Ok, after a couple of binge watches (most recently Madness on Netflix) I have a question for the community. Have gun speeches been reduced to a plot-advancing dialogue crutch? I get that the person using the gun, the person at the business end of the gun, they might have many thoughts. Some of them might even be interesting. In lieu of any other circumstance, can't the points made be in a less climactic setting? Does death become the only motivation for a character to reveal their inner most thoughts? Going into the wayback machine, there is a scene from the movie SHANE. Jack Palance has a shootout with Elisha Cook, Jr. This setup is brilliantly played and brutal. Recently the gun speeches appear to be the result of an expedient plot driver.
Screenwriting : Gun Speeches by Robert Franklin Godwin III
Gun Speeches
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The clip from SHANE https://youtu.be/CWnDVW07_1c
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It could be (my theory) we are in an era where it's just average talent in front & behind camera now- from actors, writers, producers, whoever: the execution is average. Too many streamer networks, too many films & tv shows. Making content just to fill ad space and air time, but when that one movie or tv show that comes along and has every day Joe's & Jane's talkin to their friend about- that is special talent.
Shane is considered one of the best western movies ever but what about the hundreds of other western movies made in the same span? Nobody remembers them.
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The plot demands that you show the scene where someone holds a gun on a major/minor character. The scene needs dialogue. Why look to move that dialogue to some other scene?
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It's a trope, but tropes are there because they tend to work. As ever, it's all about execution.
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“Don’t talk; shoot.”
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I think it's situational. In the example you provided, it's more of a conversation that ends in a gunfight whereas a lot of filmmakers try to turn a gunfight into a conversation. An example of that would be at the end of Lethal Weapon IV when Riggs and Murtaugh are talking about Murtaugh's wife being a romance novel writer.
As others have said, it's all about execution.
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I personally find a lot of gun speeches trite, I'd rather there not even be one or if there is, make it genuinely dramatic, like say the villain gives one as his/her sanity starts to slip or even if they're thinking about a speech they would've given had they not already shot the gun. That's just me, though.
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Simply don't let the hero HAVE a gun speech Let him tell a joke and when the other guy cracks up, he shoots him.
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I write what, in my head, will look and sound good on screen. A well thought out gun battle can always be done in silence, but it all depends on the writer's mind set at the time. A more serious realistic film may have ominous silence while a cop buddy film might be peppered with tension breaking banter. It's all in the presentation of the story. If the writer has any true talent at all, what flows from the writer is what is right from the writer and should ultimately enhance the story.
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Philip David Lee After all these years I still wonder "what is right from the writer", and struggle to 'why' and 'then what'.
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I think it depends on the story. For Jason Bourne, the tone was one of someone asking for the truth (about his past). But not the same "tone" on a neo-noir action films like John Wick: "a legendary hitman who is reluctantly drawn back into the criminal underworld after retiring". What caused him to return?... Someone stole his car and killed his dog given by his late wife. Probably many scripts would have failed with this story. But Derek Kolstad (the screenwriter) had already a name established and sold the script to Thunder Road Films, with Keanu Reeves set to play the part.
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Ramus Labiapari thats not what Derek Kolstad said publicly about his career before JW. He was about to quit, couldnt make a living, had one produced credit (Dolph Lungren straight to dvd action movie). After Reeves signed on, they did a page 1 rewrite together for a year. Ppl forget Reeves was considered washed-up by Hollywood bosses, B-actor status then.
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Love to hear more examples please
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Kind of a tangent, but I just found a link about guns in movies. https://www.amysuto.com/desk-of-amy-suto/2012/05/handguns-7-screenplay-d...
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Screenwriting is not an easy task. Time, place and connection. A few takes from the writer of John Wick, Derek Kolstad:
"...Newly married, he was on verge of giving up on screenwriting when
his wife Sonja encouraged him to give writing one last try. In 2012, he sold a script called
“Acolyte.” The sale generated enough attention to keep him going. He landed some
rewriting jobs and later that year sold a new script, “Scorn,” which generated a number
of offers. Kolstad says some of those offers were high enough to let him walk away from the movie business and head back to Wisconsin.
In fact, “Scorn” became “John Wick,” the name of the title character (and that of Kolstad’s grandfather). It entered production in 2013 – an almost unheard-of time frame, with Keanu Reeves signing up to play Wick. (https://www.2filmcritics.com/interview-with-derek-kolstad).
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Gun speeches are awesome. Great way to get out exposition and let us all know what's really digging into these renegades' craws
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Rossi Kaufman Absolutely