False depiction of guns in movies and shows
September 3, 2017 5:02 PM Subscribe
Do the false sound effects for drawing a handgun on a person in a movie or t.v. show drive you nuts, as someone familiar with guns? Which shows/movies get this correct?
Despite an interest, I've never been around guns - didn't grow up with them, still haven't shot one (although I want to) and have never known anyone personally that is comfortable with them either. I recently found out that a false foley sound of a click is used frequently when a person raises a handgun in movies and shows. I've listened for it since finding this out and it seems to be used in every scene where a person draws on another person with a handgun (The Walking Dead, for example, does this incessantly). Upon reflection, of course, this being a stupid fantasy sound trick is obvious, but as I am not a person who is familiar with guns, it is something I never thought about.
My question is, for people who ARE familiar with guns - does this weird sound effect ruin movies and shows for you, or annoy you to no end? And if most shows and movies, from what I can tell, are getting this wrong - are there any shows and movies that get this RIGHT? Where someone raising a handgun with the safety off makes no sound in the scene?
Despite an interest, I've never been around guns - didn't grow up with them, still haven't shot one (although I want to) and have never known anyone personally that is comfortable with them either. I recently found out that a false foley sound of a click is used frequently when a person raises a handgun in movies and shows. I've listened for it since finding this out and it seems to be used in every scene where a person draws on another person with a handgun (The Walking Dead, for example, does this incessantly). Upon reflection, of course, this being a stupid fantasy sound trick is obvious, but as I am not a person who is familiar with guns, it is something I never thought about.
My question is, for people who ARE familiar with guns - does this weird sound effect ruin movies and shows for you, or annoy you to no end? And if most shows and movies, from what I can tell, are getting this wrong - are there any shows and movies that get this RIGHT? Where someone raising a handgun with the safety off makes no sound in the scene?
Probably the best place to ask this is the Internet Movie Firearms Database forum.
Previous relevant threads:
Gun Sounds in Movies
Films with realistic depiction's of firefights and shoot-outs
The law of guns in movies
posted by zamboni at 5:18 PM on September 3, 2017 [1 favorite]
Previous relevant threads:
Gun Sounds in Movies
Films with realistic depiction's of firefights and shoot-outs
The law of guns in movies
posted by zamboni at 5:18 PM on September 3, 2017 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: (Please keep in mind I am asking specifically about the sound used when a handun in raised in a movie or show depiction, not general gun inaccuracies in movies or shows)
posted by agregoli at 5:39 PM on September 3, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by agregoli at 5:39 PM on September 3, 2017 [1 favorite]
Yes, it drives me nuts whenever every time anyone touches a gun in a movie it makes a cocking noise.
It bothers me less, although some, when someone needlessly cocks a gun or pumps a shotgun shell or something, i.e. when you know the gun is already cocked.
posted by RustyBrooks at 5:39 PM on September 3, 2017 [4 favorites]
It bothers me less, although some, when someone needlessly cocks a gun or pumps a shotgun shell or something, i.e. when you know the gun is already cocked.
posted by RustyBrooks at 5:39 PM on September 3, 2017 [4 favorites]
I've fired many kinds of guns, but most of my experience is with my own S&W revolver and Glocks, because omg dudes love Glocks. I never notice, but it's almost certainly because I don't care enough to notice.
I recently found out that a false foley sound of a click is used frequently when a person raises a handgun in movies and shows
Can you link to an example? I watch TWD and never noticed, but that could also be due to hearing loss. Otherwise, I may be taking you too literally, but handguns don't make noises when you raise (or lower) them. It looks like RustyBrooks knows what you're talking about, though.
posted by Room 641-A at 5:45 PM on September 3, 2017
I recently found out that a false foley sound of a click is used frequently when a person raises a handgun in movies and shows
Can you link to an example? I watch TWD and never noticed, but that could also be due to hearing loss. Otherwise, I may be taking you too literally, but handguns don't make noises when you raise (or lower) them. It looks like RustyBrooks knows what you're talking about, though.
posted by Room 641-A at 5:45 PM on September 3, 2017
Best answer: Archer, while certainly not perfect, does pretty well in terms of accuracy. I mean, heck, people suffer gunshot-related hearing loss (although they also make it go away).
posted by aramaic at 5:49 PM on September 3, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by aramaic at 5:49 PM on September 3, 2017 [1 favorite]
Best answer: The cocking sound is often pretty silly (as when the actor is using a gun like a Glock that doesn't have an external hammer or a safety), as does the constant racking of slides/pumping of shotguns. Yes, it is very phallic and Freudian, but also very silly.
I'm willing to overlook those; what really bothers me is people shooting big guns in confined spaces without causing hearing damage. I was rewatching True Detective recently and was pleased that the scene with indoor gunfire is followed by at least a few moments of tinnitus sound.
I'm not going to re-rewatch it to check, but I think True Detective is an example of a show that avoids the constant cocking noises and racking of slides. There definitely are plenty of movies/shows that get guns at least sort of right, but as people have said, most get them laughably wrong, just like how people walk away from car crashes or falling off of buildings -- it's an expected part of the film experience at this point, not something where they are even attempting realism. Car goes around a corner, tires screech; gun gets drawn, clicking sound happens.
posted by Dip Flash at 6:13 PM on September 3, 2017 [2 favorites]
I'm willing to overlook those; what really bothers me is people shooting big guns in confined spaces without causing hearing damage. I was rewatching True Detective recently and was pleased that the scene with indoor gunfire is followed by at least a few moments of tinnitus sound.
I'm not going to re-rewatch it to check, but I think True Detective is an example of a show that avoids the constant cocking noises and racking of slides. There definitely are plenty of movies/shows that get guns at least sort of right, but as people have said, most get them laughably wrong, just like how people walk away from car crashes or falling off of buildings -- it's an expected part of the film experience at this point, not something where they are even attempting realism. Car goes around a corner, tires screech; gun gets drawn, clicking sound happens.
posted by Dip Flash at 6:13 PM on September 3, 2017 [2 favorites]
My husband grew up with guns, and this sound (among other firearm inaccuracies) gets an outburst every time.
posted by Night_owl at 6:28 PM on September 3, 2017
posted by Night_owl at 6:28 PM on September 3, 2017
Best answer: It drived me nuts, and it's become standard folley in nearly every movie and tv show since the 90s, as far as I can tell.
One recent movie I recall where I distinctly recall they got this right though: "The Grande Budapest Hotel." In the shootout scene in the hotel toward the end, the first shot is fired when I guy is staring across the mezanine and spots his nemesis, and (silently) pulls a small pistol out of his pocket and fires, and it's the realistically small "pop" noise that the low calibre sidearms of the early 20th century made (mostly .22LR in those pistols, if I'm not mistaken). The ensuing firefight sounds like an actual firing range, "crack pop crack," rather than the reverbed thunderous booming that's become standard. (Leave it to Wes Anderson to go for realism in a shootout, of all directors.)
So there I was in the theater, enjoying a whimsical Wes Anderson movie, and I'm breaking out in a sweat, because it reminds me of being at a firing range (where safety is paramount), and inside my head there's this voice screaming "don't do that! get out of the way you idiots! don't point that thing in that direction, someone's going to get hurt or killed!"
posted by ethical_caligula at 7:01 PM on September 3, 2017 [10 favorites]
One recent movie I recall where I distinctly recall they got this right though: "The Grande Budapest Hotel." In the shootout scene in the hotel toward the end, the first shot is fired when I guy is staring across the mezanine and spots his nemesis, and (silently) pulls a small pistol out of his pocket and fires, and it's the realistically small "pop" noise that the low calibre sidearms of the early 20th century made (mostly .22LR in those pistols, if I'm not mistaken). The ensuing firefight sounds like an actual firing range, "crack pop crack," rather than the reverbed thunderous booming that's become standard. (Leave it to Wes Anderson to go for realism in a shootout, of all directors.)
So there I was in the theater, enjoying a whimsical Wes Anderson movie, and I'm breaking out in a sweat, because it reminds me of being at a firing range (where safety is paramount), and inside my head there's this voice screaming "don't do that! get out of the way you idiots! don't point that thing in that direction, someone's going to get hurt or killed!"
posted by ethical_caligula at 7:01 PM on September 3, 2017 [10 favorites]
Best answer: I haven't watched it in a while, so I'm not certain, but I recall "Another Day in Paradise (a criminally underrated masterpiece and an order of magnitude better than anything else Larry Clark's directed) has realistic handgun noises (or lack of noises).
posted by ethical_caligula at 7:10 PM on September 3, 2017
posted by ethical_caligula at 7:10 PM on September 3, 2017
Best answer: You may enjoy the TV tropes page on unrealistically noisy guns, which covers both fictional cocking/racking sounds as well as the 'gun clicks because someone raised it or turned it'.
posted by SaltySalticid at 7:18 PM on September 3, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by SaltySalticid at 7:18 PM on September 3, 2017 [1 favorite]
In Wes Anderson's Bottle Rocket there's a scene in which there's a gun on a table, and it makes exaggerated sounds whenever it's touched by a character. I'm pretty sure it was a deliberate choice - it enhances both the humor and tension. So in this case, obviously wrong, but on purpose.
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 7:22 PM on September 3, 2017
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 7:22 PM on September 3, 2017
All the gun guys I know are fans of the aural depiction of gunfire in Michael Mann movies, specifically Collateral, the scene in an echo-flooded alley when Tom Cruise's character gets his briefcase back from the gunmen who just robbed Jamie Foxx in his cab, and of course the chaotic running shootout in Heat. I've fired guns of the same caliber, and they sound pretty great to me: saturatingly loud POW with reverb from the walls.
You'll also find that people really love the tactical realism... but it's unclear if those people would know tactical realism if they saw it.
(I can't promise the audio depiction will survive however many compressions it went through before ending up on Youtube.)
posted by Sunburnt at 8:47 PM on September 3, 2017 [1 favorite]
You'll also find that people really love the tactical realism... but it's unclear if those people would know tactical realism if they saw it.
(I can't promise the audio depiction will survive however many compressions it went through before ending up on Youtube.)
posted by Sunburnt at 8:47 PM on September 3, 2017 [1 favorite]
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