Outside Context

Pis­tol shoot­ing is an art. Many cinema char­ac­ters have pur­sued this amaz­ing skill set. Below is my per­sonal favourites.

To make this list the shoot­ing must be non manic and real­istic. We all know of films where people make stu­pidly unreal­istic shots, tak­ing down heli­copters or clip­ping people at extreme rifle ranges. These I have left out. Also I have left out most CQB pis­tol­ing as the undis­puted mas­ter at this is Yun-Fat Chow (Mark Gor in A Bet­ter Tomor­row) in his period of work­ing with John Woo.

So, per­sonal rat­ing of movie pis­toleers goes as follows:

5. Clint East­wood …Dirty Harry. “Do you feel lucky?” Some of the finest big gun pis­tol work in cinema. It takes a smooth hand and lots of police train­ing, but he makes some simply amaz­ing shots.

4. Lee Van Cleef … Col. Douglas Mor­timer (For a Few Dol­lars More). “No, the ques­tion isn’t indis­creet, but the answer could be” Clas­sic pis­tol work at ser­i­ously long pis­tol ranges.

3. James Coburn … Britt (The Mag­ni­fi­cent Seven). Very high level single handed pis­toleer­ing, clas­sic­ally done and smoothly snap-shot. Even if he was aim­ing for the man’s horse.

2. Danny Glover … Roger Mur­taugh. (Lethal Weapon) “No way you live, no way” Many people talk about Mel’s work in this film, but for me it is the few moments of single shot work by this char­ac­ter that stands out. Basic­ally, when he focuses, he is perfect.

1. Kyle MacLach­lan … Spe­cial Agent Dale Cooper (Twin Peaks) “Well I got four through the eyes and two through each nos­tril” The scene where Dale out shoots the loc­als on the prac­tice range and then calmly explains why there are only four hits is simply golden. I wouldn’t want to gun against this man!

Well thats my list, whats your fav’s?

Basho

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