Thursday, May 23, 2013

NRA's "Gun Movies" List, My Reaction

I recently heard some news that peeked my interest: the NRA (National Rifle Association), recently made a list of "Coolest Gun Movies", and the list is not only odd, but the whole stunt is hypocritical. They recently stated they consider violence in movies "pornography", and stated they despise films such as American Psycho and Natural Born Killers, two of my favorite films. Then coming out with a list on violent movies? Stupid, stupid move. Not to mention, those two movies they mentioned are satire! They mock violence with violence! I'm not surprised they didn't pick up on that. Now, I like guns, they're pretty damn cool, but I do despise real-life violence and I'm not a fan of the NRA. Funny enough, a former film actor, Charlton Heston, was their president and spokesperson for a while. Now, the list itself isn't a very good list, in fact, many of these can't be considered "gun movies", hell, movies like Commando, The Wild Bunch, Django, Django Unchained, 3:10 to Yuma, The Good The Bad and The Ugly, Dredd, The Rock, Hot Fuzz (yes, it had a shit ton of guns), Full Metal Jacket, and Saving Private Ryan don't even make the list. Jacket was a runner up. Now, most of the choices make sense, such as Red Dawn, Die Hard, The Delta Force, The Alamo, The Matrix, and The Terminator make sense. But Terminator is a bit debatable, I would have preferred T2, and The Road Warrior has a lot of guns, but I wouldn't say that it's a "gun movie". No Natural Born Killers? Not a single Tarantino film? Really? Also, The Godfather makes the list. That film has guns in it, but it's much more of a crime-drama than a gun-oriented action film. Zombieland is also on the list. Although there are guns, I much would have preferred Hot Fuzz, and it's a zombie-killing film, they use chainsaws, knife, and even a guitar. It's not gun-oriented. Tremors? Now, Tremors is a fun, humorous, and cool monster movie, and there are guns. But a "gun movie"? No. It would be like if I made a list of "Cool Robot Movies" and put Predator on it. Yes, Predator has a robotic suit that he wears for most of it, but not a robot movie. Or "Cool Space Movies" and put District 9. It has cool aliens and is a good movie, but it takes place entirely on Earth. NRA: Just stick to handling politics (which you aren't very good at, either), and let professional critics, websites, reviewers, and, well, bloggers like me, take care of entertainment reviews and lists. Thank you.

Links:

The Young Turks' news piece:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO1bg4Ynewo

Mother Jones' well-written article and criticism:
http://www.motherjones.com/mixed-media/2013/05/nra-coolest-gun-movies-godfather-zombieland

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