From paying home, but wanted to share here as well to get some thoughts. Although I can guess from you guys.
I think the very first movie I saved to my DVR was “Taking Chance.” Since then I recorded 7 seasons of the TV show Psych as well. I’ve watched every one of those episodes no less than 5 times, but Taking Chance remains locked in time on my DVR at about 3 minutes. I just can’t watch it. I tried, but couldn’t do it. Same with Lone Survivor (I was QRF at Bagram when that went down) even though I’ve been at events with Marcus on numerous occasions. Never seen RESTREPO either, despite knowing some of the guys. I even hung out with Josh Person (who like myself lives the lumberjack beard life) who some may remember from “Generation Kill” which (again) I’ve never seen.
And so it is with American Sniper for now anyway. Judging from my friends, coworkers, people in my church, and even Mike and Mike on ESPN from this morning (not to mention box office receipts) I guess I am pretty much an Army of One. Again, I would LOVE to see it, support it even, but I think it would probably make me a bit tense, and I have enough issues sleeping as it is. Some day if the wife takes a trip for a few days I may lock myself in the basement and watch them all back to back to back.
Nonetheless, I’ve been following everything on it, and it really is turning into a litmus test. This is from SCPR.org:
Clint Eastwood’s “American Sniper” is breaking box office records, but it’s also getting Americans to talk about how Hollywood portrays the military. We wanted to hear what people who have actually been to war think, so we sent Off-Ramp contributor Robert Garrova to his local American Legion – Post 280 in East Pasadena.
Erik Quiros served with the Unite States Army in Iraq. He says Hollywood’s portrayal of the military often mirrors society’s view of war.
“In this latest rendition of Chris Kyle and American Sniper I’ve been hearing that he’s an American hero. And people are saying things to the contrary and that kind of bothers me when I hear that.”
Quiros says he doesn’t really agree with pegging “American Sniper” as a propaganda film, as some have chosen to do. “It can’t be a propaganda film because it shows the negative consequences of being a veteran,” he says. “I feel that any movie that essentially shows a consequence to combat and to war really does a good job.”
Mark Castanon served 13 years in the active duty army, with two tours in Iraq and one tour in Afghanistan. “You gotta understand Hollywood,” he says. “Hollywood’s all about entertainment value, so I take what Hollywood puts out about the military with a grain of salt.”
Well, he’s not wrong (although some in Hollywood have been awesome that I will discuss below.) There have been some ABSURD war movies out there in the recent past. I don’t think I’ll ever forgive Tommy Lee Jones for “In the Valley of Elah” and every time I see Mark Cuban on TV all I can think of is him funding that asinine movie “Redacted”. I guess Hurt Locker was OK, although my friends said it had some ridiculous scene with an EOD guy running alone through the streets. Um. Yeah, that doesn’t happen.
Anyway, if you aren’t following the entire thing, the best place to get all of it is from Twitchy, which is admittedly a right-wing aggregator of Twitter, so they aren’t without their biases to be sure. Some are Hollywood, others just media people, but a sampling of the idiocy…
Michael Moore: My uncle killed by sniper in WW2. We were taught snipers were cowards. Will shoot u in the back. Snipers aren’t heroes. And invaders r worse
Alternet writer Max Blumenthal: I haven’t seen American Sniper, but correct me if I’m wrong: An occupier mows down faceless Iraqis but the real victim is his anguished soul
Seth Rogan (who is backtracking now) comparing it to a Nazi propaganda video: American Sniper kind of reminds me of the movie that’s showing in the third act of Inglorious Basterds.
Howard Dean: There is a lot of anger in this country, and the people who go see this movie are people who are very angry … I bet you if you looked at a cross-section of the Tea Party and people who go see this movie, there’s a lot of intersection.
Salon.com (always good for lunacy): Hey, #AmericanSniper fans: Questioning the Iraq War actually *is* patriotic.
There are tons more out there, and you can see some of them BY CLICKING HERE. I know Jesse Ventura said something as well, but I’m not even going there.
But, I do take issue with Mr Castanon in one small portion, there are some in Hollywood who are AWESOME about this. Obviously Gary Sinese always deserves mention. Kid Rock, James Woods and comedian Jim Gaffigan all came out swinging against those railing against the movie. I know Dean Cain has said some great things about the movie as well, and the aforementioned Mike and Mike were incredibly gracious this morning.
But by far my two favorite citiques of these clowns were from actual snipers.
First, Medal of Honor recipient Dakota Meyer:
I’m sure that his grandfather who died serving this country is rolling over in his grave knowing that his grandson is using him to justify him calling U.S. service men cowards. I’d be willing to bet that at some point during his grandfather’s service, he was watched over by U.S. snipers, and probably had his life saved more than once by U.S. snipers during the war.
I served as a Marine sniper for three years, and I believe the film American Sniper depicted what we do perfectly. A sniper’s primary goal is to eliminate ground threats for U.S. guys on the ground. Is that what a coward is? A person whose goal is to save the lives of his warrior brothers?
No, cowards are people who didn’t have the guts to serve, and are happy to sit back in a free and protected country and call our service members cowards. I find it funny that this Moore guy would only say this after Chris Kyle was killed. I’d have loved to see him say that to Chris’s face.
My ABSOLUTE favorite though was from this sniper named “Sikes”:
Good afternoon there sweetheart, I hope this finds you alive and well. You can thank our men and women of the armed forces for that, by the way, and that also includes us cowardly snipers….
It’s typical of “men” like you to criticize the intestinal fortitude, focus, discipline and patriotism of a sniper. It must stem from an inferiority complex or something. But hey, it’s okay cupcake. We snipers are thick skinned and the efforts of world class turds such as yourself to portray us in a negative light only makes us laugh. If you and I were in the same room, I’d throw you a smile and gently pat you on the head knowing you’re nothing more than a mouth breathing, Crisco sweating waste of space not even worthy of being in the presence of a sniper. It’s almost funny how people like you preach things like ‘acceptance’ and ‘not passing judgement’ or ‘labeling people’, but then are the first to do so when a person is in some way dissimilar from you.
Look, I wasn’t a sniper. It was only when they came out with the M68 red dot thing I could get expert. With an ACOG I could see stuff too. But with 20/400 eyesight, I was much more comfortable with my M203 grenade launcher. But knowing snipers were out there covering us was a GREAT thing. (Not as great as an A10 rolling over our heads, but I’ll not digress.)
Anyway, reports are that theaters are packed seeing this movie. I know a group from my church went to see it last weekend and they had to sit in the front row because it was packed everywhere else.
So, have you seen the movie yet? Are you going to? What was your reaction if you went, and if you didn’t is there a specific reason, or just not interested?
BTW: Not unrelated, I honestly wrote this entire thing while listening to this on repeat:
