Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, November 10, 1995 TAG: 9511100035
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: EDWARD LEWINE THE NEW YORK TIMES
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Hunter plays a detective in the film, which is playing at the Salem Valley 8 and Tanglewood Mall theaters.
In one scene she talks with her young partner, played by Mulroney, on the practice range while she fires a pistol using the standard police stance: two hands on the gun, arms in a straight V.
But when her practice is finished, she smiles, thrusts out a single hand and, turning her pistol horizontal to the ground, fires off a clip.
Jon Amiel, who directed ``Copycat,'' said that Hunter improvised the sideways shooting during a take and that he had used it because it was a physical illustration of her character's arrogance and cool power.
``It was a moment of playfulness on Holly's part,'' he said. ``She was showing her character's control.''
From 1903, when Edwin S. Porter's ``Great Train Robbery'' featured a gunshot straight into the camera, there have been guns in movies; film makers have used gunplay to say something about their characters.
``Gunfighting in movies is symbolic,'' said Michael Marsden, a dean at Northern Michigan University who publishes a scholarly film journal. ``It's visual shorthand.''
Old screen heroes like John Wayne would simply draw and shoot from the hip. Marsden said the new sideways style, like the old shoot-from-the-hip method (neither involves aiming), shows that the gun wielder is cool and powerful.
Movie stars who hold their guns horizontally can be seen in recent films including ``Desperado'' (Antonio Banderas), ``Seven'' (Brad Pitt) and ``The Usual Suspects'' (just about everyone).
And the trend seems to be growing. ``You see it around now,'' said Phil Spangenberger, a firearms consultant on Hollywood films. ``It does look good on camera.''
But when Darren Leung, a shooting instructor at the West Side Rifle and Pistol Range in New York, was asked what this new style of shooting was called, he replied, ``Idiocy.'' Leung said shooting sideways makes it harder to control the weapon.
Most experts agreed that the sideways trend started with the 1993 Hughes Brothers film ``Menace II Society.'' A character called O-Dog holds his gun sideways as he murders a grocer, then replays the security-system videotape of the event for his friends.
Allen and Albert Hughes said they first witnessed the technique during a robbery in Detroit in 1987. They said they used it in their film not because it looked cool but because it seemed sloppy, edgy and realistic.
``On the street, people are throwing bullets on one another,'' they said. ``They don't go to practice ranges to learn how to shoot.''
Yet if real life has influenced Hollywood films, the reverse is true, too. Ronin Ro, who grew up in the South Bronx and used to edit the rap-music magazine The Source, said old-style gangster films have had an effect on current street styles.
``Italian gangster films like `Goodfellas' have been very influential to gangsters on the street,'' he said. ``What you find is that there is a cause and effect back and forth between the media and the street.''
by CNB