American Sniper Another Movie Missed By Shale I was avoiding seeing this movie because I don't really like war movies ever since Platoon and Full Metal Jacket, altho I did want to go see Bradley Cooper in a strong dramatic role. (Been in love with his acting since Silver Linings Playbook.) American Sniper - Bradley Cooper However, after reading about the propaganda that this movie advances - all the things that made the majority of Americans support the useless and destructive war in Iraq, I probably won't be seeing it. What I have been reading all over the Web is that this movie follows too closely to Chris Kyle's autobiografy of the same title. American Sniper - Chris Kyle Now I can understand Chris believing all the lies that surround the Iraq war - he was a soldier and soldiers are not to reason why but merely to do and die. I can also give soldiers a pass on doing what they are sent to do in war. We should really blame the misinformed or outright lying leaders who send them into that war (Why are Bush & Cheney still not in prison?). But, unless the story unfolds as a voiceover of Chris Kyle narrating HIS beliefs about the war in which he participated, then this movie will be nothing but a feel-good piece of propaganda for the American masses trying to reconcile that useless war. And, by the response at the box office and the vitriolic posts and death threats on the Web to anyone criticizing the movie's historical errors, this movie and it's iconic "hero" is embraced by most Americans. I don't actually fault Chris Kyle for his account of HIS life as a Navy SEAL and won't be calling him a murderer because of his efficient dispatching of the enemy as a soldier - it is what soldiers do in war. He is a highly decorated combat veteran and his book was a best seller, as was this movie. American Sniper Billboard Graffiti I have written my own autobiografy of impressions of the world in my formative decades of the 1950s & '60s. (My military service was in an office, spying on commie radio comm). However, I have actually researched much of the stuff of those decades to put my personal interpretation in the context of historical reality. So, I fault the ppl who took this one man's personal account of the war and put it unedited on screen as the reality of our involvement in Iraq. It's sort of like D.W. Griffith's very popular 1915 movie "The Birth of a Nation," which was a very innovative, well-made and popular movie of the time but with major prejudicial flaws of history. The Birth of a Nation Movie Poster
American Sniper will be the third such movie that I passed on because of historical inaccuracies, which really bothers me when watching biopics and portrayals of actual events. Here is my account of the other two from an article in a nudist magazine in 2005 titled, "Bare Breasted Indians." It is said you should not judge a book by its cover. How about judging a movie by its trailer? There have been a couple of movies that I thought I would see, but upon seeing the trailer in advance of the movie, I found some glaring inaccuracy that just ruined it for me. One was the controversial Passion of the Christ. When I first read of this Mel Gibson project it was intriguing. A period movie in the languages that were spoken at the time. This gave me the idea that there was going to be an accurate portrayal of Jesus' life (as accurate as a possibly mythological person could be). Then I saw the trailer where they showed the Romans about to put a spike thru Jesus' hand, nailing him to the cross. That blew it, and I realized this was just another poorly researched Passion Play, no better than those popular in Medieval Christendom, but with better special effects. Passion of the Christ - Trailer Nailer Scene For those who don't know, despite what the scriptures say, Jesus was not nailed thru the hands. The Romans knew that this seemingly logical nail site would not work because the flesh tears away under weight and the victim's hands fall free. The nails were put between the ulna and radius bones in the wrist, which would hold a body until it was nothing more than a skeleton. Now, another historical movie is slated to come out at the end of 2005, one that I initially said was a must-see for me. The New World, starring Colin Farrell as Captain John Smith is about the settlement at Jamestown and the relationship with Pocahontas, Chief Powhatan's daughter. The visuals in the trailer were stunning, cinematography excellent but the costuming, though elegant, was historically inaccurate and again ruined the whole historical aspect of the movie. For you see, the very beautiful and striking Q'orianka Kilcher, who plays Pocahontas, is seen wearing a "Fredericks of Jamestown" halter top when she meets the strange hairy aliens. Pocahantas Wearing Fredericks of Jamestown Fashion Fact is, if the weather was warm enough to wear the halter top, there would have been no reason to wear it. Natives on this continent wore clothing to protect against the cold and were not corrupted into body shame as the Europeans, who would later bring that concept to them.
There are no 100% historically accurate movies. The goal is to try to understand the author's intent, not a literal interpretation. Kyle told the story from his own perspective, but it's an overall view of life in SEAL teams, sacrifice, and shows that our greatest soldiers (or sailor in this case) is just your average American who wants it bad enough. I don't understand why he fealt the need to exaggerate certain aspects of his career such as killing looters during Katrina or punching Jesse Ventura...he didn't need those stories to tell his story, but just goes to show that even "Super SEALs" have their own flaws and weaknesses.
I watched the movie, then read up on him What I wish they'd done was made the movie based on him, NOT his version of himself. Guy did sound like a pyschopath, all this crazy stuff after the war as well with Jesse ventura and others That would have made for a more interesting movie. It was a good movie anyway, it was a Clint movie, not going to not go see a Clint movie
