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The most impressive part of American Sniper seemed to be how Chris Kyle was portrayed and the transformation as a man into something tragic in its impact on his character and his struggle with his marriage, something I haven't see effectively emphasized in other war movies.
Yeah, I think you're right, though THE HURT LOCKER emphasizes how its protag is completely lost away from the combat zone too. And THE HURT LOCKER is a better film, a dazzling actioner and celebration of a war zone technician who's a genius. He has a wife and a young son at home and he can't even find anything to say to them when he calls. It's the same idea. There have been depictions of PTSD. Even Boorman's new QUEEN AND COUNTRY set in 1952 deals with it, and that is apparently the year when the concept clearly emerged, as the film shows.
A sniper from the 75th Rangers was on AM radio the other night- Nick Irving "The Reaper"- he's one of the few black snipers, and he's written a book on his experiences in combat as a sniper. He explained that the word "sniper" is an issue. It implies that there's some guy far away randomly killing people. He described the "human" aspects of his job and how he goes about "taking a life". He also suffered serious PTSD which he has since recovered from. He described how he rarely shot a target in the head, that it was always center-of-mass (upper body)and that each man he killed (he never killed a female) were known targets, i.e. that they always knew who they were after. He said he was always on a rooftop, with his spotter, and always did his sniping under cover of night. He used a .50 caliber sniper rifle, and he said being a sniper has it's risks. He got PTSD from watching his best friend get killed immediately after providing cover for him and his spotter to get out of their position, which was under siege, and he was running out of ammo. Apparently Chechnians were paid by the Taliban to hunt American troops, and one Chechnian sniper was "really good", that he'd been around since the Soviet days, and was picking off US troops one by one, and almost got him. He said it was the only time he felt "really really small" out there.
He also mentioned that the 75th Rangers have the most confirmed kills in the Afghan conflict, a fact most serving in the US military don't even know. Nick is out of the forces now, and he said it was weird to adjust to a civvie lifestyle (I know what that's about). He said being in war and then shopping for salad at Wal-Mart was a strange change. He lives in New York now, and he called the radio station while the snow was pounding "sideways".
So there's a wee bit of insight into snipers and what they do. I'l see this movie this week and tell you guys what I thought.
I will not be seeing this movie. I have since learned that Chris Kyle is a liar, that his story may be just as padded as Marcus Luttrell's was. Kyle slandered and defamed Jesse Ventura, a man who I hold in very high esteem. Jesse sued his ass, and was awarded a million-dollar settlement for Kyle's lies.
That's all I needed to hear.
Having won against Kyle (and since Kyle's murder, his widow, who's contesting the decision), Ventura has since sued the publisher of his book for a similar amount.I understand your reaction, and Ventura seems to be in the right, but your decision not to see AMERICAN SNIPER seems to show a certain lack of cinematic curiosity. Good films have been made about bad people -- but is Chris Kyle a bad person? Should his widow be saddled with a bill for $1.84 million? (Maybe from the book and movie royalties she can afford it.) hatever the truth or implications of this incident, to which there is no reference in it, AMERICAN SNIPER is, I feel, still a movie well worth seeing.
See Washington Post:
P.s. If you are against Chris Kyle and think him and therefore the film from his book not worth publicity, your best decision would have been to say nothing here or anywhere. This only promotes the film, like all controversity (cp. Mel Gibson).Quote:
A general search of the terms "Chris Kyle" and "Jesse Ventura" on Twitter shows that reaction is overwhelmingly in Kyle’s family’s favor.
I was under the impression (like a lot of people) that Kyle was a hero. Heroes don't make up stories about fellow Navy Seals. Jesse has been ostracized from the Navy SEAL community due to the lies of a punk. I only learned yesterday about what Kyle did to Jesse's reputation. I have no sympathy for his widow. She's set for life. And Jessie says he has no regrets over suing him. He said all he wanted was a retraction and apology from Chris Kyle. True to being a punk, he refused. Jessie had no choice but to sue his ass.
Whether I comment on this movie or not the controversy will flow. Eastwood apparently threatened to kill Michael Moore!
What's that about?
Clint is a film artist, but he's also a crusty old right-wing shill.
Your libelous epithet about Clint does not build confidence in your judgment, and your dismissal of the widow shows bad manners. Moreover, the interest of the film is precisely that Clint is not so simple at all, that, as Michael Moore said "there is also anti-war sentiment expressed in the movie." It is not simple black and white stuff you'd like to make it. I am puzzled over where Bradley Cooper stands (see my review). And it's not an idealized picture of Kyle. See what tabuno says above:Quote:
Impact of War on Soldiers
The most impressive part of American Sniper seemed to be how Chris Kyle was portrayed and the transformation as a man into something tragic in its impact on his character and his struggle with his marriage, something I haven't see effectively emphasized in other war movies.
Nothing libelous about telling the truth. Who cares about my judgement? I can show empathy when required, but Chris Kyle (and his widow) asked for everything they got. First by writing the book, then by making the movie. Clint should state his aims, shouldn't he? What is he saying about Chris Kyle? It seems to me he's made an "Easy Rider" movie, and Clint is no Dennis Hopper.
"Easy Rider" in that the "hero" protagonist gets cut down tragically, and we leave the theatre reflecting on it.
It's true- Moore confirmed it- Clint Eastwood said in 2005 (to a big crowd with Mike in it no less) he would kill Mike if he ever tried to interview him. "I MEAN IT!"- Clint actually said that. He said he would kill Mike.
I'll say it again: Clint is a crusty old right-wing shill. And I will never watch one of his films again.
That's all it took- to threaten to kill a better American Hero than Chris fucking Kyle.
Chris, have you read that Chris Kyle was sniping American citizens from the roof of the Superdome in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina?
How the fuck is Chris Kyle a "Hero"?
Did Clint put that in his movie? Sniping people in New Orleans?
If I was a fully trained combat vet sniper and my country told me to go on the roof of a stadium in the aftermath of a hurricane and kill my fellow citizens,
I WOULD QUIT AND TELL THE FUCKERS TO GET FUCKING BENT!!!!!
Jesus, no wonder there's controversy here.
People can't see misplaced glory when it's staring them in the fucking eyeballs.
Maybe he's a hero; maybe he's not. The movie lets you decide. It's more complex than you realize. I think you should lay off the internat chatter and go see the movie. AMERICAN SNIPER is an interesting film, well made, well acted, thought provoking, and well worth seeing. To propagandize against it by attacking its subject through hearsay, without ever seeing the it, seems pointless in itself and and not germane to a thread about the film. There are valid criticisms of the AMERICAN SNNIPER, its protagonist and its treatment of the Iraq War, for sure. But I'd like to see you discuss them in relation to AMERICAN SNIPER after having seen it. Kyle said he did these things. He didn't do them. Clearly he was nuts. Vulture calls Kyle "a fabulist." Another howler is his claim to have found chemical weapons in Iraq that came from France and Germany; and that war protesters called him a "baby killer."
From NPR:The article goes on to criticize the film for leaving this wild talk by Kyle out, obviously. If I were to write my review now, I'd point to these omissions and emphasize that Kyle's post-combat behavior was more crazy than AMERICAN SNIPER shows. But I don't see the worth of impugning the film purely on the basis of an ad hominem attack on Kyle. Distinguish between him and the character in the film. Besides, surely you can make a good movie about a questionable person? Surely a movie "based on true events" (as they so often are lately) always leaves out a lot of the facts?Quote:
Another reason for the backlash against American Sniper is the fantastical stories Kyle told about himself after he left the Navy. He said he killed two men who tried to carjack him in Texas. He said he went to New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and shot people from the roof of the Superdome. On the radio Opie & Anthony Show, he claimed to have punched former Minnesota governor (and Navy veteran) Jesse Ventura at a bar after Ventura supposedly made disparaging remarks about soldiers.
It never happened, and Ventura won a defamation suit against Kyle. The other stories have also never been proved. Actor and producer Bradley Cooper has said that American Sniper is a "character study," but there's no mention of this part of Kyle's character in the movie.
I understand what you are saying, that I should see the movie before going off on it, but the evidence of why not to see it is overwhelming. I hate people who go off on movies without seeing them too, but Clint Eastwood has become persona non grata to me.
Chris Kyle has no integrity. Heroes don't go around fabricating things they did, slandering established military heroes like Jesse Ventura. You get your ass kicked for that shit. I was a soldier in the PPCLI once upon a time. If I went around spreading lies and bullshit like Chris Kyle did, someone would come and visit me and make sure I checked and handled my mouth.
Steven Spielberg was attached to this before Eastwood. Apparently Spielberg wanted to emphasize the fight between Kyle and another enemy sniper. Face it Chris- this is another padded USA military movie in the same vein as Lone Survivor. I can give it up for these kinds of films, but it's getting harder and harder to do so. Eastwood won't get a dime from me ever again.
There's another serious problem with this film. Even though it is a dramatization, verbal and physical threats have increased against Muslims. Arabs wrote a formal letter to it's star, Bradley Cooper about it but he has yet to respond. Clint is sowing the seeds of hatred here, it seems. Arabs have complained about how they've been stereotyped from their portrayal in American Sniper. A theatre in Baghdad has been threatened with fines from the government if they show the film. The theatre owner says people want to see the film, and if he doesn't show it he loses money.
So am I to believe that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences encourages leaving out seriously germane details regarding a subject's life in a movie if it's "well made"?
You say you understand but you do not understand. You are grasping at straws. Forgot the chatter about it and see it. Or stop talking. You add nothing.
The New Yorker's Goings on About Town short review:
Quote:
Clint Eastwood’s new film is a devastating pro-war movie and a devastating antiwar movie, a sombre celebration of a warrior’s happiness and a sorrowful lament over a warrior’s alienation and misery. Eastwood, working with the screenwriter Jason Hall, has adapted the 2012 best-seller by the Navy SEAL sharpshooter Chris Kyle, who is played here by Bradley Cooper. The film is devoted to Kyle’s life as a son, husband, father, and, most of all, righteous assassin—a man always sure he is defending his country in Iraq against what he calls “savages.” Perched on a rooftop in Ramadi or Sadr City, he’s methodical and imperturbable, and he hardly ever misses. For the role of Kyle, Cooper got all beefed up—from the looks of it, by beer as much as by iron (it’s intentionally not a movie-star body). With his brothers in the field, Kyle is convivial, profane, and funny; at home with his loving wife (played by Sienna Miller, who’s excellent), he’s increasingly withdrawn, dead-eyed, enraptured only by the cinema of war that’s playing in his mind. As Kyle and his men rampage through the rubbled Iraqi cities, the camera records exactly what’s needed to dramatize a given event and nothing more. There’s no waste, never a moment’s loss of concentration, definition, or speed; the atmosphere of the cities, and life on the streets, gets packed into the purposeful action shots. The cinematography is by Tom Stern.
—David Denby