So, I finally got to see the movie that has been a target of controversy since it hit theaters earlier this month. Now that I have, I can give my honest opinion of what I believe the producers and director--none other than Clint Eastwood--was trying to portray.
There were articles popping up all over the place about this movie, and although I skimmed one or two, I really tried not to read too much into them because I wanted to try to enjoy the movie as a movie and nothing else. Therefore, I will first review how I saw the movie as a movie, and then I will talk about whether the movie should be regarded as a controversial piece or not.
Spoiler Alert: I am going to do my best not to give a lot of the movie away, but know that it'll be a bit hard not to spoil a few things in the process. I'll do my best to keep the spoiling to a minimum. Moreover, I will be referencing another movie called Black Hawk Down. If you've never seen that movie, and want to, then you might not want to read this part. Your call.
The movie review: I genuinely believe the movie served its purpose. Since the movie was set in Afghanistan, it had a similar feel as Black Hawk Down. To me, the movie was basically a recreation of Black Hawk Down, except it was about one person as opposed to the rescue of a chopper that crash-landed. As I said to a colleague at the: the movie was just like any other middle-east war movie. It's exactly what you'd expect (mostly). The movie follows around a protagonist and his fleet that is attempting to dismantle the progress of [an] antagonist(s) and their fleet. It's also an American-made war movie so take a guess at who wins the battle between American and non-American. Yeah, you get where I'm coming from.
Bradley Cooper was the absolute cornerstone of the film. Though I never met Chris Kyle in person, I thought Bradley Cooper played a Texan very well. Chris Kyle was practically a warrior from birth, and Bradley Cooper played a stone-faced ass-kicking American very well. Huge props to his fantastic Texan accent and all the work he put in to build his body up for the role he played. Even though I thought the movie was pretty typical for a war movie, I thought Bradley Cooper was basically sensational. Considering how little the character who played his wife, Elise Robertson, was in the film, I thought she was pretty great, too. Fantastic raw-emotional acting on her part when it was needed.
Was it or was it not controversial: No. It should be noted that Chris Kyle, before he died, obviously, aided in the production of the film. I'm quite sure that the movie portrayal is as real as it gets. The ending scenes show real footage of Kyle's funeral. I guess what I'm saying is: I don't buy the "glorification" argument. I mean, guys, comon, wake up. It's an American-made film. It no more glorifies war than Pearl Harbor, than Black Hawk Down, than Band of Brothers (I know it's a mini-series and not a film, but still). I mean, fortunately, we have the best military in the world. Like, hands down. No one can touch us. It's the one thing that keeps countries from nuking us, because they know if they tried that shit, they'd be in a world of hurt.
I hate war. I mean, I REALLY hate war. I generally think that war for a country that is in financial struggles is just no good for a country given that whole "history repeats itself" rule. The Roman Empire did the same thing. They warred everything until they spread themselves too thin, and then were in a world of hurt when the Ottoman's built up their empire and just said, "Yeah, nope, not anymore." With that said, people need to understand the effect of our military, and the affect the military has on us. For instance, if we didn't have a military, then we would be shieldless, so to speak. I mean, things like September 11th would just happen all the time. Because our men and women in arms are over there, in those other countries, that means that those shitty terrorists aren't so concerned about trying to attack here. See what I'm saying? Plus, even the way Chris Kyle was portrayed in the movie, as this humble "hero," (I put hero in quotes because our idea of a hero is different than our enemy's idea of a hero. It should be noted that we call their heroes terrorists. I wonder what they call our heroes, yeah?) who literally saved more lives than he killed. Yes, it's terrible that he had to kill anyone at all, but he had to. I mean, men, women, and children were being used as war pawns regularly. One of the Arabic men in the movie used a drill as his primary weapon. If you want to see the movie I won't spoil things for you, but A DRILL! If that was real, then he needed to be dead. There's no place on this planet for people who use drills on their "own people."
Not only that, but the way that Chris Kyle died was just terrible. Again, I'm not going to spoil the movie (or his life if you want to keep yourself from Googling him), so I won't.
Ultimately, go see the movie if you like war films. Just stop with this controversial shit, please?
Kthanks,bye
- PatInTheSassyHat
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