Hello, I've been working on a screenplay and had a question about genres with gun fights. Often in stories and movies, sword fighting seems a lot more dramatic and slower than a gun fight could be with the ability to also insert dialogue at points in the fight. I was wondering though how and if this sort of dramatic conflict could be replicated in fights involving long ranged weapons or if it is much easier to put the dramatic experience before the gun fight to help build up the weight and the gun fight being the conclusion.
I've seen it lots of times, but usually only between two characters parleying in a hostage situation or where one character seems to be outnumbered or boxed in. The circumstances would make a dialogue inappropriate or apt.
They could have special ops communications. They could know each other's frequencies and communicate over radio.
On the other hand, they could just take the first opportunity to kill their antagonist, like they would in real life, instead of explaining how they were going to take over the world and how you, Mr. Bond, can't do a damned thing about it.
If you are doing an Old West gunfight, a favorite of mine, they could parlay with each other as they wait for the other to draw.
I was going to say the same thing two things. If it's close range, make it like a Western parlay maybe. Or if it's long range, make them talk over the radio. However, a gun fight is tricky cause you are going to want to shoot the person as soon as you see them. Sometimes in fights they come up with excuses to talk during them. Like in the movie The Mask of Zorro, Zorro is trying to drive his sword into the villains face, and the villain is trying to drive it away, with his sword. While they are pushing on each other's swords, they have time for a brief dialogue exchange, but once they start trying to stab each other right after, they cannot talk so much. For a gunfight, maybe you can have them talk while reloading. If they are using long range weapons, some of those sniper rifles are slow to load if they are ones that use an internal magazine. If they are using weapons like that, it could give them a little more time to talk.
First, from what I've been told by HEMA instructors, real sword fights are very short, quick, and brutal. The long, dramatic sword fights where the characters stop in a clinch to throw one liners etc. may be fun to watch for some, but they are, by and large, unrealistic. That being said, you need to decide whether you want to have a dramatic or a realistic gun fight. If you want to be dramatic but with some degree of realism, I'd leave all the talking and suspense building etc. before the fight. Have the characters communicate via e.g. radio or make one character chase the other, but when it comes time to fight, it's all business, quick, dirty, and simple. Another option is to leave the drama after the gun fight, e.g. if the victor walks over to the disabled but still alive opponent to exchange a few words. The third option is to go full Hollywood and forget realism. That's when pretty much anything goes. But as always, none of the above is the way, just a way.
Those are good suggestions. But maybe don't do it like in the movie Face/Off, where Cage and Travolta, where both pointing guns at each other, right in each others faces, and exchanging dialogue for a whole minute where neither of them shoot. Maybe you can get away with that back then, but not sure about today?
