hear a gunshot. The camera cuts to La Chance, with the .45 in his hand, which he then points at Ace. There is some verbal back and forth, and then La Chance cocks the hammer (which would already be back) and tells Ace to fuck off. Good dramatic effect, but just. . .wrong. Thanks to expert direction and editing, the moment works, even for nitpickers like me. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maddening-weapons-use-in-film/694337.md?page=5)