GUNS/BARMS

[ONEBGG]

Hollywood's Digital Gun Control.

Source: Handguns
Publication Date: 02/01/2007
Author: Hacker, Rick

I'VE JUST BEEN WATCHING A DIGITALLY REMASTERED "DIRECTOR'S CUT" OF THE BLOCKBUSTER MOVIE ET. THERE IS A SCENE OF A BUNCH OF POLICE RUNNING TOWARD SOME CHILDREN ON BICYCLES WITH THEIR ARMS RAISED AND THEIR FINGERS OUTSTRETCHED. No, THE COPS ARE NOT POINTING UP AT ET'S SPACESHIP; THIS IS WHAT IS LEFT OF THEIR ANATOMY AFTER DIRECTOR STEVEN SPIELBERG--A GUN GUY HIMSELF BUT A PERSON WHO IS WELL CONNECTED TO THE ANTI-GUN HOLLYWOOD LEFT--DIGITALLY REMOVED ALL THE PUMP SHOTGUNS THE POLICE WERE HOLDING IN THE ORIGINAL MOVIE. IN A LATER VERSION (THE ONE YOU CAN RENT OR BUY NOW), THE EMPTY HANDS ARE NOW HOLDING WALKIE-TALKIES.

Just as in the original Star Wars' famous Tatooine cantina scene, when Rodian bounty hunter Greedo tries to extort money from Hart Solo (don't ask me how I know all this stuff), Solo shoots him without Greedo ever firing a shot. Solo simply draws first, the "cowboy way." All well and good. But in the 1997 rereleased (and re-edited) version, director George Lucas decided the scene wasn't politically correct, so Greedo fires first (we hear his gun going off) before Solo shoots and kills him. But in yet another version (released in 2004 and the one you're likely to rent today) both Greedo and Solo fire almost simultaneously, with Greedo still getting shot.

So how can this be? Well, all of the above is true and happened in various versions of the films, only everything was altered and re-altered on the digital editing console. For future generations there is really no way to tell what was real in the original and what was changed.

Chalk it up to digital magic and the way Hollywood wants us to perceive--or not perceive--guns, as in the case of ET. At one point during the editing of Indiana Jones, producer George Lucas considered eliminating the great scene where Harrison Ford draws a vintage Smith & Wesson double action and blasts a knife-twirling assailant. It was one of the best "Yeah, boy!" handgun scenes in any movie, but Lucas--a guy who blows up entire galaxies on screen-felt it was too violent. Thankfully, he was convinced to leave the scene in.

Nonetheless, it shows how our perception of what Hollywood wants us to see is controlled by Big Brother and has evolved into electronic fact-making.

It reminds me of the postal committee's decision to digitally remove the omnipresent dangling cigarette from James Dean's lips before agreeing to put his portrait on a U.S. postage stamp back in 1996. Along that very same line, last summer Turner Broadcasting decided to edit out all pipes and cigars from more than 1,500 Tom and Jerry, Flintstones and Scooby-Doo cartoons because they decided such depictions were bad for you, so they don't exist anymore. Can guns be far behind? According to folks such as Spielberg, that era is already here, although it's hard to imagine how he'd handle Saving Private Ryan.

Still, the gun-control people have always said that if they could press a button and remove all of the handguns in the world, they would do it. Well, now they can, at least from a digital perspective. Imagine Matt Dillon walking down the streets of Dodge in the opening scene of Gunsmoke and thrusting his finger at Arvo Ojala at the far end of the street. Or Paladin reaching up from his silver knighted holster empty handed and pointing his index finger at the camera while saying, "I've had it with you cattle rustlers. Get out of town!" Or what? He'll stick his finger in their eyes?

And how about that great shoot-'em-up scene in Last Man Standing, a Prohibition-era gangster film in which Bruce Willis descends a staircase blazing away with a 1911 in each hand. Edit out those guns and you'd have to substitute a pair of blow torches just to account for all the muzzle flash.

Still, if the gun grabbers can't get rid of our handguns legally, they'll try to do it digitally. And soon the only handguns we'll have left will be the "reality" ones, made of hard, cold steel.

http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-29065938_ITM