islandclaws

I enjoyed this film despite having to take it with one giant grain of salt. I understand Kyle was far from a perfect man, and the film's decision to portray him as the quintessential American outlaw was almost laughable. I don't think anyone would have faulted Eastwood for showing he was just another human, albeit with a certain talent.

Sienna Miller overacted the shit out of her part half the time.

All of the rampant heroism and enemy sniper storyline made it feel like the cinematic propaganda it is. I'm not complaining too much because I like seeing some great 'Murica action as much as anyone else watching, but it all felt like too much at times.

Cooper was good, but I've rarely felt like he's great. None of his Oscar nominated performances has floored me.

Loved ending it with real footage scored to Morricone. I'll admit that even with all the Hollywood bullshit they wrote in, I had a welling of emotion seeing his send off like that.

I'm still amazed this thing is raking in cash hand over fist, though.

JimRochester

I'm amazed at the level of hate thing is getting for the viewpoints. It was based on a memoir of a guy with a pretty large ego, then turned into a movie with creative license. It wasn't a documentary people, it was a fucking movie from Clint Eastwood, Mr. Make My Day himself.

JimRochester

By Moore's standards, snipers are cowards because they hide on rooftops and shoot people in the back. If that's the case aren't tank crews cowards by hiding in an imposing shell? Are the crews of the bombers cowards by dropping bombs from miles in the air? Are artillery crews cowards by firing shells from a couple miles away not knowing who or what is on the other end?

By his definition everyone but infantryman are cowards assuming they only fight head-on.

islandclaws

Right... but this isn't Dirty Harry 9. Certainly Kyle led a life interesting enough to make a film depicting him a bit more accurately. Hollywood usually puts its spin on everything anyway, so to couple that with Kyle's own spin led this film on a trajectory right out of believeable territory and into red, white & blue American bonerville. I'm not expecting a documentary, but I don't want a superhero film masquerading as something based on truth, either.

stvn1974

So a man writes a book, a director cherry picks the parts out of the book that make him seem like Superman and then adds a bunch of shit that never happened to turn it into an action flick and the critics/reviewers who have a problem with it are at fault? Got it.

I wonder how many people who jump into their pick up with a rebel flag license plate to go see this for the third time think that the last half of Saving Private Ryan actually happened.

RichC2

down only 27.9% this weekend to $64.4m. Crazy. Passed $200m.

They don't really make him out to be Superman, it's just shallow.

hanshotfirst1138

I think Eastwood is first person to grab box office records like this at 84 years old, is it unprecedented for anyone to have a career which has been this strong this long?

Whatever you see in movies or read on the Internet is obviously 100% accurate all of the time. Any political argument or historical event can be reduced to that, and it's all you need to educate yourself. Duh. Everybody knows that. Movies are always true.

Solid Snake

....I think you're right. Damn, he's an old fuck. I was amazed at his action scenes. Didn't know he had that type of action direction in him.

JimRochester

I'm not disputing the hoo-rah of this movie, what I'm saying is that if you look at Band Of Brothers, Lone Survivor, Platoon, Memphis Belle, Black Hawk Down, Zero Dark Thirty, to name a few, all were based on books from actual events or like Platoon, Oliver Stone's recollections. All took some sort of heat for depictions that weren't factual. None of them took the hatred and the partisans taking sides that this one is taking and I'm not sure why.

I've mentioned before, even BoB which won awards had major differences between the mini-series, the interviews, and the book.

Solid Snake

This one is probably taking the heat more cuz it's more recent of a man's life.

EDIT: unless lone survivor. Something about this one bothers me more than Lone Survivor though. Just seems like a lot more reworked BS possibly.

johnnysd

They kinda do make him too much of a Superman. He is best sniper, the best seal, the legend, the best father after he starts helping veterans, etc... I also kind of hated how his sassy intelligent wife turned into this totally submissive housewife after they married.

I think someone said something salient, that this movie taps into the blood lust some people feel over ISIS and the middle easterners in general.

stvn1974

Since there was an assassination attempt on Hitler I want a film about a cybernetic organism that is sent back into time to kill his mother. "Based on real events" could be put on the poster and all of the other advertising material.

JimRochester

Lone Survivor's entire third act was made up. I enjoyed them for what they were but don't take anything in them for gospel.

creekdipper

In your haste, you left out "after peeling out of the church parking lot." Those oversights happen when you're posting distracted while watching Maher reruns.

Paul_SD

If I were a Sikh living in the midwest or south, I would be very nervous now.

JumpCutz

Rednecks peeling out of church parking lots. It's what's for dinner.

Troy Stiffler

The problem is that the world is very stupid. And does.

EctoCooler

Looks like Clint did exactly what you feared. There is no doubt in my mind that Spielberg would have made a superior film were he the one at the helm.


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Solid Snake

I think if, using what we have to base the script on from what we've seen, I think Spielberg could have handled the US bits a lot better.

Kyle's wife is an interesting character. She like... totally becomes someone that wasn't who we met earlier. She was there but she had no depth. She was just a person moving and talking. And I think Miller is too blame for a lot of that.

JimRochester

It's not that black and white. All soldiers go through periods of both thoughts. When you think about all your buddies that were killed by the enemy, you're kind of enjoying a bit of revenge. At more retrospective times you wonder of this one or that one was the right call.

My dad was in Korea and when I was young we used to talk at length about his time there. There were times when you had to kill women, children, old men. If they were running you worried they were going to warn the opposing force. At the time those communications were all by runners from the civilian population either by choice or coercion. You didn't like it, always worried if it was the right call but did it. In the heat of battle a friend would get hit and you got great enjoyment from killing the enemy. At times it scared you how much fun you were having he said. The adrenaline gets you going. So I'm positive both sentiments come from most soldiers at times.

K&AJones

I just wonder when Moore and the rest of his Leftist Socialist Hollywood pals will come out with .....

"Islamic Sniper...the Killing of All Infidels".....I'm sure they would actually applaud & cheer such a movie.

wendersfan

Please stop trolling.

keith71

I work with a hardcore right winger/Fox News channel watching/Tea party member fifty something and he's told everybody in the office several times already American Sniper is The Best Movie Ever Made and people who say they don't like it are Un-American,Un-patriotic, pro-terrorists, etc. He has seen it five (!) times already and plans to see it "at least" 5 more times...
Geez.

Solid Snake

I'm guessing that guy isn't really a film aficionado....

Dan

This blows my mind. What a tool.