Which American Sniper?

[EPresence2]

Who would like to see someone do a movie on this guy? Appetizer: "The truth is unspeakable," says real-life American sniper who wants nothing to do with a dangerous propaganda film" http://www.salon.com/2015/02/04/this_american_sniper_didnt_keep_track_of_his_kills_and_hates_that_i_ask_him/?utm_source=zergnet.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=zergnet_393209

 

[untermensche]

I think any story that involves the individual soldier, or sailor, on the ground is going to have a certain kill or be killed element to it. War is hell.

The evil story is the story that took place in the White House and in the major media and it involves the politicians that drove us to war and their accomplices the major media.

That is the movie that needs to be made.

 

[Ford]

The evil story is the story that took place in the White House and in the major media and it involves the politicians that drove us to war and their accomplices the major media.

That is the movie that needs to be made.

The weird thing about the Iraq war movies is that we seem to be going backwards.


The portrayal of our last long, misguided war (Vietnam) followed an arc of some sort...starting with John Wayne in "The Green Berets" where it was all patriotism and flag-waving, then into movies that questioned our role and highlighted the madness of the war (Deer Hunter, Apocalypse Now) and then back around to films that tried to "win the war we lost" where Chuck Norris and Sylvester Stallone went back to rescue long-forgotten POW's.


With regards to Iraq, there were movies about the effort to drag us into war and the consequences (Iraq for Sale, No End in Sight, Why We Fight, etc.) but the pendulum appears to be swinging quickly towards whitewashing all that stuff and portraying snipers as heroes.

 

[untermensche]

With regards to Iraq, there were movies about the effort to drag us into war and the consequences (Iraq for Sale, No End in Sight, Why We Fight, etc.) but the pendulum appears to be swinging quickly towards whitewashing all that stuff and portraying snipers as heroes.

There are different kinds of films. There are those documentary style films and there are fictional depictions.

The fictional depictions have a much wider audience.

But I think films arise randomly and don't necessarily represent any trends.

This is a film from the chair talker Eastwood so it is going to gloss over certain political difficulties.

 

[Derec]

Who would like to see someone do a movie on this guy? Appetizer: "The truth is unspeakable," says real-life American sniper who wants nothing to do with a dangerous propaganda film" http://www.salon.com/2015/02/04/this_american_sniper_didnt_keep_track_of_his_kills_and_hates_that_i_ask_him/?utm_source=zergnet.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=zergnet_393209

The "real life" sniper the movie has been based on is Chris Kyle and he has been dead for almost exactly 2 years now.
Why do you think it's relevant that a completely different sniper "wants nothing to do" with the movie? The movie is about a particular sniper, not every American sniper. Bardley Cooper was on Fresh Air by the way talking mostly about the movie.

They should do a "Finnish Sniper" movie though. Simo Häyhä was badass. Over 500 kills (dwarfing Kyle) and even though he was hit in the jaw by an exploding bullet he lived to the ripe old age of 96.

 

[NobleSavage]

Did anyone else think of Inglourious Basterds when this movie came out?

 

[bilby]

Who would like to see someone do a movie on this guy? Appetizer: "The truth is unspeakable," says real-life American sniper who wants nothing to do with a dangerous propaganda film" http://www.salon.com/2015/02/04/this_american_sniper_didnt_keep_track_of_his_kills_and_hates_that_i_ask_him/?utm_source=zergnet.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=zergnet_393209

The "real life" sniper the movie has been based on is Chris Kyle and he has been dead for almost exactly 2 years now.
Why do you think it's relevant that a completely different sniper "wants nothing to do" with the movie? The movie is about a particular sniper, not every American sniper. Bardley Cooper was on Fresh Air by the way talking mostly about the movie.

They should do a "Finnish Sniper" movie though. Simo Häyhä was badass. Over 500 kills (dwarfing Kyle) and even though he was hit in the jaw by an exploding bullet he lived to the ripe old age of 96.

The Finns were certainly total badasses back in WWII; Hence my favourite Russian joke:



A large group of Russian soldiers in the border area in 1939 are moving down a road when they hear a voice call from behind a small hill: "One Finnish soldier is better than ten Russians".

The Russian commander quickly orders 10 of his best men over the hill, whereupon a gun-battle breaks out and continues for a few minutes, then - Silence.

The voice once again calls out: "One Finn is better than one hundred Russians."

Furious, the Russian commander sends his next best 100 troops over the hill and instantly a huge gun fight commences. After 10 minutes of battle, again - Silence.

The calm Finnish voice calls out again: "One Finn is better than one thousand Russians"

The enraged Russian commander musters 1000 fighters and sends them to the other side of the hill. Rifle fire, machine guns, grenades, rockets and cannon fire ring out as a terrible battle is fought.... Then - Silence.

Eventually one badly wounded Russian fighter crawls back over the hill and with his dying words tells his commander,

Show

"Don't send any more men......it's a trap. There's two of them."

 

[EPresence2]

Who would like to see someone do a movie on this guy? Appetizer: "The truth is unspeakable," says real-life American sniper who wants nothing to do with a dangerous propaganda film" http://www.salon.com/2015/02/04/this_american_sniper_didnt_keep_track_of_his_kills_and_hates_that_i_ask_him/?utm_source=zergnet.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=zergnet_393209

The "real life" sniper the movie has been based on is Chris Kyle and he has been dead for almost exactly 2 years now.
Why do you think it's relevant that a completely different sniper "wants nothing to do" with the movie? The movie is about a particular sniper, not every American sniper. Bardley Cooper was on Fresh Air by the way talking mostly about the movie.

They should do a "Finnish Sniper" movie though. Simo Häyhä was badass. Over 500 kills (dwarfing Kyle) and even though he was hit in the jaw by an exploding bullet he lived to the ripe old age of 96.

Reckon that's one vote for no movie about a sniper with a different experience.

 

[Derec]

Reckon that's one vote for no movie about a sniper with a different experience.

What's preventing Garett Reppenhagen from writing a book and a filmmaker from using it as a basis for a movie?

 

[Valjean]

The evil story is the story that took place in the White House and in the major media and it involves the politicians that drove us to war and their accomplices the major media.

So you do not believe people are individually responsible for their actions?

 

[EPresence2]

Reckon that's one vote for no movie about a sniper with a different experience.

What's preventing Garett Reppenhagen from writing a book and a filmmaker from using it as a basis for a movie?

Hopefully nothing - if the film turns out to be any good.

 

[Derec]

The "real life" sniper the movie has been based on is Chris Kyle and he has been dead for almost exactly 2 years now.
Why do you think it's relevant that a completely different sniper "wants nothing to do" with the movie? The movie is about a particular sniper, not every American sniper. Bardley Cooper was on Fresh Air by the way talking mostly about the movie.

They should do a "Finnish Sniper" movie though. Simo Häyhä was badass. Over 500 kills (dwarfing Kyle) and even though he was hit in the jaw by an exploding bullet he lived to the ripe old age of 96.

The Finns were certainly total badasses back in WWII; Hence my favourite Russian joke:

That joke bears a striking similarity to the story of Häyhä as told by cracked.com so he is probably the origin of it.

Of course when the Russians heard that dozens of their men were going down and that it was all one dude with a rifle, they got fucking scared. He became known as "The White Death" because of his white camouflage outfit, and they actually mounted whole missions just to kill that one guy.
They started by sending out a task force to find Hayha and take him out. He killed them all.
Then they tried getting together a team of counter-snipers (which are basically snipers that kill snipers) and sent them in to eliminate Hayha. He killed all of them, too.
Over the course of 100 days, Hayha killed 542 people with his rifle. He took out another 150 or so with his SMG, sending his credited kill-count up to 705.
Since everyone they had was either too dead or too scared to go anywhere near him, the Russians just carpet-bombed everywhere they thought he might be. Supposedly, they had the location right, and he actually got hit by a cloud of shrapnel that tore his coat up, but didn't actually hurt him, because he's the fucking White Death, damn it.

 

[Horatio Parker]

I saw it because I wondered what the fuss was about, and I like war movies. And the combat scenes were very well done, even if they did recall SPR.

I thought the movie's treatment of PTSD was superficial and insincere. The message seemed to be a real man like Kyle only succumbs to PTSD by grabbing a beer on the way home and walking around with dangerously high blood pressure. IOW successfully keeping everything inside. A braggart and a liar, Kyle obviously had some real problems. But we were not allowed to see that.

 

[ksen]

With regards to Iraq, there were movies about the effort to drag us into war and the consequences (Iraq for Sale, No End in Sight, Why We Fight, etc.) but the pendulum appears to be swinging quickly towards whitewashing all that stuff and portraying snipers as heroes.

There are different kinds of films. There are those documentary style films and there are fictional depictions.

The fictional depictions have a much wider audience.

But I think films arise randomly and don't necessarily represent any trends.

This is a film from the chair talker Eastwood so it is going to gloss over certain political difficulties.

I'm surprised the Right wants anything to do with Clint Eastwood after Million Dollar Baby. They hated that movie.

 

[Rhea]

I find the story of this sniper to be disturbing and against everything I hold to be American. I do not want that kind of personality representing "America" to the world. Heard some interviews about the movie, but do no wish to see it.

 

[EPresence2]

I find the story of this sniper to be disturbing and against everything I hold to be American. I do not want that kind of personality representing "America" to the world. Heard some interviews about the movie, but do no wish to see it.

This probably won't be the last movie about the Iraq/Afghanistan war and I hope that all (such movies) will be considered in what America represents to the world. A movie about Garrett would be nice to see as part of the mosaic of selective experience from the conflict.

Now here's something for typical conservative perspectives to shoot at...

I'm not sure either American Sniper or American Sniper II (Garrett's story) could legitimately describe themselves as apolitical while only talking about one guy who either had a good or miserable time there. The existing movie could be political by default omission (e.g., selective focus) given there are no movies on the Iraq war that really look deeply from the perspective of American Sniper II or respectable and courageous Iraqis/afghans we'd like to see stay in their country. I'd like to see those movies as well...

 

[Rhea]

I find the story of this sniper to be disturbing and against everything I hold to be American. I do not want that kind of personality representing "America" to the world. Heard some interviews about the movie, but do no wish to see it.

This probably won't be the last movie about the Iraq/Afghanistan war and I hope that all (such movies) will be considered in what America represents to the world. A movie about Garrett would be nice to see as part of the mosaic of selective experience from the conflict.

Now here's something for typical conservative perspectives to shoot at...

I'm not sure either American Sniper or American Sniper II (Garrett's story) could legitimately describe themselves as apolitical while only talking about one guy who either had a good or miserable time there. The existing movie could be political by default omission (e.g., selective focus) given there are no movies on the Iraq war that really look deeply from the perspective of American Sniper II or respectable and courageous Iraqis/afghans we'd like to see stay in their country. I'd like to see those movies as well...

Yes. I agree.