A few weeks ago, I made a huge mistake and went to see "The Lone Ranger", a horrible and stupid movie that couldn't figure out if it wanted to be 'Saving Private Ryan' or 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail'. i was sitting in the theater, generally horrified by the amount of graphic violence in a Disney movie, and then something happened.
There was a sad machine gun scene.
So i sat there in the theater, scratching my head. "haven't i seen this before?" I asked. Yes, Yes I had. I saw it in 'The Last Samurai', I saw it in "War Horse", and when I went home and got onto my FIMFiction, I saw that the cover illustration for my story was also a sad machine gun scene
What is a sad machine gun scene? great question. its a scene that is always exactly the same in content. lets break it down.
At the start of a sad machine gun scene a military force (the bad guys) is facing annihilation by a numerically superior force that is on horseback. The Calvary is closing the distance fast, and the bad guys are all in panic. Then they reveal their master weapon, the machine gun, or more often than not the Gatling gun. There are a few tense seconds as the good guys close the distance and the villains struggle to bring their weapons to bear, but then the machine guns open up, spitting death out at a cyclic rate of 600 rounds per minute. the music stops so that you can hear the beautiful symphony that Richard Gatling and Hiram Maxim created, then it fades back in, sad music as the mounted soldiers are put into a meat grinder and slaughtered to the man (maybe one survives). At the end the camera pans over a field littered with tons of bodies.don't believe me? see for yourself, (it starts at 2:12)

The funny thing is that the scene is almost exactly the same in each movie, with only the most minute differences to distinguish them. The question then, is why the hell does this same scene keep popping up? I think that I know the answer.
The sad machine gun scene usually signifies the end of an era due to 'progress', in a nutshell. in 'the last samurai' and 'the lone ranger' the groups getting Gatling gunned are Samurai and Comanche, respectively. Both are groups that were being slowly conquered by western influences and culture that viewed them as outdated, and in the sad machine gun scene they lash out one last time, trying in vain to keep their heritage intact, even if by means of the sword or bow. The machine gun is a symbol of western power and prowess, and of technological achievement, especially when compared with the swords and bows that they face.
In 'war horse' the era that is ending is that of horse mounted calvary, which for thousands of years was the last word in warfare, able to ride across the field and kill or crush anything that stood in the way. by World War One technology had overcome the calvary, and anyone who though that they could just ride across the enemy lines and secure victory was quickly massacred. technology had advance to a point were the old rules of war were no longer relevant, and how better to do that than with a sad machine gun scene?

So, have i missed any? Am i totally wrong? are there any other recurring scenes that are basically the exact same? do i not capitlize my "I"s? sound off in the comments, or not.

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*Sees "Sad Machine Gun Scene", thinks of (for some odd reason) Scarface, sees Last Samurai, breaks down crying*
Yes, indeed these are some of the saddest and most recurring things in Renaissance-era movies. Very poetic, and very powerful as well. Thank you for making mention of this.