the Big Bang

Something I've had on my mind since watching Serenity (again, loved it): guns and noise.

I think a lot of the reason people, especially teens and such, don't have a strong respect for guns (keep in mind this is 100% theory for me, based on no actual evidence, especially as I don't have any guns) is not because they're glorified in video games, rap music and film. It's because they aren't portrayed in these mediums as loud as they are in reality.

Nowadays, film gunshots (be they tv or feature film) are muffled, truncated little facsimiles of gunfire. Tappity tappity tap tap tap just ain't that scary or awe/respect inspiring (sadly, even Sin City's gunshots were too muffled).

This realization first hit me with quite a shock as I was watching High Plains Drifter about a month ago. Those guns were loud. Their sound was real and they made me flinch. The thought drifted away again until Serenity where there was loud gunfire again (but, oddly, only in outdoor shooting scenes).

Why has the noise of gunfire been neutered on film? You'd think in America, where we love violence so much it's an integral part of almost all of our cinema (and far more acceptable than sex or naughty language) that filmmakers would embrace the thundering crash of gunfire. And maybe it would even scare one or two kids away from the (sarcasm meta tag)glamorous (/sarcasm meta tag)life of playing with guns they shouldn't be playing with.