Saturday, October 15, 2011

Military Movie Mood and some Random Info

I've been in the mood for some military films this past week. Action packed, sure. Realistic, not usually. Entertaining, yes.

The discipline and control of a well-trained military unit is undeniably cool. War, actual war is not.  Nevertheless, a few generations of people have grown up seeing war on the big screen, not with their own eyes. They play games like Call of Duty.
This isn't a post about desensitization or "video games encourage violent behaviour" bullshit, though.

No, my point is that war seems cool to a lot of people. On a related note, guns are cool to a lot of people despite their function. Back in the day, I didn't understand. I feel safe in assuming that only a fraction of them have ever actually shot a person or been shot. When I heard someone say that a certain gun 'sucked' I could only imagine that they were speaking from a list of numbers: statistics of range, caliber of bullet, and maybe even something they'd read concerning its reliability in the field but mostly not from personal experience. If they had a bullet in them I wondered if they'd note any difference about the gun it came from. Oh, it's possible they'd be able to remark on it, sure.
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Time for an educational moment.

Do you know what it means to "go into shock"? I'll wager you think it's what you've seen on TV or in the movies. A person, possibly injured and/or in a crisis situation, is pale, shaking, stuttering, eyes wide, deer-in-the-headlights look on they face, right? Naw. That's called *being* shocked, not *in* shock. Shock is a medical term for when not enough blood is getting to where it needs to go, usually from massive blood loss or some kind of trauma. It is not a psychological condition. When you go into shock, you're in need of some immediate medical attention.
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I'll give you these words of wisdom. I wish more people would take heed of them but it ain't meant to be so... But here they are:

TV shows and movies are forms of entertainment.

Yeah, shocking, I know. (hehe) You can learn a lot, but you have to know that it isn't there to educate first. Unless, you're watching a documentary..... No, you don't just have to know, you have to be aware. There is a difference.

9 comments:

  1. Excellent post, good sir. I appreciate you detailing the difference between what the movies and TV portray as 'shock' and real shock. Too many people are misinformed about it, most unfortunately.

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  2. Actually, if you're a gun nerd you can assume what shot you since different guns have different effects on the wound. A real obvious example would be the difference between a handgun and a shotgun. I'm not a gun person, but I think people who are can be interesting.

    Anyway yeah. TV shows and movies aren't real, I know.

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  3. good point you have there with the movie thingy..

    it is definitely a form of entertainment, though it's up to you to apply it or not in real case. it can be helpful sometimes.

    I mean, like the movie "My name is khan", it really helped me understand a lot of things esp racism, and how bad it is.

    Also, that movie 3 Idiots and Every Child is Special. that movie too implicates a lot of things between professors and students, family and friends and all..^_^

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  4. I'm glad you called video games making people violent bullshit, we can still be friends. Part of me wants to see a CoD player going to a war and then trying to get up after being shot 10 times. But I am psychotic like that. I didn't know the difference between going into shock and being shocked no, and I'm always happy to learn new things. I also agree totally with what you said at the end. Most people seem to forget that things are just entertainment.

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  5. @D4: What I meant was that when the guy gets shot, will he feel disappointment that he wasn't shot with a "cooler/more accurate" gun.

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  6. re your comment: don't wait. go get yourself a girlfriend in case you don't have a girlfriend.

    don't make the girls around you go wondering. haha

    and don't wait for another 4years ;-P

    it's past 1am and I'm still up. ^_^ (as if you care. hahaha)

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  7. It must be a guy thing to watch military movies. I don't like them because they bore me...

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  8. Well which movies did you watch?

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  9. @Bonjour Tristesse: Black Hawk Down [2001], Behind Enemy Lines [2001] and Enemy at the Gates [2001]. It's actually a coincidence all three are from the same year.

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