December 1, 2002
Why doesn't someone get that man a technical advisor?
I couldn't resist going to see the new James Bond flick - who can? - and allowed myself the willing suspension of disbelief which is the usual waking state of most moviegoers anyway, and determined to enjoy the film.
I can say that I did enjoy myself, even forgetting temporarily Halle Berry's ridiculous Oscar antics. Bond films are fantasies, and should be enjoyed as such. However, I just could not pretend not to notice all the horrible gun handling and tactics of Brosnan and Berry. Bond's character slinks around with his Walther (an updated model, of course) in what some of my first pistol instructors called "the High Sabrina" ready position... remember that silhouette of the girls from the original Charlie's Angels TV series? Think about it.
Not only that - really, I'm not nitpicking here - he "teacups" his pistol with his support side hand. And at one point, he drops a magazine on the ground, "speed reload" style, without any thought to 1.) noise discipline and 2.) whether there were still rounds left in the thing. If he had time to do that, he would have done a tactical reload, and quietly pocketed the partial mag.
Ms. Berry's goofy gun handling was just too bad to break down by instance, so I'll just take this crack at her: at no point did she actually have the sights aligned with an eyeball, instead employing a weird, cock-armed grip.
Is it too much to ask directors nowadays that they hire the right technical consultants for these easily and cheaply remediable problems? Of course, not all directors are Michael Mann material.
Hey, I'd be happy to help out, for a little cash...
Posted by Russell Whitaker at December 1, 2002 1:06 PM | TrackBack