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It's unfortunate that those who have a genuine and legitimate concern (and unfavorable opinion of) both the movie and Chris Kyle, are being mercilessly attacked politically (liberal losers, America haters, etc. etc.).
Several things were changed in the movie from the book and the real Chris Kyle as a person. The movie portrays Chris as someone that at first is motivated by patriotic reasons, that he killed the 'savages' because he was protecting lives. Yet there was no bluster, no bravado or bragging, in the Kyle character. Which seems different from the real life Kyle, who seemed to relish in what he did. Not judging either way but clearly the movie 'softened' the Kyle character from the book in order to, I don't know, maybe make him seem less controversial and more an 'honorable' person?
The scenes with the guy with the drill didn't happen, as well as many other scenes (the entire dinner table sequence in Iraq as well as the final rooftop sequence, among others). I thought "Lone Survivor" was bad about fabricating scenes.
And the thing is, quite a few audiences seem to be taking as literal truth what is shown throughout the movie.
He may have been very good at what he did but to me this guy was not worth making a movie about. Sounded like a genuine a*shole from what I've been able to gather about the kind of guy he really was, if you want my honest opinion. And the way he died is/was just bizarre enough to be suspicious.
He may have been very good at what he did but to me this guy was not worth making a movie about. Sounded like a genuine a*shole from what I've been able to gather about the kind of guy he really was, if you want my honest opinion. And the way he died is/was just bizarre enough to be suspicious.
At first I liked the movie for what it appeared to be, for me at least, the biography of a SEAL sniper, his experiences in Iraq, and how he dealt with it personally.
Then I realized that quite a bit of the movie was completely untrue and fictionalized. So a part of me felt used and gypped, manipulated by a movie that wasn't even true to the source material and the man it's based on.
Remember Argo and Lone Survivor? I didn't like those two movies either, because of the embellishments and outright fabrications from the true story. It's as if the film makers had so little faith in the intelligence of the movie going public, that they had to throw in action/suspense sequences in order to keep them interested.
I have no bad opinions of Chris Kyle, the REAL Kyle, not the one in the movie. Even with some of the controversial statements he made in regards to what he did and his views in general. Maybe it's because of my ties to the military. Chris did what he had to do, and people like him who strive for and succeed in special operations roles earn my highest respect. I know how much suffering those guys endure just to earn the right to wear the Trident or any of the other tabs. These guys do a lot of hairy stuff around the world we don't know about.
But the movie itself, I can like it as a movie with some intense war action sequences, and a little bit of how some people deal with what they experienced in war, but I can't like it as a movie that purports to tell a true story about one particular individual
This movie and several others nominated for Oscars and other awards and movies NOT that high a profile or quality have used historical personages/events yet not been accurate to acknowledged historical facts--
Eastwood's movie was not even half-way true about Chris Kyle's two main "enemies" in this movie which were invented out of the writer's imagination--whether to create tension/conflict that was much easier for the audience to understand and sympathize with or to lend justification and minimize the real conflict about why Americans were fighting civilians in their home countries after they had done nothing to attack us--
REALLY HAD NOT!!
Selma and The Imitation Game are just two of the movies that come to mind as cloaking their agenda with the "truth" of history--which wasn't there....
To me that choice indicates a filmmaker who definitely has a personal agenda and a personal agenda that needs the manipulation of history to make credible or successful...that is propaganda--not movie making...
and that is why I think this film "American Sniper" is especially dangerous -- because so many people in the US still want to believe that our government didn't lie to us, that military members and their familes weren't torn apart and used to promulgate gov't lies at their personal sacrifice---
and likely they will refuse to believe the truth for decades...
there are some truths that are too painful to believe...
so ask yourself--if you liked this movie so much and think Chris Kyle was such a hero--why did Eastwood spend most of the movie showing us a Chris Kyle that didn't exist????
To me that choice indicates a filmmaker who definitely has a personal agenda and a personal agenda that needs the manipulation of history to make credible or successful...that is propaganda--not movie making...
and that is why I think this film "American Sniper" is especially dangerous -- because so many people in the US still want to believe that our government didn't lie to us, that military members and their familes weren't torn apart and used to promulgate gov't lies at their personal sacrifice---
and likely they will refuse to believe the truth for decades...
there are some truths that are too painful to believe...
so ask yourself--if you liked this movie so much and think Chris Kyle was such a hero--why did Eastwood spend most of the movie showing us a Chris Kyle that didn't exist????
Actually, Eastwood himself said American Sniper was an anti war film.
And as mentioned multiple times in this thread, the movie was made such that it could actually be considered an anti Iraq war film also.
So again, how one views this movie is a reflection of their own beliefs
Eastwood can say what he likes--but most people who see this movie go because they condone the war and the politicians who created it--and don't view this as an anti-war movie at all...
I saw the movie and think it is too easy to claim it is anti-war while ignoring the overall tone which totally condones what Kyle is supposed to have done (although much of movie's events are fiction) and questions none of the reasons America was there with any credibility---
Kyle's wife doesn't want him to go for personal reasons--not for any moral reservations...
Eastwood gets it both ways--big boxoffice from people who go because they supported the war and the "moral" lable that it is anti-war....if it was so anti-war Michael Moore and other liberals would not be so reactionary...
It does get old, all these "historical" movies that are mostly made up or at least full of fabrications. Selma and American Sniper are just two of the newest. They should have to advertise these movies as works of fiction. It's sad, but much of the public seems to think that they are real stories. Of course, many of the same people think that pro wrestling is real, too.
It does get old, all these "historical" movies that are mostly made up or at least full of fabrications. Selma and American Sniper are just two of the newest. They should have to advertise these movies as works of fiction. It's sad, but much of the public seems to think that they are real stories. Of course, many of the same people think that pro wrestling is real, too.
"Eastwood gets it both ways--big boxoffice from people who go because they supported the war and the "moral" lable that it is anti-war....if it was so anti-war Michael Moore and other liberals would not be so reactionary"
Perhaps then Mr. Eastwood indeed has introduced 'grays' into that storied piece of American military history? And if he's done that he perhaps can't be accused of producing so-called 'propaganda'. He then is simply asking his viewers to think and not be told how to think.
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