I went to see the matinee and walked out before it was half over. I know that some people like it, but I don't know why.

Maybe I just don't like Clint Eastwood's war movies. I did like Gran Torino.

Anybody like American Sniper?

I think I shall go see it this weekend

I do want to see it, but will probably wait for PPV or DVD, and possibly wait until it just shows up on cable.

I do remember seeing the funeral procession and images of the funeral in the Cowboys stadium on the news when the incident happened.

I considered at the time what a point it made regarding our country's disgusting mistreatment of our vets.

I assume this was one of the themes of the movie, as a vet with PTSD killed another vet, at a shooting range. The story certainly made the point that the cost of war is much higher than dollars.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/20/2015 11:31PM by deco.

Clint's obviously on a roll after his epic interview with the chair.

I'm much obliged for your candor Don, since I generally share your values you have saved me the trouble.

I was going to mention the debate with the chair but thought Susan would smite me once again if I did so. *LOL*

An American President, Jan. 20, 2009. About 20 seconds into the Inaugural Address: "Forty-four Americans have now taken the Presidential Oath."

Real close, Sparky.

...graphically violent movies dealing with war or otherwise. Plus, with so many things to watch on TV already, and a 60" TV with surround sound, we rarely go out to movies anyway. The last movie we saw at a theater was "Jersey Boys," and that was only because I've been a huge Four Seasons fan since 1962. And THAT'S because I have six older sisters who played their records constantly. :-)

My son forced me to watch "Birdman" the other night. Like "2001: A Space Odyssey" which I saw in the theater when it came out, I'll probably spend the rest of my life wondering what "Birdman" was about.

I might watch "American Sniper" if it comes to cable, but I wouldn't go out of my way to. A couple of my relatives who have served in the military have opined that it was very good.

Not to get off topic, but I saw Birdman and I really didn't like it. I thought Micheal Keaton was really good but I thought the movie, as a whole, was very pretentious. I can't figure out why all the critics are falling all over themselves for this movie. And I will be very disappointed if it wins an Oscar. I thought the Theory of Everything was a much better movie.

Apologies for going even further off topic, but..

I also didn't completely get the film 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Then I read the book and it is all made perfectly clear!
You will enjoy the film much more after you have read the book..

I saw it...it was one of the last films to come in during the Oscar season (THE IMITATION GAME was THE last one to come in).

When I saw it, I knew it was based on a true story...but I had NO idea who this guy was---so I just "went" with the film...and it was okay, but not Academy Award material on any level in my opinion.

After I saw the film, I Googled the real life person...and learned that the actual story was quite a bit different (on a number of levels) from the American hero story portrayed in the film. I can see why Clint Eastwood wanted to do this story (the filmed story reflects quite well Eastwood's personal take on the relevant issues)...but I CANNOT see how he was able to get the money necessary (except that he is Clint Eastwood, and there may be many other productions in the pipeline that would have been affected if this film had NOT been financed the way Eastwood wanted it financed).

As filmed, it is a perfectly okay couple of hours...but be aware that what is NOT covered in the film is crucial to any real life understanding of who---and what---this person was. (The real life protagonist was killed, maybe/maybe not by "accident," at a stateside, civilian, shooting range, by a military veteran who was having post-military adjustment problems.)

The real life person who is depicted in this film may have done a number of heroic things on occasion, when he was on military duty far away in foreign lands, but the real life person was most definitely NOT someone to emulate---and if HE is to be believed, he was ALSO the real life murderer of a number of American citizens on American soil (something which is most definitely NOT mentioned in any way in the film).



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/21/2015 12:09AM by tevai.

There's always money for war propaganda.

Yup!!!

The story he told fellow SEALS was that he was sent by the U.S. government into New Orleans, after Katrina, to help restore order and protect innocents, by taking out armed looters. Kyle's claims are preposterous--that's probably why they didn't make it into the movie. From NOLA.com:

"Because he's a proved liar, we should be awfully skeptical about Kyle's claim that the U.S. government sent him into New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. They perched him atop the Superdome, he said, and it was from there that he picked off 30 looters in the city.

"A June 2014 Washington Post report about Kyle's 'unverifiable legacy' doesn't outright call the celebrated sniper a liar, but it nudges the reader toward that conclusion. After including a quote from one of Kyle's officers who said, 'I never heard that story,' the Washington Post writes, 'Does that mean it didn't happen? Who knows. It's certainly possible that Kyle... killed 30 armed assailants in New Orleans to protect its residents in Katrina's aftermath. But it's also possible Kyle couldn't let go of his own legend, and, in a haze of post-traumatic stress, let his tales veer into untruth.'"

http://www.nola.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2015/01/the_american_snipers_preposter.html


Flawed, yes. But telling tall tales isn't quite homicide.

...and very hard to believe, because a) it would have been illegal for a federal military guy to kill civilians, and b) if it was true, Kyle would not have breathed a word of it, because he and whichever superior authorized it would have been prosecuted.

Not to mention that the liberal media would have excoriated the Bush administration even more than they did over Katrina. There were already ridiculous assertions like "Bush ordered the levees to be blown up so black people would drown".

If this is true, its disgusting!!!

tevai Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> the American hero story portrayed in the film. I
> can see why Clint Eastwood wanted to do this story
> (the filmed story reflects quite well Eastwood's
> personal take on the relevant issues)...but I
> CANNOT see how he was able to get the money
> necessary (except that he is Clint Eastwood, and
> there may be many other productions in the
> pipeline that would have been affected if this
> film had NOT been financed the way Eastwood wanted
> it financed).

I watched the credits, Bradley Cooper was cited as the producer, that means he put up the money. THAT is how the film was financed. I am not agreeing or disagreeing with the message of the content at this point. The movie did have qualities that the academy will appreciate, regardless of the accuracy of the story.

smirkorama Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I watched the credits, Bradley Cooper was cited as
> the producer, that means he put up the money. THAT
> is how the film was financed. I am not agreeing or
> disagreeing with the message of the content at
> this point. The movie did have qualities that the
> academy will appreciate, regardless of the
> accuracy of the story.

No, that's not the way it works [except in very rare circumstances which HAVE happened---but this is not one of those situations].

Bradley Cooper got a production CREDIT---which is a way to get extra money, and---perhaps---some things he wanted in the script, etc.

According to www.metacritic.com, there are twelve producers credited for AMERICAN SNIPER: Andrew Lazar (Producer)...Bradley Cooper (Producer)...Bruce Berman (Executive Producer)...Clint Eastwood (Producer)...Jason Dean Hall (Executive Producer)...Jason Hall [SEPARATE CREDIT, IN ADDITION TO "JASON DEAN HALL"] (Executive Producer)...Jessica Meier (Associate Producer)...Peter Morgan (Producer)...Robert Lorenz (Producer)...Sheroum Kim (Executive Producer)...Tim Moore (Executive Producer)...Zakaria Alaoui (Line Producer, Morocco).

The production company is Malpaso Productions (which is Clint Eastwood's personal production company)---and, of course, it is a Warner Bros. film. (Additional production companies listed in the credits in the Wikipedia article on the film are: Village Roadshow Productions...Mad Chance Productions...22nd & Indiana Pictures...in addition to Malpaso.)

The budget listed in the Wikipedia article is $58.8 million dollars (which may or may not be in the ballpark of the actual money spent making and distributing this film; "for the public" budget figures can often be considerably different than what the actual budget was, or turned out to be).

However...as it turns out, although some of the film was filmed in Morocco, most of it was filmed in Santa Clarita, California (Blue Cloud Movie Ranch area)...El Centro, California...Culver City, California...Los Angeles, California...and Marina del Rey, California---so: Southern California and Morocco.

The film did receive six Academy Award nominations (including Best Picture...Best Adapted Screenplay...and Best Actor for Bradley Cooper).

Bradley Cooper is highly unlikely to have put one cent of his own money into this production



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/21/2015 04:04PM by tevai.

I liked it. What about it did you not like?

I found the lead character boring, and I did not like the way he had his sons call him sir. I have a personal problem with that, so I can see how it wouldn't bother everyone. When I ran out of popcorn, it just seemed pointless.

"I did not like the way he had his sons call him sir. I have a personal problem with that, so I can see how it wouldn't bother everyone."

He was from Texas. In the south, calling your elders, or your father, or your superior "sir" is a normal cultural thing. Even more so for military guys. And for ladies, it's "ma'am."

"When I ran out of popcorn, it just seemed pointless."

Sounds like you should have gone for the endless bucket. :-)

He wasn't the lead character. Those scenes were from when Chris Kyle was a young boy growing up.

I thought it was a fantastic movie, and Bradley Cooper's performance was amazing. You could have heard a pin drop in the theater as the movie ended--people were that caught up in it. While no movie gets everything correct, and some things certainly may have been dramatized, it was nice to see something actually worth watching come out of Hollywood. I came away having more respect for anyone who serves their country like this, and that we as a nation need to take better care of our veterans and their families.

If you're referring to my post, I said that it is a perfectly okay couple of hours.

I don't think it deserves Academy Award nominations...do YOU??? (And, if so, in what categories would you nominate, or vote for, this film???)

I also said that the actual, real life, person the role of the protagonist was based upon was, at best (and according to HIS OWN words), an EXTREMELY flawed human being---someone who deserved (by his own words) to be prosecuted for multiple murders of American citizens after he returned to civilian life.

As a film, I liked it okay. It was interesting...and it gave a look into some places and areas that I knew very little about.

It just portrayed a "real life" person who actually---in critical areas---wasn't as portrayed except, perhaps, in certain restricted areas of real life facts (like the number of confirmed kills he was credited with by the military when he was serving overseas).

My husband and son plan to see it tomorrow.

Me? Nuh-uh. I was invited, but I don't like blood and guts movies. (I may watch a favorite DVD while the "boys" are gone!)

You're right, sportsguy. I got that wrong. It was the character's father who put the belt on the table. And if that's Texas culture, to hell with Texas.

By the way, I did have a refillable popcorn, but I didn't find the movie worth another trip to the snack bar.

In reflection I wonder if Eastwood was just trying to show us what a lousy boorish mess that war was--a meat grinder for dumb guys. If so, the boring part of it was too effective for me.

I liked American Sniper and thought it deserved to be one of the top ten movies of the year. I thought Bradley Cooper did a great job as did Sienna Miller. I was not aware that Chris Kyle was dead (thought he was still alive), so the ending choked me up a little.

I can't say it is the best movie nominated (I have not seen all of the nominated films yet), and I liked The Imitation Game a little better.

I have to wonder why Chris Kyle thought that taking a guy to a gun range that has PTSD would help him? That makes no sense to me. Chad Littlefield was also killed at the gun range but Kyle gets almost all the attention.

Jesse Ventura won a lawsuit against Kyle for defamamation. The jury awarded Ventura extra for unjust enrichment. Basically the court felt that Kyle profited from what he said/did.

Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2014/07/29/jesse-ventura-wins-1-8-million-in-damages-against-chris-kyle-slain-navy-seal-sniper/

I personally think that Kyle's widow is taking it all to the bank. She has her own book coming out in May. I'm sure she'll profit from the film and any further proceeds from Kyle's book.

I was once told that military snipers should not brag about the number of kills. Kyle obviously did. All the hype over him and the funeral at Texas stadium was a bit much. There are many vets that were much more heroic and paid with their lives on the battlefield. Kyle died because he was arrogant enough to think he could help the person with PTSD at a gun range. As far as I know Kyle is not trained as a mental health professional.

I agree. I thought you weren't suppossed to talk about that stuff. Who was the last great sniper before this guy? Some random person who didn't need people to know.

Well, the greatest sniper of all time is well known. The story of Simo Hayha is really interesting:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simo_H%C3%A4yh%C3%A4

"I was once told that military snipers should not brag about the number of kills."

Yep, and the same goes for the guy who shot Bin Laden, and is going around making a buck off of it.

I've always thought that those kinds of people---like secret agents---should keep their exploits to themselves. That's where the term "unsung hero" comes in. They diminish their exploits by publicizing them.

I'm reminded of the 1965 movie "Operation Crossbow," where a team of Allied secret agents (George Peppard, Trevor Howard, John Mills, etc.,) infiltrated a Nazi V-2 rocket launching site and blew it up. All of the secret agents were killed in the bombing. The last scene was the audio of Churchill making a speech wherein he praised the work of such agents "whose names the world will never know."

Its horrible!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKuym66LIr4\

The book of the same title, by James Bradley and Ron Powers, was TONS better.

http://www.amazon.com/Flags-Fathers-Movie-Tie-Edition/dp/0553589342

_____


IMO, some of Eastwood's directive efforts tend to grind.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/21/2015 03:10AM by steve benson.

No doubt it promotes jingoism.

Based on the reviews I don't think I'll like it very much.
I liked "restrepo" which is a war documentary shot by sebastian junger and I-cant-think-of-the-other-guy. Very real.

THis might piss some people off but American Sniper just comes off as propoganda to me. It really, reallly does. I'm not saying the story isn't true or that he's a "murderer" as some suggest. I'm sure the man was a great guy. I really respect the kind of generosity that motivates people to serve the country but American Sniper really does just seem like a bunch of propoganda.