Switchblades and Hollywood - still at it

Boink

Boink

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Jun 6, 2002
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Just came from the movies and saw Red Dragon. The classic Italian switchblade was the weapon of choice by two antagonists - Hannibal Lechter and the Red Dragon. Give me a break. Couldn't they use a more imaginative knife choice than prolonging the stereotype of the switchblade?
 
Vent mode activated:
I've been wondering why Hellywood hasn't sunk it's fetid claws into the one handed folder phenomenom yet. Just think about all the havoc they could reek among the sheeple when they begin demonizing Spyderco's and Benchmade's one handed folders in their movies. As soon as they start arming their fantasy bad guys with one-handed folders, our days are numbered.
Soon after Hellywood tells the movie going public how they will feel about the wicked one-handed folder the liberals in Congress will be hopping up on their soap boxes extolling the virtues of a society free from the grip of the evil cop killing one-handed folder. Then we will all be outlaws as the "Anti-One-Handed Folder Bill" becomes the law of the land.
Let the anal cavitys in Tinseltown have their fun with switchblades. Woe to us when they discover our one-handed opening folders and begin their campaign against them.
Don't get me started on Hollywood. I frequently wonder why America believes the crap that comes outta there to be gospel truth instead of the garbage that it actually is.

Powering down vent mode now.

Excuse me while I go get my flame retardent suit on.
 
On the few occasions when they *do* use a one-handed opener (e.g. a Spyderco), it always seems like the knife is already open, or they use two hands to open it :confused: Or if it's a balisong, they do a pathetically clumsy opening. Or they open the *balisong* with two hands.

Maybe the actors don't have the dexterity to open a simple knife. Or maybe it's too complex for them :D
 
Watch the movie Training Day with Denzel Washington, as a bad Cop, he uses a Spyderco Police Model to scare the $h*t outa da bad guys.
 
We used to have a saying in the Army ( in general ) when something wasn't "for real" it was "Hollywood";); the airborne had something called a "Hollywood jump" ( just rifles & parachutes ), about the only thing that Babylon ( or is it Sodom & Gommorah ) is good for turning out is things like Pamela Anderson :), or any of the other "babes" ;) I say, read a good book, and stay away from the theatres & idiot boxes ( TV & computer ) if you want titillation ;)

AET
 
Originally posted by sph3ric pyramid
On the few occasions when they *do* use a one-handed opener (e.g. a Spyderco), it always seems like the knife is already open, or they use two hands to open it :confused: Or if it's a balisong, they do a pathetically clumsy opening. Or they open the *balisong* with two hands.

Maybe the actors don't have the dexterity to open a simple knife. Or maybe it's too complex for them :D
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I don't know about that. There's a scene in 'Falling Down' (love that film!) where an evil South American (the Spanish-type) opens a butter-fly knife with one hand and it looks really hypnotically well done. It was almost a shame when Michael Douglas cracked his head with a baseball bat :D .

Again reinforcing the nefarious butter-fly knife stereotype though.

With a good kitchen knife, you could put a hole right through someone...and those evil blades are legal :eek: .
 
Originally posted by Mr. Bombastic
I don't know about that. There's a scene in 'Falling Down' (love that film!) where an evil South American (the Spanish-type) opens a butter-fly knife with one hand and it looks really hypnotically well done. It was almost a shame when Michael Douglas cracked his head with a baseball bat :D .
Click to expand...

"How'd he do that?"
-- Michael Douglas, when he couldn't figure out how the guy opened the butterfly knife.
 
The only dissapointment for me in Red Dragon were the knives. The sad thing is, Hannibal had a preference for Spydercos in the third book (Hannibal) that translated very well into the movie. The prop department for Hannibal got it right, the prop guys for Red Dragon sucked, and the director didn't know any better. Sad, really. They're both good flicks and GREAT books.
 
TV finally did it right with a perfect product placement for Microtech, although it still maligns the switchblade as a "bad guy" knife.

In the show, "24", the dude in the car slowly withdraws and then deploys an auto OTF, to which the hero, after opening a can of whup-ass, proclaims, "So, what's an ordinary businessman doing with a MICROTECH HALO?!

That cracked me up. :)
 
Hollywood has a long term love affair with Italian switchblades and German Nazis, so what else is new? They could care less about it making it harder on any knife lover, in fact i would bet they would love all push buttons and one hand openers banned, that would after all sell more popcorn and tickets to those movies that use them, bottom line is black ink after all!

They make big bucks with both of them, there both cheap because they have a warehouse full of them for cheap rent ready to go for the next picture and buying customs and better knifes doesn't even come into pay, no one with a brain is saying what about something new like a cool custom folder, that would cost extra money, no one at all i'm sorry to say! BTW i liked Red Dragon anyway.

James
 
One movie that I've seen that actually has a knife used in realistic ways by the "good guy" is Reindeer Games. In it, Ben Affleck's character finds a Halo in the tool box of some rednecks pickup truck (actually this was the only hard to believe part) and he used it throughout the rest of the movie to help himself out, and if I remember correctly, less than 10% of the time was it brandished as a weapon, if at all.


At least someone does it right.:rolleyes:

DD
 
To Boink, misque and sph3ric pyramid:

If you're <i>truly</i> fed up with the crap that Hollywood puts out, take control of what you put into your head. Do what my wife and I did, get rid of cable TV, don't go to any first-run movies in the theater, and boycott joints like Blockbuster, instead "renting" videos and DVDs free from the public library. Hollywood gets less of your hard-earned money that way (more dough for knives), and you get to keep more of your brain cells as A) you'll find yourself watching the tube less and reading more and B) even when you do watch, the movies they have at the library are usually quite good. I recently borrowed the whole Ken Burns series on the Civil War.
 
mnblade,
I'm waayyy ahead of you buddy! Been there, still doin' that and have the tee-shirt.:p

Aside from football, 90+% of my TV viewing is educational in nature. I can't really get rid of the whole cable because I'd be giving up my favorite channels: TLC, Discovery, HGTV, History Channel, Animal Planet, OLN, Discovery Health and the Food channel in no particular order. Oh, also ESPN and ESPN2.:)

They can keep most of the rest of that crap.

edited to add:

I also don't go to movies. The prices at theaters is obscene as is the content of movies a lot of the time.:barf:

I have been guilty of renting videos, but I am a very picky customer these days before I lay down the rental fee for a movie. So, as you might imagine, I don't rent many movies.
 
How about in Die Hard III when Bruce Willis is walking down the street naked with the discriminating sign over his twig and bits, and the Homeboy opens a MT halo then throws it into the sign he is wearing? I don't believe MT endorses using thier OTFs' as throwers!
Then in Bad Boys there is the scene when Martin Lawrence is taking a piss at Club Hell and the bad guy opens his Spyderco Civilian behind his back before attacking Lawrence. My point? Bad guys always have the cool blades!
 
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