right to bear arms within the context of a “well-
regulated militia.”
More recently, the mythical rugged individual has
metaphorically married the soldier/sheriff to create a para-
military dude or righteous vigilante taking “the law” into his own
hands. He is hostile to other government officials because they are
part of the problem that faces civilization and “true” American val-
ues. He is not a Hawkeye because he is in society and he does not
“soldier” on. He has the badge or uniform but still protects socie-
ty on his own.
In the military context, these characters are born of the disillusionment displayed in films like PLATOON and FULL METAL
JACKET. 1 This leads, thematically if not chronologically, to
RAMBO. 2
In the civilian context, films like SERPICO3 display the disillusionment that leads to DEATH WISH4 and DIRTY HARRY. 5
These guys probably do not represent much, if anything, about the
legalities of the Second Amendment. They just have big guns. 6
Despite their putative claims to upholding “the law,” one thing the
John James Rambos and Dirty Harry Callahans couldn’t care less
about is legal structure.
PLATOON (ORION PICTURES 1986)
1. The title, FULL METAL JACKET, refers to a bullet used in a
barracks scene early in the movie. A full metal jacket bullet
(FMJ) is encased in a copper alloy extending around the
bullet. The jacket allows for higher muzzle velocities and
increases accuracy and reliability in repeating firearms.
FMJs are actually less lethal than a standard soft lead
bullet.
The lead bullet tends to expand in the body, causing more
deaths. Conversely, FMJs pass through the body, causing a greater chance
of wounds. In war this is advantageous because killing an enemy soldier only
removes one from the field, whereas wounding an enemy can remove three
or more as soldiers carry their wounded comrades out of the fighting.
2. FIRST BLOOD
(1982), followed
by the rest of
the franchise,
RAMBO: FIRST
BLOOD PART II
(1985), RAMBO III
(1988), and
RAMBO (2008)
and maybe even
an upcoming
RAMBO V.
3. SERPICO
(Paramount
Pictures
1973). Al
Pacino is
a cop who
will not
take a
bribe “set
up” by
those that
do.
But what protects us from them?
Law versus guns and how to protect society plays out in A FEW
GOOD MEN when Lieutenant Daniel Kaffee (Tom Cruise) cross-examines Colonel Jessup (Jack Nicholson), the soldier gone amok.
Following the famous exchange,
Kaffee: I want the truth!
Jessup: You can’t handle the truth! 7
Jessup goes on:
Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be
guarded by men with guns. Who’s gonna do it? You? You, Lt.
Weinberg?
Continuing, Jessup shows his utter contempt for any law but his
own:
I have a greater responsibility than you could possibly fathom … .
You don’t want the truth because deep down in places you don’t talk
about at parties, you want me on that wall, you need me on that
wall … . I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain
myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very
freedom that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I
FULL METAL JACKET,
(Warner Bros. 1987)
4. DEATH WISH
(Paramount
Pictures 1974).
Charles Bronson
plays a nice “
liberal” whose wife
and daughter
get raped and
killed. He then
goes out and
murders every
mugger he can.
6. Dirty Harry claims his “. 44
Magnum, [is] the most power-
ful handgun in the world and
would blow your head clean off.” Also, the term
“magnum” refers to the bullet, not necessarily the
gun. The . 44 Remington Magnum is a large-bore car-
tridge originally for revolvers but now also for carbines and rifles
with a lengthened . 44 special case, loaded to higher pressures
for greater energy. Different handguns
are made to shoot this magnum bullet
in the . 44 caliber, such as the Smith &
Wesson Model 29, and thus gained
the name “magnum 44s.” By the time
of Dirty Harry in 1971, other guns and
bullets packed triple the power.
Dirty Harry continued his association with the . 44 Magnum in all the
movies including SUDDEN IMPACT (Warner Bros. 1983) where he held the
gun on a bad guy and said, “Go ahead, make my day.”
7. THE ABA JOURNAL ranked A FEW
GOOD MEN (Columbia Pictures 1992)
number 14 on its list
of the 25 greatest
legal movies. Richard
Brust, The 25 Greatest
Legal Movies: Tales of
Lawyers We’ve Loved
and Loathed, ABA
JOURNAL, Aug. 2008, at
38-53. The oft-quoted
line, “You can’t handle
the truth” is now part
of American culture.
See, e.g., TOOTH FAIRY
(20th Century Fox
2010) promotional poster spoofing the line with, “You can’t
handle the tooth.”
5. DIRTY HARRY
(Warner Bros. 1971). The final
scene, in which Callahan
throws his badge in the water,
is homage to the end of HIGH
(1973), THE
ENFORCER (1976),
SUDDEN IMPACT
(1983), and
THE DEAD POOL
(1988).
Smith & Wesson Model 29
Magnum bullets
