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Ford_Prefect

(7,822 posts)
23. I can't put into words how I feel beyond what I've said, not without getting banned here.
Mon Jan 19, 2015, 03:41 PM
Jan 2015

The reviewer below got it best IMHO.
http://www.examiner.com/review/american-sniper-review-destroying-the-hand-that-feeds

What you do once you are in a firefight has no relation what got you into it. They never asked why the war began or why so many people were dying in it. They put on their uniforms and went to kill the "ragheads".

It was the same in Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia, the same in Afghanistan. Is still the same in all the as yet un-named locations in Africa we are not allowed to know of or publish about.

The movie never asks how the war began nor invites you to consider that it did not need to happen in the first place. It doesn't dare ask why all those soldiers had to do the awful things that gave them terrible dreams. It only presents the war as a given, one of life's nightmares to be survived, ignoring the documented reality of Neo-Con plotting and a president's joyful duplicity.

IMHO it is one more step in the right wing deification of the warrior: a long-suffering grunt who nobly dies or keeps his buddies from dying in the process and equally noble, if terrible, and inevitable war. ***edit: I think the right wing is taking this film and using it to deify the war and those who fought in it. I don't get that from the director or the film itself. However it is easy to see how those who want it to be about the "heroic warrior" can get there.

The biggest propaganda coup is that a movie that celebrates fighting the wrong Baitball Blogger Jan 2015 #1
Have you watched it? Is it a celebration? Orrex Jan 2015 #2
I think it's a complex portrayal and it's arguably an anti-war film uhnope Jan 2015 #8
Really? daleanime Jan 2015 #10
spoiler alert! uhnope Jan 2015 #31
Thank you.... daleanime Jan 2015 #36
I kept into your spoiler alert underpants Jan 2015 #42
cool nt uhnope Jan 2015 #44
That can't be right Orrex Jan 2015 #45
Lots of people who have seen it... JackRiddler Jan 2015 #62
Thank you for summarizing, you've just changed my mind I think I will go see it after all. 2banon Jan 2015 #52
Thank god someone finally told us war is hell. JackRiddler Jan 2015 #65
I saw it, and agree with you October Jan 2015 #70
does it explain that the war was based on lies? that we invaded for no reason? Skittles Jan 2015 #60
Yes I saw the full trailer at a movie theater underpants Jan 2015 #25
Reviews are stating that it's getting military support. Baitball Blogger Jan 2015 #30
The movie doesn't matter. The propaganda matters. JackRiddler Jan 2015 #37
Ok, but is the movie a celebration, as claimed? Orrex Jan 2015 #39
The point is I don't care? JackRiddler Jan 2015 #41
I would be interested to see such films, if they were well made Orrex Jan 2015 #43
I hope you would also ask... JackRiddler Jan 2015 #47
It's probably worth asking why any film is made Orrex Jan 2015 #48
Poor thing. JackRiddler Jan 2015 #49
Well, I can see that you have nothing to contribute. Orrex Jan 2015 #55
Pure projection. JackRiddler Jan 2015 #56
BINGO Skittles Jan 2015 #59
I would not nominate a propaganda movie personally, but we live in an 'Empire now' airc being told. sabrina 1 Jan 2015 #69
The story that he shot a woman with a grenade in one hand and a toddler in the other is absurd Ash_F Jan 2015 #38
Ok, but is the movie a celebration, as claimed? Orrex Jan 2015 #40
Let's not judge Nazi propaganda films for their politics. JackRiddler Jan 2015 #57
I imagine that it's comforting to live with such a simplistic worldview Orrex Jan 2015 #64
Projection. JackRiddler Jan 2015 #66
Exactly !!! Ford_Prefect Jan 2015 #3
You've seen it? Orrex Jan 2015 #12
I can't put into words how I feel beyond what I've said, not without getting banned here. Ford_Prefect Jan 2015 #23
But that wasn't my question. Orrex Jan 2015 #26
Yes I saw it. Wish I had not but I wanted to see the view from the "other side". Ford_Prefect Jan 2015 #27
Thanks. (nt) Orrex Jan 2015 #29
That's fair Red Knight Jan 2015 #68
+100. Bait & switch indeed. ND-Dem Jan 2015 #33
No kidding it is? zeemike Jan 2015 #5
won't win MFM008 Jan 2015 #28
Glad he was snubbed. ND-Dem Jan 2015 #34
It will be close. JackRiddler Jan 2015 #67
My thoughts EXACTLY 2banon Jan 2015 #50
It's stunning that it made 103 million over the 4-day holiday yeoman6987 Jan 2015 #61
Probably also don't want to say . . FairWinds Jan 2015 #4
Or Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW.org) - nt KingCharlemagne Jan 2015 #6
I said two of the things you mention Go Vols Jan 2015 #7
Its kind of like the movie The Green Berets during the hight of the Vietnam war project_bluebook Jan 2015 #11
Don't also mention Clint was against going into Iraq. muntrv Jan 2015 #9
so he says now. any evidence of it from the period? ND-Dem Jan 2015 #35
Things TO say: "I'm an adult. It's just a movie. It's no big deal." nt Dreamer Tatum Jan 2015 #13
How about.... AlbertCat Jan 2015 #18
Yeah, there is that. HappyMe Jan 2015 #20
I read Kyle's book, and from the movie trailer it looks like they give him a lot more anguish tclambert Jan 2015 #14
Don't forget "Allahu Akbar!" Based on the film's ... 11 Bravo Jan 2015 #15
bad publicity is good publicity olddots Jan 2015 #16
"Why doesn't he just shoot at the ground and get rich like Jed Clampett?" Ed Suspicious Jan 2015 #17
First thing you know ole Jed's a millionaire lovemydog Jan 2015 #19
And he was just shootin' for some food. BumRushDaShow Jan 2015 #21
'n up from the ground comes a bubblin' crude lovemydog Jan 2015 #22
Oil that is. Black gold. Texas tea BumRushDaShow Jan 2015 #24
Or this... Tierra_y_Libertad Jan 2015 #32
Is this the sequal to "American Psycho"? n/t miyazaki Jan 2015 #46
Sadly not. JackRiddler Jan 2015 #51
"Soooo he couldn't find WMD either?" nuff said. madinmaryland Jan 2015 #53
"I give this movie 5 Lee Harveys!" Tom Ripley Jan 2015 #54
I will not see another movie made by an actor who Lint Head Jan 2015 #58
LOL at the Zimmerman comment. nt U4ikLefty Jan 2015 #63
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