OT: Silly things you notice
David Williams
channels that shows old tv is on, and an episode of "Gunsmoke" starts. No
one was really watching the tv, so I grabbed the remote to turn it off, when
I was confounded by a bit of ridiculously bad directing (IMO).
The scene is a western cliche. Two men confront each other about 15-20 feet
apart, near as I can tell. They exchange some harsh words, then they
quick-draw and one of them is shot down. Now, here's the cheesy bit - as
they are confronting each other, the one cowboy has about 4 or 5 other guys
standing IMMEDIATELY next to and/or behind him. And none of them move!
Mind you, none of these other guys are part of the confrontation. And mind
you, judging by the gun-belts they're all wearing, they should have a fair
idea about how a firearm works and the basics of gun safety. And there is
plenty of time for even the town idiot to realize that these two guys are
going to be shooting at each other and that you should probably move out of
the direct line of fire. But NOBODY moves out of the way!
I called my family members over and pointed it out to them. At first they
thought I was making mountains out of molehills. But we replayed the scene
over and over, and the more we watched it, the more ridiculous it looked.
Anyway, just one of those silly things you notice.
Regards,
David W.
Wes Struebing
<snicker>
Bet you didn't notice that when you were a kid!
;-)
--
Wes Struebing
I pledge allegiance to the Constitution of the United States of America,
and to the republic which it established, one nation from many peoples,
promising liberty and justice for all.
Homepage: www.carpedementem.org
linkedin profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/wesstruebing
Duggy
To be fair, badly placed extras or ones who seem to stand around in
danger zones haven't away...
In fact, B5 has them (maybe not as bad as the above example...)
===
= DUG.
===
David Williams
"Duggy" <p.allan...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:80e7e30a-8d46-4b18...@upsg2000gro.googlegroups.com...
> To be fair, badly placed extras or ones who seem to stand around in
> danger zones haven't away...
>
> In fact, B5 has them (maybe not as bad as the above example...)
Just in case I hadn't painted the scene completely clearly, the extras are
in a pretty tight *cluster* around their buddy. One guy is close enough
behind him to... well let's just say it could inspire Brokeback Mountain.
In other words, close enough to be mortally wounded if the bullet passes
THROUGH the guy in front. And in fact the guy in front loses to the lone
gunman he's facing. (Sorry, can't name any of the characters.)
I.e. the scene does lack the usual western cliche of the two antagonists
facing each other down a length of empty street. But then, the reason for
that type of face-off was to avoid the collateral damage that would result
from dangerous clusterf**ks, such as this one.
Also, the impending violence is obvious enough and slow enough in developing
to allow plenty of scatter time for the bystanders, regardless of
allegiance.
You mention B5. I don't recall any western-*style* showdowns from the
series. Most of the one-on-one lethal violence is sudden and relatively
unforeseen. Correct me if my memory is incomplete.
Regards,
David W.