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Using Movies to Teach

Movies reach a wide audience and are often remembered long after having seen them. Can they be used to teach basic skills?


Contents


Problems

My father was law enforcement for my entire life, so our family was no stranger to guns nor their cardinal safety rules:

  1. Always treat every gun as if it were loaded
  2. Always point the muzzle in a safe direction
  3. Always keep your finger off the trigger until you are ready to shoot
  4. Always be sure of your target and beyond

As a result, we noticed every detail about guns, major or minor, in movies: characters with their fingers on the trigger, muzzle sweeping others, firing from the hip, calling the magazine a "clip", turning the gun 90° while pointing it at someone. While some of these are inconsequential (clip ≠ magazine), others are rather dangerous if someone gets their gun education from movies.

There's no way to tell how many people imitate what they see in movies, gun-related or otherwise, but the number is still more than zero, and the cost of integrating "lessons" into movies is fairly low.


Proposal

My proposal is straightforward: movies must abide by specific rules when portraying specific scenes. The rules need not be overt, like someone saying "Billy, keep your finger off the trigger until you're ready to shoot", but should be visible and obvious, like someone clearly having their finger off the trigger while transporting a gun. The focus is to instill lessons that are: 1) easy to teach, 2) easy to integrate into the movie, 3) low-cost, 4) have at least a small likelihood of occurring to the average person.

  1. Easy to show and teach (no major nuances are allowed)
  2. Easy to integrate into the movie
  3. Low-cost
  4. Have at least a small likelihood of occurring to the average person

As part of the MPA film rating review those specific scenes would be checked for accuracy and satisfaction of the rules. Directors must submit specific timestamps of each instance so nothing goes unnoticed by the reviewers.

All lessons would be non-partisan and universally agreed upon.

One problem guaranteed to be brought up is the reduction of entertainment due to these rules being in place. It's badass seeing Arnold and company unloading from the hip, but would the entertainment value really suffer if the rifles were shouldered? No, it wouldn't. These rules are covert enough that they're noticeable, but not in-your-face about it. Some of the examples suggested below would require re-engineering of scenes if they wanted to be integrated, but that's not necessarily required by this proposal. The rules only apply if the original scene itself applies, e.g., always being sure of your target and beyond is irrelevant if a scene doesn't depict that or there's nothing important behind said target—no need to specifically add in an extra scene.

In regards to unrealistic scenes that the everyday person would never encounter, the directors can continue to go crazy: explosions, protecting oneself from a nuclear blast by hiding in a lead-lined fridge, car chases, etc.


Examples

The following is a running list of examples of lessons that could be integrated.

Guns

Emergency


See Also