Pointless musings about movie violence

[Funk, E.]

THIS IS NOT A POST ABOUT THE "PSYCOLOGICAL EFFECTS" OF MOVIE VIOLENCE ON YOUNG MINDS

I don't care

What I am mildly pondering is why movies are so f**king ignorant and unrealistic about violence.  For example:

Why does EVERY car explode after a crash? None of them are Pintos, why are they always exploding? Okay, big boom cool, but everyone knows that wouldn't happen so why insist?

Why can the good guy snap shot 8 rounds out of a revolver and hit 8 different targets while the bad guys w/ comparable firepower couldn't shoot their own dicks off?

Speaking of 8 rounds per revolver why can't anyone in the movies keep track of number of shots fired? Having edited non-linear footage before it can be excruciatingly painful keeping continuity, but honestly they don't even seem to try. I give a movie credit these days if they just show someone reload!

Bulletproofing. Why is in the movies that when you have bulletproof glass or armor the bullets just spark, bounce off and leave a little smudge-mark. Real bullet resistant glass shatters and goes opaque and armored cars still dent!

The old hiding behind an overturned table for cover trick. Unless it's a steel top table at least a 1/4" thick the bullets would be happily flying through the table. Same goes for most door jams. Most walls are pressboard and 2X4 liberally spaced. They don't stop bullets, even if you hit the 2x4!

And lastly... damage: Why is it that when the good guy hits a bad guy so much as once they automatically die (or at least fall instantly unconscious) while the hero can get shot in the side, the shoulder, the arm and not only continue to function, but continue to use the injured appendage. My favorite example of this is Indiana Jones in "Raiders of the Lost Arc" he gets shot POINT BLANK RANGE in the shoulder THEN gets pounded on the same shoulder several times and still DRAGS HIMSELF HAND OVER HAND up his whip back onto the truck. Only Spittleburger could think that credible even in terms of fictitious film. Both extremes are highly unrealistic. One gun shot wound, at range, rarely kills. People have been brought into emergency rooms with multiple gunshot wounds and have survived and remain conscious until surgery. Conversely once you've been shot all but a grazing shot will disable an appendage and require your full attention from the pain alone if nothing else. Realizing of course we're not talking about bb guns or .22s. These are usually 9mm at least and with assault rifles your dealing with high velocity 7.62mm. These do not give massages, they HURT!

Oh well... not a big deal in the land of fantasy, but still with some films it underminds their attempt at credibility.

[Fearless Freep]

Some explanations

Laws Of Anime

[Funk, E.]

Dear fearless:

"Its all very clear to me now, Dave... Dave... what are doing?"

[Dano]

I met a guy once who had served in the Russian Army through much of the 1980s.  We had a pretty long conversation about his experiences and one thing he said is that sometimes they would see American-made action movies and get very demoralized by them because they thought that America had developed handguns that could blow up a Mack truck.  They (meaning the less sophisticated enlisted guys) actually thought the unrealism was real.

[J.R.]

Some other fantastic sights-

Whenever a car is shot at it explodes. If this were the case a fender-bender would be disastrous.

One off-duty cop can easily kill several highly-trained mercenaries at once.

And, as always, the grenades- The shoot out huge balls of flame and have a fuse of about nine seconds, as long as it's thrown at the hero.

And it's always easy to hit a target while running sideways with a gun in each hand.

[Funk, E.]

Yes! Hero accuracy is always inversely related to stability! Standing on top of a pogo stick in a mine field is the perfect environment to shoot of the enemie contact lenses at a thousand yards.

Like shoot out in moving cars... what's the point. The only thing your going to hit is bystanders ask anyone in east LA or the Watts district!

[Tommy]

Here's something that always happens: the hero kills everyone, but can't finish off one lousy boss bad guy.  It's usually up to the hero's friend or girlfriend to put on the finishing touches.

The idea that one can be knocked unconscious by a gun butt and then resume the chase is pretty lame.  Chances are if you're hit hard enough to be knocked out, you've got a serious concussion and you won't be getting up very soon.

[wheresthecarrot]

I like it when their hair stays perfectly gorgeous.

[Funk, E.]

Yeah, and heroines wake up from a nightmare with perfectly applied makeup and not a drop of sweat in sight.

[Mofo Rising]

Dano wrote:
>
> I met a guy once who had served in the Russian Army through
> much of the 1980s.  We had a pretty long conversation about
> his experiences and one thing he said is that sometimes they
> would see American-made action movies and get very
> demoralized by them because they thought that America had
> developed handguns that could blow up a Mack truck.  They
> (meaning the less sophisticated enlisted guys) actually
> thought the unrealism was real.
>

I see, so the unrealistic movie violence is propaganda in America's bid to take over the world.  Ingenious.

Reminds me of the joke about exporting extra-large condoms all marked "medium".

[Chadzilla]

On a serious side, it is rather discomforting to think that foreign nation's think that we are a nation filled with itchy trigger fingered psycho cops and/or criminals with sexually immoral woman hanging off their legs.

Scary to think that people think that life in America is really like Pulp Fiction or Scary Movie!!!

[J.R.]

<>

The way I understand it, much of the rest of the world thinks all Americans are stereotyped Texans. Southern drawal, bolo tie, cowboy boots and a six-shooter at our hips.

[Dano]

I see, so the unrealistic movie violence is propaganda in America's bid to take over the world. Ingenious.
*****  Hey, this was just one Russian's take on it.  Not all effective propaganda needs to be intentional.

[Fearless Freep]

"Not all intended propaganda is effective
Not all effective propaganda is intended"

[Jim H]

I rather like when people get shot wearing a bullet proof vest, and fly back like 500 feet.  Even in (somewhat) realistic movies this happens.  Lethal Weapon is an example of this, as I thought Lethal Weapon was FAIRLY realistic as far as mainstream action movies go.  If a gun was actually that powerful, Newton's laws tell us it would also kick the person using the gun way back.