All the partisan crap about 'American Sniper'.

So I went to go see the movie, American Sniper, today. Know what I found out ?? The far left and the far right are too blinded by their politics to see what the movie is. Their rhetoric is thick. People on both sides of the political isle either praising or vilifying the movie .. and they haven't even seen it or they only see what they want ...

1 - It's NOT a war movie. Not even close. In fact, at points in the movie I thought I was watching a 'chick flick'. It was mostly about emotions.

2 - It's NOT a propaganda movie. Not even close. In fact, after watching it, I think it will probably turn a lot of people off to signing up. They'll see the severe emotional and physical toll that war takes out on people. This movie did NOT glamorize war and did NOT glamorize shooting people. The horrors of PTSD and missing limbs and blindness and all that were very clear and very real.

3 - The movie did NOT say that we went into Iraq because of 9/11. That was posted at ATS earlier and it simply is not true.

4 - Eastwood (the director) did a good job showing how difficult the transition is from war to 'regular life' to war to 'regular life'. It was a jarring transition for the audience each time Kyle went back and forth.

5 - The far right is saying it's a fantastic movie. I thought it was rather slow and overall I'd give it a 'B'. It's the kind of movie I'd see one time. It was okay once but I wouldn't bother with it again. (unlike entertaining movies like The Godfather or Avengers that can be watched over and over)

6- The only part of the movie that I thought was really moving was the ending. At the end, while the credits are rolling, you are at the real funeral of Kyle. The person you just spent two hours with in such intense situations is dead. The movie ends in silence. You've basically been to his funeral. The theatre was full and everyone got up and left in silence as fitting for leaving a funeral. I've never been at a movie where people have done that before.

The left and the right need to get a grip over this. The movie was good but not fantastic .. and the movie was absolutely not the monster that the left is trying to make it out to be.

I thought about putting this in the movie review section but then I thought it would be better in RANT. My rant with this movie is that people need to leave their partisan BS behind and plug their brains back in. This is JUST A MOVIE. Go see it before you decide if you like it or dislike it, and for crying out loud don't go saying it's something that it's not.

It's just a movie.
Rant over.

100% agree with you. Im so sick of the agendas that have no place in our society.

a reply to: FlyersFan

spot on review...exactly how i felt

Much of the criticism seemed reflexive and were from persons and organizations that simply oppose a war started by the other party. Many of those critics had not seen the movie and when they did they had to back peddle from the positions they took in ignorance. This comprises my observation within the limits of my ability to communicate them.

a reply to: FlyersFan

I posted something similar to what you wrote (but not nearly as detailed or in depth) in the thread that was just reopened today.

It certainly is not a war-glorifying picture in much the same was Hurt Locker was not one nor was it a saccharine-y patriotic indoctrination film.

Disappointingly, people like to take their political disputes everywhere, and it does no one any good. Sure, we're all going to have political differences, but i find the constant arguing and bull# between both sides to be immature. It plummets even further when the disputes focus around unimportant pieces of entertainment or art.

I read a few reviews of it today and they said similarly & differently...


Which is how it usually goes with Movie Reviews...

It's subjective to the viewers perspective...


Little nuances either side will miss.

a reply to: FlyersFan

I agree, its only a movie. I'll also add that this scene with the baby where you can clearly see its a dead doll is very funny. A+ for special effects.

Thanks for this FF. I haven't seen the movie but caught bits of trailers and thought "nice another Rah Rah 'Murica" kill the bad guys propaganda piece. From what you've posted it apparently has a bit more depth than that.

Guess I'll have to check it out when it's released to small screen simply because I can't sit in a theater for 2 hours straight.

originally posted by: MrMaybeNot
scene with the baby where you can clearly see its a dead doll is very funny.

Yeah ... my husband and I both noticed that. I thought I was watching a scene from Young and Restless ... fake baby. Emotionally serious scene but the fake baby was kinda funny.

originally posted by: Kukri
Guess I'll have to check it out when it's released to small screen simply because I can't sit in a theater for 2 hours straight.

We sat through almost 25 minutes of previews for sucky movies before we even got to the movie. And then the movie itself was rather slow. I kept looking at my phone to see what time it was. I know that it was slow because the focus of the film was the emotions and the slow parts were establishing emotions and relationships, and that was important for the theme of the movie, but for me it wasn't entertaining.

As for the 'rah rah rah America' stuff ... the film goes into the camaraderie of those who serve together and the motivation for them being in 'the teams' is 'love of country'. That goes to the emotion stuff that the whole film seemed to lean towards. But no .. there wasn't any 'We're #1, We're #1 .. come sign up for war' kind of stuff.

a reply to: FlyersFan

I thought it was a great movie and what happened to the dude at the end just goes to show nobody's invincible and trust is most definitely a double edged sword.

originally posted by: Kukri
thought "nice another Rah Rah 'Murica" kill the bad guys propaganda piece.

Director Clint Eastwood calls this an 'anti-war' movie. Read Here

a reply to: FlyersFan

Perfect reasons for "altnet" to be banned as a source for an ATS thread...just leftist propaganda.

a reply to: FlyersFan

if you can look at it again, you'll notice that when he's holding the baby he moves his thumb up and down under the doll hand to make it seem alive. made me chuckle

Read your review again, and consider what this movie made you feel. What it showed you, and then reconsider whether or not it was a fantastic movie. Movies can be fantastic for more reasons than sheer entertainment. It was meant to make you feel what you felt and show you those transitions. I'd say it succeeded.

It's not necessarily meant to entertain as much as it is to tell your a story in a way that makes you walk in this man's shoes. If it did that and made you live it with him ... then it is fantastic at what it was supposed to do. There are entertainment films and there are art films. Which one do you think this was supposed to be?

There is no "fair" in "fight", if your opponent shows a weakness, exploit it full tilt.

American Sniper was one of the better crafted movies I've seen lately. The story had purpose and quickly got you emotionally invested. It took you on a very realistic journey of a man's life in a very difficult situation. You understood his morals and the problems he faced with them because of his actions. The movie flowed very well and purposefully changed flow to help you understand what the character was facing.

All in all a very carefully crafted movie that will be watched many times I'm sure.

The baby scene makes me wonder, because Eastwood is clearly very experienced and put the scene in the movie. I highly doubt it was simply 'the best we can do' in such a big budget movie. I personally think he was making a statement about the connection between father and baby. Eastwood was trying to convey the fact that he is so far away from being present the baby could be a plastic doll and he wouldn't notice.

There is no doubt it was a statement by Eastwood. The scene was so obviously poor and not realistic whatsoever.

a reply to: noeltrotsky

I heard that they had 2 babies on cast. First one had fever and couldn't do the scene, second one didn't show up. Someone on working on the set quoted Clint "Bring me a baby doll NOW!".