Or maybe wanted to see a movie that wasn't about comic book heroes or
talking pandas.;-)
But for the record I like Eastwood's films so I'll probably watch this
one too.
On 05/21/2015 11:35 AM, Mike Dixon [email protected] [FairfieldLife]
wrote:
90.2 million dollars opening weekend. I guess somebody liked it.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*From:* "Michael Jackson [email protected] [FairfieldLife]"
<[email protected]>
*To:* "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
*Sent:* Thursday, May 21, 2015 1:24 PM
*Subject:* Re: [FairfieldLife] Eastwood Rise from the Sepulchre
Couldn't disagree more. All the politics and war this and that aside,
just considering the movie as a movie, the film is very poorly made.
The first 30 minutes or so of back story is trite, formulaic and
boringly predictable. From the point at which the protagonist, Chris
Kyle is shown beginning his Iraq tour the movie devolves into a
repetitive cycle of fight, kill, go home, fight with wife, go back to
Iraq, fight, kill, go home, fight with wife, and so on.
The first time I saw the two evil doers, the antagonists of the film,
I knew they and the situations the filmmakers were showing were made
up bullshit. Subsequent research into the differences between Kyle's
book and the film confirmed that.
Far from the film being great and it not being PC to say so, the film
makes a joke out of the Iraq war and turns the soldiers into
caricatures of the real men and women who served and serve there.
The reason the film is so popular is the kind of cult mentality we
have often discussed here on FFL, where a point of view is so
obsessively adhered to one cannot think or perceive reality clearly.
In this case the point of view is that all US soldiers are good and
whatever they do makes them heroes, and that the Iraqis are all evil
(which is pretty much what Kyle himself believed - read his book and
you'll see.)
This is absurd. I have known more than a few men and women who have
served in both the 1st Gulf war and the current conflict. What people
who think this film is fine fail to recognize is that a soldier can do
their job in combat, even become heroic at times and still be an ass
or even a criminal in their day to day life.
How do you think so many thousands of sexual assaults occur in the
military, especially in war zones every year? Combat soldier by day,
rapist by night. It happens all too frequently. About 20,000 cases a
year are actually reported and one estimate showed that only one in
five assaults get reported. Put that together and you have about
100,000 cases of sexual assault occurring in the military every year!
And this is being done by heroes???
I knew of one instance here in SC - the man, Army officer literally
died a hero, jumping on the grenade to save his buddies scenario and
man was he ever praised and lionized all over the place with the
Governor herself, and many state dignitaries praising this guy to high
heaven in any number of memorial services.
I have known his widow since she was born, and I know that her husband
before his death had been cheating on her. She found out and asked him
to stop and start being a husband and a father to their 3 year old and
5 year old. He refused and she began divorce proceedings. Part of her
angst was over the fact that while in Iraq, he was sending money that
should have gone to her and their kids to pay the mortgage to his
girlfriend here so she could buy a new truck.
After he was killed his wife discovered that after his last leave when
she told him to shape up or she would divorce him, not only did he
stop sending her any money at all, he took her name off his life
insurance policy and put his mother's name on it. She was a real honey
too. The mother came up to the widow at the freaking memorial service
and told her to her face in front of others that she (the mother)
would see to it that she (the wife) would not collect a penny in his
military benefits. Hero on the battlefield, ass in real life.
Many of the scenes in the movie were made up, fictional including the
butcher character and mustafa, the scene where Kyle's brother was
complaining on the tarmac and especially the scenes where Kyle was
shown getting tired and uncomfortable with what he was doing. That was
complete bullshit. Read his book. He states without question that he
loved killing and loved the war. He not only loved it, he said it was
fun more than once in the book. Anyone who thinks that war and killing
is fun is mentally unbalanced.
The fact that he himself was killed by another Iraq war vet is one of
the most telling things about his life and the movie barely mentions.
As one reviewer put it, they made a movie about a killing machine with
a heart of gold.
Which is bs too. If you read anything about the real Kyle it is
obvious that he was a self centered braggart and liar. The Jesse
Ventura incident - bs. The story of himself and two other SEALS
killing 30 looters in New Orleans from atop the Superdome - bs. And
his tale of killing two carjackers and the cops turning him loose when
they realized who he was - total bs.
If he had to fabricate such stories to make himself look good, how
accurate can his war record be? And before you go to squalling about
it, the kill record of the snipers rely a good deal on the testimony
of the snipers themselves. And none of the records are considered
official by the army. its just a bragging rights thing.
If you read the book, you will find some of the most telling aspects
of Kyle's mentality revolve around him competing with other US snipers
to see who would rack up the highest body count. When one of his
"competitors" gets close to surpassing his record, he talks about how
so many more insurgents suddenly began to appear in front of his
scope, heavily implying that he went out and killed whoever he had to
to keep up his record.
The truth is generally much more sordid than the Clint Eastwoods of
the world make it seem in their films and I guess all his years of TM
have finally caught up with him, cause his latest film is pitiful on
all levels.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*From:* "Mike Dixon [email protected] [FairfieldLife]"
<[email protected]>
*To:* "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
*Sent:* Thursday, May 21, 2015 1:04 PM
*Subject:* Re: [FairfieldLife] Eastwood Rise from the Sepulchre
Yeah, I watched it last night... again. It's a great film but it
isn't chic(sheik) or PC to admit it. Actually, it's fashionable among
libs to ridicule it. Got to get that Muslim vote! Of course American
Muslims hate it because they say it's anti-Muslim. Anti-Muslim because
it shows the greatest American sniper killing Terrorists( who happen
to be Muslims) in order to prevent the deaths of Marines taking
Fallujah and Sadr City in order to stabilize Iraq. I guess they wanted
him to talk the terrorists out of their attacks. Hmmm... all that
effort and all those lives and limbs for nothing. American Sniper got
good reviews in Baghdad with cheers for each kill from many in the
audience. However, it had to be closed down the first week due to
terroristic threats.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*From:* "Michael Jackson [email protected] [FairfieldLife]"
<[email protected]>
*To:* FairfieldLife <[email protected]>
*Sent:* Thursday, May 21, 2015 11:11 AM
*Subject:* [FairfieldLife] Eastwood Rise from the Sepulchre
Anyone see Dinosaur TM'er Clint's latest film?
I watched American Sniper last night and was duly unimpressed. The
worst film Eastwood has ever made and that includes such bombs as
Bronco Billy
