# Who else isn't watching American Sniper? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 19, 2015, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-isnt-watching-american-sniper/710252 "2015-01-19T03:48:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2015, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-isnt-watching-american-sniper/710252/1 "2015-01-19T03:48:27Z")
Clint Eastwood masturbating the flag and making a mass killer into Captain America. Captain America would puke. And the guy himself, mass killing and writing a book about it and pretending he’s not stealth bragging about being a mass killer. He’s so self-important he feels just fine telling God what God should think. I imagine if God had a problem with the killing, he’d pop God’s ass. Wonder how that worked out? I’d like to watch Bradley Cooper’s performance, but I can’t bring myself to pay money for this movie. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2015, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-isnt-watching-american-sniper/710252/2 "2015-01-19T03:58:08Z")
I haven’t seen it yet, but your description doesn’t seem to match the movie synopsis. ---
**Author:** ![actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/actualliberalnotoneofthose)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2015, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-isnt-watching-american-sniper/710252/3 "2015-01-19T04:01:28Z")
Well, I haven’t paid to see a non-kid’s movie in about a decade. So probably not. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2015, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-isnt-watching-american-sniper/710252/4 "2015-01-19T04:08:44Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > I haven’t seen it yet, but your description doesn’t seem to match the movie synopsis. Here’s the Rotten Tomatoes synopsis: > [@](#): > > From director Clint Eastwood comes “American Sniper,” starring Bradley Cooper as Chris Kyle, the most lethal sniper in U.S. military history. But there was much more to this true American hero than his skill with a rifle. U.S. Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle is sent to Iraq with only one mission: to protect his brothers-in-arms. His pinpoint accuracy saves countless lives on the battlefield and, as stories of his courageous exploits spread, he earns the nickname “Legend.” However, his reputation is also growing behind enemy lines, putting a price on his head and making him a prime target of insurgents. Despite the danger, as well as the toll on his family at home, Chris serves through four harrowing tours of duty in Iraq, becoming emblematic of the SEAL creed to “leave no man behind.” But upon returning home, Chris finds that it is the war he can’t leave behind. (C) Warner Bros ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2015, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-isnt-watching-american-sniper/710252/5 "2015-01-19T04:10:58Z")
Has anyone seen it and can report back? ---
**Author:** ![Brynda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Brynda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brynda)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2015, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-isnt-watching-american-sniper/710252/6 "2015-01-19T04:17:08Z")
Great article about American Sniper:[The real American Sniper was a hate-filled killer. Why are simplistic patriots treating him as a hero? | Lindy West | The Guardian](http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jan/06/real-american-sniper-hate-filled-killer-why-patriots-calling-hero-chris-kyle) I saw it today. It isn’t an old-school war movie, but it isn’t complex, either. ---
**Author:** ![Poysyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2015, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-isnt-watching-american-sniper/710252/7 "2015-01-19T04:27:13Z")
The book was excellent, and didn’t paint Chris Kyle as a hero or a Sniper God - he himself states quite clearly many of his shots (including the record-breaker) were a lot of luck. In the book. I liked how they tackled the issues that many military members have with balancing love for their family with loyalty to their country and fellow brothers/sisters in uniform. I hope they demonstrate this struggle in the movie. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2015, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-isnt-watching-american-sniper/710252/8 "2015-01-19T04:39:59Z")
I reckon this is one of those works for which what you come away with has a lot to do with what you go in with. [The military biopic rejects patriotic pablum to explore war’s uncomfortable moral complexities.](http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/01/beyond-support-our-troops-the-admirable-complexities-of-american-sniper/384574/) [The wife of a famed Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle, says Bradley Cooper accurately portrayed her husband, including his moral struggles.](http://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Movies/2015/0114/American-Sniper-widow-says-Bradley-Cooper-got-it-right-down-to-the-facial-tic) [Clint Eastwood’s Walking Wounded: From ‘Dirty Harry’ to ‘American Sniper’](http://variety.com/2015/film/columns/clint-eastwoods-walking-wounded-from-dirty-harry-to-american-sniper-1201392603/) (link contains spoiler): > [@](#): > > … some members of the audience applauded [a target’s] demise, while others visibly shuddered, and it is to the film’s credit that it allows for both reactions. Chris Kyle saw the world in clearly demarcated terms of good and evil … But Eastwood (and his screenwriter, Jason Hall) sees only shades of gray. Repeatedly, he shows us ordinary Iraqis caught in the crossfire of the war … the movie’s nominal bogeyman, is shown to be Kyle’s doppelganger … That last bit recalled to me [this piece](http://www.newrepublic.com/article/113334/if-chris-kyle-had-been-muslim-wed-call-him-extremist), which imagined Kyle’s doppelganger, before the movie was made: > [@](#): > > …a young Muslim from the Islamic world joins his country’s armed forces to fight an aggressive war against an overwhelmingly Christian nation. He gains accolades for his work as a sniper, executing his job with ruthless efficiency and little remorse. He admits to viewing the war he is fighting through the prism of religion. He gets a tattoo on his arm declaring that he embraces the concept of holy war. … After shooting someone whose widow claims he was holding a Bible rather than a gun, he answers, “I don’t shoot people with Bibles. I’d like to, but I don’t.” > > How would this person be described when his story was recounted in the western press? That’s easy: He’d be described as an Islamic fundamentalist—aggressive, dangerous, and intent on evil. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2015, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-isnt-watching-american-sniper/710252/9 "2015-01-19T05:00:02Z")
The review I saw said that Cooper does an outstanding job, but that “Eastwood took the book’s story and hammered it flat.” Doesn’t sound good to me, so I’ll likely wait until it’s free on cable. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2015, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-isnt-watching-american-sniper/710252/10 "2015-01-19T05:11:48Z")
> [@levdrakon](#): > > Clint Eastwood masturbating the flag and making a mass killer into Captain America. > [@Peremensoe](#): > > I reckon this is one of those works for which what you come away with has a lot to do with what you go in with. Seems to be. - Clint Eastwood has made a sneaky, complicated film that takes the form of a rousing war movie but whose ideas are almost subversive, or at least too provocative to state overtly.\* From [here](http://www.sfgate.com/movies/article/American-Sniper-review-A-sly-war-film-from-6016035.php). So sly, subversive film or grandstanding fantasy - take your pick :). ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2015, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-isnt-watching-american-sniper/710252/11 "2015-01-19T05:21:18Z")
Is Eastwood capable of subversive? I doubt it, unless what you mean by “subversive” is America has gotten too liberal and we need to sneak in more flag masturbating. ---
**Author:** ![magnusblitz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@magnusblitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magnusblitz)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2015, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-isnt-watching-american-sniper/710252/12 "2015-01-19T05:48:57Z")
Reviews I’ve seen have said it’s bit underwhelming, some good spots but also lots of flat scenes. Overrated and didn’t deserve an Oscar nod. Also, apparently in the scenes with the baby, Cooper is very obviously holding a plastic doll. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2015, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-isnt-watching-american-sniper/710252/13 "2015-01-19T05:54:36Z")
Have you ever seen any of the movies Eastwood has directed? Unforgiven? Million Dollar Baby, Gran Torino? Mystic River? Flags of our Fathers, Letters from Iwo Jima? Most of the movies he’s directed, especially the later ones tend to be, for lack of a better word, morally complex, with characters who are morally or emotionally conflicted. He doesn’t tend to go for “flag masturbating”. I mean, look at Flags of our Fathers, which is literally about the Marines who raised the flag on Iwo Jima. But it’s not a pure rah rah patriotic story. I mean, it’s mostly about Ira Hayes, and a lot of the story is about his being idolized as an all-American hero and sent around to sell war bonds while at the same time dealing with the discrimination he faces for being Native American, as well as his own PTSD and guilt over his actions on Iwo. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2015, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-isnt-watching-american-sniper/710252/14 "2015-01-19T05:59:27Z")
A sniper’s most important role is providing support cover for our troops. There are literally thousands of our men that returned home safely because of skilled American snipers. I suggest reading a couple books on snipers. Kyle’s is very good. I’m currently reading Nick ‘Irv’ Irving’s book The Reaper. He’s a former Former Army Ranger that had 33 kills in Iraq. > **[Amazon.com: The Reaper: Autobiography of One of the Deadliest Special Ops...](https://www.amazon.com/Reaper-Autobiography-Deadliest-Special-Snipers/dp/1250080606)** > > Amazon.com: The Reaper: Autobiography of One of the Deadliest Special Ops Snipers: 9781250080608: Irving, Nicholas, Brozek, Gary: Books I plan to see American Sniper this week. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2015, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-isnt-watching-american-sniper/710252/15 "2015-01-19T06:11:00Z")
The OP is describing the early Clint Eastwood movies. I think his movies have gotten far more interesting and complex as he’s aged. _Gran Torino_ came almost full circle from his early film – his character is clearly a metaphor as (cranky) Jesus – he confronts his enemies unarmed, throws out is arms in what amounts to a crucifixion and gets shot down in a manner calculated to protect his innocent children. I don’t want to see him at a political convention again, but I’ll happily watch his flicks. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2015, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-isnt-watching-american-sniper/710252/16 "2015-01-19T06:12:35Z")
Eastwood is an interesting person. He does indeed make morally complex films but at times he comes off as right-wing. An example would be his empty chair performance criticizing President Obama. [He’s described himself as Libertarian](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_life_of_Clint_Eastwood) which I guess explains things as well as anything. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2015, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-isnt-watching-american-sniper/710252/17 "2015-01-19T06:20:27Z")
I will see it at some point in the next month because it’s the only Oscar-nominated film I haven’t seen (for Best Picture that is. There are 4 films that got acting nominations I haven’t seen, but I’m seeing two of the them in the next couple of days). I’m not looking forward to it and to be honest will probably pay for something else. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2015, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-isnt-watching-american-sniper/710252/18 "2015-01-19T10:31:19Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > A sniper’s most important role is providing support cover for our troops. There are literally thousands of our men that returned home safely because of skilled American snipers. > > I suggest reading a couple books on snipers. Kyle’s is very good. I’m currently reading Nick ‘Irv’ Irving’s book The Reaper. He’s a former Former Army Ranger that had 33 kills in Iraq. > [Amazon.com: The Reaper: Autobiography of One of the Deadliest Special Ops Snipers: 0884134855237: Irving, Nicholas, Brozek, Gary: Books](http://www.amazon.com/Reaper-Autobiography-Deadliest-Special-Snipers/dp/1250045444/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1421647012&sr=8-1&keywords=the+reaper) > > I plan to see American Sniper this week. A sniper’s least important role his whoring himself out as “I killed more mooks than anyone! Hoo rah! Pay me! Movie rights here I come!” ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2015, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-isnt-watching-american-sniper/710252/19 "2015-01-19T12:03:49Z")
Yeah, he should have known that when we send our guys to war, they should kill only 1 or 2 of the enemy. Then come home and STFU. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2015, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-isnt-watching-american-sniper/710252/20 "2015-01-19T12:37:23Z")
> [@levdrakon](#): > > Is Eastwood capable of subversive? I doubt it, unless what you mean by “subversive” is America has gotten too liberal and we need to sneak in more flag masturbating. I take it you haven’t seen any movies that Eastwood has directed. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-isnt-watching-american-sniper/710252.md?page=2)