What American Sniper did is much, much worse than rewrite history

This topic has 61 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 9 years, 10 months ago by wv.

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February 19, 2015 at 7:51 pm #18721

Zooey
Moderator

wv wrote:

Yeah, but
what about the cinematography

Anywayz — what interests ‘me’ is that Pa
likes it. Pa knows the politics and history
and he still likes it. So…people are different.
Thats all i got.

w
v

And I like and respect PA, so it wasn’t easy to say what I said. And I respect the fact that a lot of the military personnel are voluntarily putting their lives on the line for their countrymen. That’s a pretty big deal. It’s complicated, of course, like everything in life because some people are in the military because they have dead-end lives; some are there because they actually love the idea of violence (not many, I’m guessing, but mercenaries must, and I bet most of them are vets). Some are there for career training or free education afterwards. A lot of them are there because they want to defend some noble ideals (regardless of the cold politics that manipulate those ideals).

So I can imagine a film in which I WOULD feel compassion for Kyle, but it would have to be a narrative which evoked compassion for all the ragheads who became notches on his belt as well. Anything else is a lie, imo. A dangerous fucking lie. And as long as we go about telling stories that cast our team as noble heroes – tragic or otherwise – and other humans as vermin, we continue to foster a blind spot that allows this shit to continue.

It’s not okay.

This movie is not okay.

It isn’t “just a movie.” What happens in the media shapes our reality as a culture, and the stories we tell both reflect and direct our values.

February 20, 2015 at 8:33 pm #18793

wv
Participant

Zooey wrote:

Yeah, but
what about the cinematography
Anywayz — what interests ‘me’ is that Pa
likes it. Pa knows the politics and history
and he still likes it. So…people are different.
Thats all i got.

w
v

And I like and respect PA, so it wasn’t easy to say what I said. And I respect the fact that a lot of the military personnel are voluntarily putting their lives on the line for their countrymen. That’s a pretty big deal. It’s complicated, of course, like everything in life because some people are in the military because they have dead-end lives; some are there because they actually love the idea of violence (not many, I’m guessing, but mercenaries must, and I bet most of them are vets). Some are there for career training or free education afterwards. A lot of them are there because they want to defend some noble ideals (regardless of the cold politics that manipulate those ideals).

So I can imagine a film in which I WOULD feel compassion for Kyle, but it would have to be a narrative which evoked compassion for all the ragheads who became notches on his belt as well. Anything else is a lie, imo. A dangerous fucking lie. And as long as we go about telling stories that cast our team as noble heroes – tragic or otherwise – and other humans as vermin, we continue to foster a blind spot that allows this shit to continue.

It’s not okay.

This movie is not okay.

It isn’t “just a movie.” What happens in the media shapes our reality as a culture, and the stories we tell both reflect and direct our values.

Well i heard on NPR,
its the favorite to win
the Best Picture Oscar.

w
v
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