Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Guns and how to hold them



I've been watching a show called Numbers, which features Enrico Colosanto holding a gun on a federal agent. And he's got his arms extended as far out as they'll go, and he's holding the gun at the end of his arms. And if the guy he's holding hadn't been suffering from a gun wound, I'm sure he could have reached out and grabbed that gun away.

Whenever you watch cop shows these days...that's the way they always hold their guns. I suppose to be cool. (Although the "in" thing, the "cool" thing these days is to hold the gun sideways...I've always thought that looked pretty stupid and must play hell with aiming...) And every time I watch these guys going around corners with their arms stretched out and their hands pointing down, I'm thinking, anyone could be waiting around the corner to grab that gun right out of their hands...

Contrast that with the way Steve Ihnat was holding his gun on Mannix in Endgame. At all times he's holding the gun close to his body, so there's no way Mannix can reach out and grab it from him. (The only time Mannix does get the drop on Steve's character, it's because Steve lets him, as part of his diabolical plan to blow up Mannix and Art Malcolm.)

But fashions change... similarly, I remember way back 20 years ago, the "in" thing with sword fights was to have one of the two duelists grab up his sword by the pointy end and swing the guard at his opponent. Stupid, stupid! But some famous fight choreographer had done it, and for a while htere, any movie that had any kind of a fencing scene would do it too...

Here he's holding the gun straight out from his body...but Mannix is 20 yards away!

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