Regarding the scene: Yeah, Tom Cruise's character is very impressive there, but the two thugs are, as you said, hopelessly incompetent. They shouldn't have approached to arm's length, and the second guy should have had his gun out and pointed the whole time, too. I guess that's the difference between a professional killer and and a street thug.
Correct! But that's how something like 99% of street crime goes in the US - they get too close, only one guy has his gun out (so as to attract less attention) and they don't use holsters. And they never seem to learn, per studies, interviews with both perps and victims and police reports.
Plus in my state, Texas, if they
do manage to pull it off correctly yet leave you alive afterwards, you can legally shoot them in the back as they leave to get your stuff back. It is very unlikely that they would execute a proper fighting retreat once they have 'the goods'.
Any Michael Mann movie involving guns is bound to have realistic depictions of gun play. Just watch Heat, Collateral, or Public Enemies. I love them because they use no special effects. The rounds are blanks, but they are full-charge blanks so the gunfire is 100% real. Check this scene out if (somehow) you've never seen it.
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZL9fnVtz_lc[/YOUTUBE]
Again proper shooting (notice how most of them leave both eyes open for proper combat shooting) Val Kilmer's reloading part is especially good.
Yeah, rumor has it that that reloading scene has been shown to American soldiers by their instructors as an example of how to do it right.
Mann is one of the few directors in Hollywood that takes the time to get firearms use right. Some of his peers criticize this as 'not being flashy enough', but the air of authenticity plus the realism more than makes up for it - especially when people who do use firearms 'for real' watch his movies.
Never heard of a retention hold before. Thanks for the explanation!
Also, I knew a guy that shot off one of his testicles because of that stupid "mexican carry".
Yeah, that would be why it's
not recommended.
If you
have to stick a gun in your waistband, stick it around back or to the side. Better yet, don't stick it in your waistband at all!
In the Collateral clip, you see Tom Cruise deflect the guy's gun arm in towards the thug's body then fire into him from about where he stood. Just FYI, there are some schools of thought that say another option would be to knock the gun arm
away from the thug's body then
step into him while firing from that retention hold, to maximize the chance of getting a critical hit while getting inside the thug's pistol's arc - i.e, the thug's gun would be behind your back and over your shoulder if you didn't knock it free and therefore would still be useless against you. This would only be used against a single assailant, though, as you wouldn't then have room to clear your pistol for use against other threats, so once again Mann got it right.