# American Sniper



## Sennin of Hardwork (Oct 21, 2014)

[YOUTUBE]cRbAXWfthtA[/YOUTUBE]
[youtube]U9RFwgOBcAM[/youtube]



> _Warner Bros. Pictures in association with Village Roadshow Pictures presents AMERICAN SNIPER. Directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller, Jake McDorman, Luke Grimes, Navid Negahban and Keir O’Donnell.
> 
> From director Clint Eastwood comes AMERICAN SNIPER, starring Bradley Cooper as Chris Kyle, the most lethal sniper in U.S. military history. But there was much more to him than his skill as a sharpshooter.
> 
> ...


----------



## ~Avant~ (Oct 21, 2014)

I'm excited for this one. That trailer set the tone perfectly


----------



## dream (Oct 21, 2014)

One of my most anticipated movies.


----------



## Stunna (Oct 21, 2014)

Good    trailer.


----------



## Cyphon (Oct 21, 2014)

Looks really good.


----------



## Detective (Oct 21, 2014)

Dat Eastwood tension building


----------



## Sennin of Hardwork (Dec 19, 2014)

A new trailer came out yesterday.

[YOUTUBE]U9RFwgOBcAM[/YOUTUBE]


----------



## Karasu (Dec 19, 2014)

Been waiting for this - amazingly intense. Hopefully it will be as great as the trailers.


----------



## dream (Dec 19, 2014)

Love the new trailer, going to try to catch a showing when it has a limited release in NYC this month.


----------



## Grimmjowsensei (Dec 22, 2014)

Hmm... The amount of hype remarks in the trailer are really worrisome.


----------



## Rukia (Dec 22, 2014)

Bradley Cooper worries me.  He is not a great actor.


----------



## BoneMoney (Dec 28, 2014)

Grimmjowsensei said:


> Hmm... The amount of hype remarks in the trailer are really worrisome.



Yeah the trailer looks amazing but I'm hearing some not so good things about the film itself.  Hopefully it'll be worth watching as I'll probably end up seeing it anyway


----------



## Caitlyn Jenner (Dec 29, 2014)

I hope this movie turns out good. I've been waiting for that guy to get movie.



Rukia said:


> Bradley Cooper worries me.  He is not a great actor.



You didn't like _Silver Linings Playbook_?  What about _The Words_? _Limitless_?


----------



## Vault (Dec 29, 2014)

The only one i would give you there is Silver Lining. Cooper isnt that good 

But then again you thought Interstellar would make a billion dollars and solidify Nolan as the greatest director ever or some bollocks like that


----------



## Caitlyn Jenner (Jan 4, 2015)

Vault said:


> The only one i would give you there is Silver Lining. Cooper isnt that good
> 
> But then again you thought Interstellar would make a billion dollars and solidify Nolan as the greatest director ever or some bollocks like that



*greatest director of our generation.


----------



## Grimmjowsensei (Jan 6, 2015)

Cooper is entertaining in certain roles.

Is he a great actor ? I think not.

Silver Linings was a good film, and the performances were great, but I am pretty sure both roles were tailored for Bradley and Jennifer and they can't play any other role that well.


----------



## PureWIN (Jan 20, 2015)

This movie was fucking incredible.


----------



## tari101190 (Jan 21, 2015)

I liked the film quite a bit, but the whole american patriotism makes me want to throw up.


----------



## crazymtf (Jan 21, 2015)

Was okay. Overrated as fuck. Action scenes were solid, some good acting, but storyline wise was pretty crap tbh.


----------



## asdfa (Jan 21, 2015)

A polarizing movie I must say. On one hand it's a well made film, but on the other hand the whole murica fuck yeah  patriotic circlejerk is so stronk it makes you want to puke.

Usually when the second is true the movie is crap all around anyway, but not in this case, so I don't know how to even recommend it.


----------



## Rukia (Jan 21, 2015)

This movie is an embarrassment.  It makes us look like a joke to the international community.

And it isn't even well-made dreck.  Eastwood should retire ASAP.  He is more washed up than Ridley Scott.


----------



## Zaru (Jan 21, 2015)

Probably as close as you can get to making people hate America without outright insulting them

The things I've heard about this movie, jesus christ


----------



## Blue (Jan 21, 2015)

tari101190 said:


> I liked the film quite a bit, but the whole american patriotism makes me want to throw up.





asdfa said:


> A polarizing movie I must say. On one hand it's a well made film, but on the other hand the whole murica fuck yeah  patriotic circlejerk is so stronk it makes you want to puke.
> 
> Usually when the second is true the movie is crap all around anyway, but not in this case, so I don't know how to even recommend it.





Rukia said:


> This movie is an embarrassment.  It makes us look like a joke to the international community.
> 
> And it isn't even well-made dreck.  Eastwood should retire ASAP.  He is more washed up than Ridley Scott.





Zaru said:


> Probably as close as you can get to making people hate America without outright insulting them
> 
> The things I've heard about this movie, jesus christ



These are the most contradictory reviews I've ever seen.

Mega liked this movie. What am I to believe?


----------



## asdfa (Jan 21, 2015)

Yourself, man. If you liked it, that's the way it is.



Rukia said:


> Eastwood should retire ASAP.  He is more washed up than Ridley Scott.


But who will then old white republicans vote for at the Oscars?


----------



## tari101190 (Jan 21, 2015)

I don't think anyone is disputing the quality of this film. The criticisms are only about the american patriotism stuff.

The film is great. My personal issues with  american patriotism have nothing to do with the quality of the film honestly.

This film is a personal story about the main guy. Which is what I really gravitated to. His story is amazing. The setting is that he just happened to be American. It's not really important to the core story, only the plot. And since he was a real guy, the setting couldn't be changed as it was a biopic.

My main criticism is that his brother was largely ignored after a big scene involving him.


----------



## Zaru (Jan 21, 2015)

Handsome Jack said:


> Mega liked this movie. What am I to believe?



Well, you're "proud" of America enough to probably not care how the arabs are displayed in the movie.

You get people tweeting that they feel like shooting some ragheads after watching that movie, and on the other spectrum people comparing it to nazi propaganda movies.


----------



## Caitlyn Jenner (Jan 21, 2015)

American Sniper is the most realistic war movie that I've seen so far. Altough the script and editing in the movie made the movie seemed rushed. Even the romantic dialogue was cringe worthy. It could have been a lot better if Spielberg never dropped the project.  The portrayal of Chris Kyle from Bradley Cooper is what really makes this movie memorable. If it deserves any Oscar nomination then it is definitely Bradley Cooper for Best Actor.


----------



## Cyphon (Jan 21, 2015)

Blue said:


> What am I to believe?



The whole American patriotism criticism about the movie is completely overblown and that seems to be one of the main criticisms I have seen. So seeing as to how it is a mostly bullshit criticism, you should like it because Cooper nails the role and his character is the focus of the movie.


----------



## heavy_rasengan (Jan 21, 2015)

Zaru said:


> Well, you're "proud" of America enough to probably not care how the arabs are displayed in the movie.
> 
> You get people tweeting that they feel like shooting some ragheads after watching that movie, and on the other spectrum people comparing it to nazi propaganda movies.



Many of the criticisms I've heard thus far are mainly targeted at the way Chris Kyle was presented. From what I've read, he was basically a sadistic, racist warmonger (according to his autobiography) and in the movie he was represented a likable, sympathetic character. I haven't seen the movie, can you or anyone confirm this?

I can see why there is criticism if this is indeed the case. I can only imagine the shitstorm if a movie about Hitler or Sadaam or even more specifically, a Nazi sniper was represented in sympathetic ways when their actual characters are the opposite.


----------



## Cyphon (Jan 21, 2015)

heavy_rasengan said:


> Many of the criticisms I've heard thus far are mainly targeted at the way Chris Kyle was presented. From what I've read, he was basically a sadistic, racist warmonger (according to his autobiography) and in the movie he was represented a likable, sympathetic character. I haven't seen the movie, can you or anyone confirm this?



I haven't read the book so I can't directly compare but the movie mainly focused on him caring about the guys in the military. The 2 times he had an opportunity to shoot a kid they showed him not wanting to have to do it. I believe he called the terrorists savages at one point in the movie. 

And they had his real life quote about only regretting the guys he couldn't save or whatever.


----------



## asdfa (Jan 21, 2015)

> The whole American patriotism criticism about the movie is completely overblown


yeah,      no


----------



## Cyphon (Jan 21, 2015)

asdfa said:


> yeah,      no



Good argument. Hard to refute


----------



## asdfa (Jan 21, 2015)

Don't let that stop you


----------



## Cyphon (Jan 21, 2015)

Here is my general problem with the criticism:

1. The most obvious IMO is that this is the story about one guy. It isn't about America as a whole or the overall war effort. The focus is Chris Kyle. And if people are to be believed (I haven't read the book), Chris Kyle had a mostly black and white view of the entire thing. We are the good guys, they are the bad guys and I will kill them to protect my men. So if we agree that it was heavy on the patriotism then you are essentially criticizing the movie for accurately portraying the person it is about. Because he was heavy on the patriotism.


2. There were 2 opportunities IIRC that the movie had a chance to humanize the people there. I will spoiler it incase I get too specific.


*Spoiler*: __ 



The first was when he raided the family home and the guy ultimately gives Chris Kyle info he needs. So I don't really see what the complaint would be for this one. The other was when they raided the other house and the guy sat them down to dinner only to turn out to be hoarding weapons and working with the actual terrorists. So yeah, they were portrayed negatively there.




So two things to wrap that part up. The first is that once again this is the Chris Kyle story. Maybe that is how those events specifically went down. So they would have been portrayed accurately as opposed to being put there to amp up the patriot crowd. Secondly, even if they aren't accurate, it was 50/50 on the portrayal of them being good and bad.  


3. The movie lightly touched on PTSD, was pretty graphic about showing the injuries and "ugly" side of the war and also dealt with life at home with his wife having a problem with them continuously asking him to go back to war. So while it didn't delve completely into how everyone felt about the war or the problems with it (it wasn't about that anyway) it did touch on certain aspects.


So unless I am missing something the criticisms (on that front) are completely overblown. What I am reading makes it sound like the movie showed us scenes of Americans sitting around bars watching as Kyle took the shots and cheering like it was the World Cup every time he got a kill.


----------



## tari101190 (Jan 21, 2015)

The movie is good. I don't think the criticism about the patriotism is a criticism of the film, just an observation. The guy being uber patriotic didn't somehow make the film less good. The real story had nothing to do with that, and I connected to it just fine and I'm not American.

I'm worried that some people will either be turned off or connect to the wrong parts of the story though. Like these tweets by guys saying they wanna go shoot arabs now or whatever are just idiots. If watching this film makes you go 'america fuck yeah' then you don't understand the real story. The film isn't about america. The guy just happens to be american.

But honestly whenever Americans say 'this is the greatest country in the world' I laugh and then throw up and then go enjoy my free health care. And then they wave their flags and wear the colours and force their school kids to recite a pledge to a flag like some sort of authoritarian dictatorship thing. It seems so weird.


----------



## heavy_rasengan (Jan 21, 2015)

Cyphon said:


> I haven't read the book so I can't directly compare but the movie mainly focused on him caring about the guys in the military. The 2 times he had an opportunity to shoot a kid they showed him not wanting to have to do it. I believe he called the terrorists savages at one point in the movie.
> 
> And they had his real life quote about only regretting the guys he couldn't save or whatever.



If he was presented as he was in his autobiography or close to it then I don't see the problem.


----------



## PureWIN (Jan 24, 2015)

heavy_rasengan said:


> Many of the criticisms I've heard thus far are mainly targeted at the way Chris Kyle was presented. From what I've read, he was basically a sadistic, racist warmonger (according to his autobiography) and in the movie he was represented a likable, sympathetic character. I haven't seen the movie, can you or anyone confirm this?
> 
> I can see why there is criticism if this is indeed the case. I can only imagine the shitstorm if a movie about Hitler or Sadaam or even more specifically, a Nazi sniper was represented in sympathetic ways when their actual characters are the opposite.



But the movie _did_ portray him as being a warmonger and borderline racists based on a couple of lines here and there. These criticisms were brought up within the movie. But this was not the focus of the movie thus they these things were downplayed by simply avoiding those topics -- notice that in the movie he never discusses his sociopolitical views on the war.

He became a sympathetic character because of his PTSD. Really the movie can be summed up as a story of a man almost broken by the horrors of war.

Although his cartoonish patriotism was eyerolling, I found it to be realistic. I know people in real life who have said literally the same exact things. My college roommate almost joined the Air Force for the exact reasons Chris Kyle did.


----------



## Roman (Jan 27, 2015)

It's a shame that the movie is based on a book that's chock-full of lies. Normally I wouldn't have a problem with that, except for the fact that the movie and the book both advertised themselves as being based on a true story. The issue is, the movie itself portrays Chris Kyle as being tormented by the war when that was hardly the case. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Before anyone tries to tell me otherwise, go look up on how Jesse Ventura won his defamation suit against Chris Kyle.

The ultra-patriotism is another thing I took issue with. No need to go into detail on that since others already have here.


----------



## Cyphon (Jan 27, 2015)

Freedan said:


> It's a shame that the movie is based on a book that's chock-full of lies. Normally I wouldn't have a problem with that, except for the fact that the movie and the book both advertised themselves as being based on a true story. The issue is, the movie itself portrays Chris Kyle as being tormented by the war when that was hardly the case. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.
> 
> Before anyone tries to tell me otherwise, go look up on how Jesse Ventura won his defamation suit against Chris Kyle.



I haven't read the book but did read up on the apparent lies and the truth is, it does look like Kyle told some lies. The thing is, they all came after he was out of the Navy and the movie was mostly about his time when he was in. So unless the war stuff is all lies as well.....



> The ultra-patriotism is another thing I took issue with. No need to go into detail on that since others already have here.



So on one hand you complain about lies and on the other you complain about the truth? By all accounts Chris Kyle was ultra-patriotic so if you are telling his story you will show it as ultra-patriotic.


----------



## Blue (Jan 27, 2015)

Zaru said:


> Well, you're "proud" of America enough to probably not care how the arabs are displayed in the movie.
> 
> You get people tweeting that they feel like shooting some ragheads after watching that movie, and on the other spectrum people comparing it to nazi propaganda movies.



Don't go trying to tell me you care about how Arabs are presented.

Besides, it's probably the truth. Snipers in Iraq didn't see a whole lot of reasonable, educated people down their sights.


----------



## Roman (Jan 27, 2015)

Cyphon said:


> I haven't read the book but did read up on the apparent lies and the truth is, it does look like Kyle told some lies. The thing is, they all came after he was out of the Navy and the movie was mostly about his time when he was in. So unless the war stuff is all lies as well.....



His actions in the war are probably true. His view toward it as portrayed in the movie is most likely a fictitious representation made by Eastwood for the sake of adding drama. It's very clear that Kyle, by his own admission, loved being a SEAL and would've gone back to the battlefield if he wasn't married, had kids and threatened with divorce.



Cyphon said:


> So on one hand you complain about lies and on the other you complain about the truth? By all accounts Chris Kyle was ultra-patriotic so if you are telling his story you will show it as ultra-patriotic.



It's not about Kyle being patriotic, it's about the movie itself being something akin to textbook propaganda film which uses a particular sniper as the hero of said propaganda film.


----------



## Cyphon (Jan 27, 2015)

Freedan said:


> His view toward it as portrayed in the movie is most likely a fictitious representation made by Eastwood for the sake of adding drama. It's very clear that Kyle, *by his own admission, loved being a SEAL and would've gone back to the battlefield* if he wasn't married, had kids and threatened with divorce.



The movie clearly portrayed that. He went back 4 times and seemingly wanted to each time. He didn't seem to adjust well to normal life when he was home and wanted to be back fighting for his guys. So that seems mostly accurate.



> It's not about Kyle being patriotic, it's about the movie itself being something akin to textbook propaganda film which uses a particular sniper as the hero of said propaganda film.



I have heard a lot of people talk about this and I just don't see it. I addressed it in a post earlier but to sum it up more quickly here are the main 2 points.

1. The movie is very specifically about 1 guy and not the entire war effort or Americas general view on it. So if the guy it is about is ultra patriotic that is how it should be portrayed. We are mainly seeing this movie from his experience.

2. Even if you don't account for 1 (and you most certainly should) what exactly was the big propaganda moment or the ultra patriotism?


----------



## Zaru (Jan 27, 2015)

Blue said:


> Don't go trying to tell me you care about how Arabs are presented.



I was referring to reactions I've seen on the internet


----------



## Roman (Jan 27, 2015)

Cyphon said:


> The movie clearly portrayed that. He went back 4 times and seemingly wanted to each time. He didn't seem to adjust well to normal life when he was home and wanted to be back fighting for his guys. So that seems mostly accurate.



But without the trauma and PTSD. And when the kid picked up the rocket launcher near the end of the film, the real Kyle would've shot him based on how he portrays himself in the book.



Cyphon said:


> The movie is very specifically about 1 guy and not the entire war effort or Americas general view on it. So if the guy it is about is ultra patriotic that is how it should be portrayed. We are mainly seeing this movie from his experience.



Again, this isn't about Kyle. The movie could've portrayed him as patriotic, a point I never contested, without being patriotic itself. I'm referring more specifically to the portrayal of the Iraqis, both in the book and the movie, wherein any male of military age is the enemy. The movie makes almost no attempt at portraying Iraqis as people on the other side of a conflict. Just fodder to be shot down.


----------



## Cyphon (Jan 27, 2015)

Freedan said:


> But without the trauma and PTSD. And when the kid picked up the rocket launcher near the end of the film, the real Kyle would've shot him based on how he portrays himself in the book.



Fair enough. I do need to give the book a look so I can't really say much in way of comparison between the 2. 



> Again, this isn't about Kyle. The movie could've portrayed him as patriotic, a point I never contested, without being patriotic itself. I'm referring more specifically to the portrayal of the Iraqis, both in the book and the movie, wherein any male of military age is the enemy. The movie makes almost no attempt at portraying Iraqis as people on the other side of a conflict. Just fodder to be shot down.



But that is my point. It is ALL about Kyle. This wasn't a movie called "The Iraq War" it was American Sniper based specifically on Chris Kyles story. So if for him they all were the enemy, then the movie portrayed an accurate story based on his experiences/feelings. Every time they ran into someone from Iraq in the movie Chris Kyle was involved. 

For that matter, the movie did plenty (again, considering the above) to be less patriotic so to speak. With his wife it showed how support wasn't fully there for the war on the home front. It showed the harsh realities of wounded vets and the trouble adapting when PTSD comes into play. And IIRC, it had 2 specific encounters with Iraqi men who weren't holding weapons. One gave Kyle information (i.e. the movie showed an Iraqi man being helpful to our cause albeit needing to be enticed because of the danger it presented him and his family) and the other was the guy who invited them to dinner but had weapons stashed. 

Both are likely accurate portrayals of things that happened in Iraq at some point even if not specifically around Kyle. So what more would you want from this movie? Even if it wasn't about Kyle, you don't tend to celebrate the good things about countries you are warring with.


----------



## Roman (Jan 27, 2015)

Cyphon said:


> Fair enough. I do need to give the book a look so I can't really say much in way of comparison between the 2.



That he helped veterans is true however. I mean, he died doing so, no way around it. But from that standpoint, it's potentially the reason why the movie couldn't do away with the element of veterans suffering PTSD since it needed to explain why Kyle eventually decided to help them after he retired.



Cyphon said:


> But that is my point. It is ALL about Kyle. This wasn't a movie called "The Iraq War" it was American Sniper based specifically on Chris Kyles story. So if for him they all were the enemy, then the movie portrayed an accurate story based on his experiences/feelings. Every time they ran into someone from Iraq in the movie Chris Kyle was involved.
> 
> For that matter, the movie did plenty (again, considering the above) to be less patriotic so to speak. With his wife it showed how support wasn't fully there for the war on the home front. It showed the harsh realities of wounded vets and the trouble adapting when PTSD comes into play. And IIRC, it had 2 specific encounters with Iraqi men who weren't holding weapons. One gave Kyle information (i.e. the movie showed an Iraqi man being helpful to our cause albeit needing to be enticed because of the danger it presented him and his family) and the other was the guy who invited them to dinner but had weapons stashed.
> 
> Both are likely accurate portrayals of things that happened in Iraq at some point even if not specifically around Kyle. So what more would you want from this movie? Even if it wasn't about Kyle, you don't tend to celebrate the good things about countries you are warring with.



This is a fair point, tho I wonder if the movie would've explored at least the PTSD angle because like I said above, it was necessitated to explain why Kyle was motivated to help veterans.


----------



## reiatsuflow (Jan 27, 2015)

The term propaganda is outdated. Selma is propaganda in the same way that American Sniper is propaganda, albeit in opposite cultural contexts, because propaganda is being used to term anything that presents an angled view of the world. This isn't propaganda in the sense of North Korea, which is the context where it's a pejorative term. 

Hypothetically, a war movie made by people who support war and retell its reality in a fictitiously heroic way isn't necessarily propaganda. Now, it can feel like propaganda for people who have that kind of mindset. But sometimes it's just a point of view, and a point of view overriding reality in order to perpetuate support of that view isn't necessarily propaganda. It's just expression. Propaganda is the deliberate and excessive warping of the real world to mislead an audience into believing falsehoods for ulterior purposes. North Korea still turns out propaganda, so you have a modern day example to flip through.

If AS feels like propaganda to your brain, you're an intellectual pussy whose thinking is so threatened by the kind of ideologic patriotism AS portrays that it mistakes expression to be propaganda based solely on how much your brain disagrees with the expression. Bullshit, bro.


*Spoiler*: __ 



/hasn't seen american sniper


----------



## Banhammer (Jan 27, 2015)

so much fucking salt towards the movie, you'd think after the Interview, people would know better


----------



## Violent by Design (Jan 28, 2015)

I'm still perplexed to why anyone would think this movie is any better than any other stereotypical biopic or war film. It literally does nothing unique or interesting, and it doesn't even have a message. 

American Sniper is pointless, and the fact that people bring up politics to people who think the film was mediocre really does tell a lot about a lot of American Snipers' fan base.


Could someone inform me on what they think American Sniper did good? Bradley Cooper did a good job sure...but the only other major actor was his wife, and she sucked. All the other characters were one dimensional guys who barely differed from each other, and were ultimately forgettable. The directing was super safe (and in some cases didn't make sense), boring color palette, cringe romance that no one cares about, the film doesn't really have a message, it doesn't help that it portrays Iraqis in a low manner as well.

If its only saving redemption story wise...is that it is a film about Chris Kyle, then who ever wrote the film doesn't understand how stories work or their purposes. What is compelling about this movie?


----------



## raizen28 (Jan 28, 2015)

Arma 3+COD+94794882 explosions+American Sniper+Clint Eastwood's Life<<<<<<Michael Bay( entire script,94794883 explosions)


----------



## ~Gesy~ (Jan 28, 2015)

Violent By Design said:


> Could someone inform me on what they think American Sniper did good? Bradley Cooper did a good job sure...but the only other major actor was his wife, and she sucked. All the other characters were one dimensional guys who barely differed from each other, and were ultimately forgettable. The directing was super safe (and in some cases didn't make sense), boring color palette, cringe romance that no one cares about, the film doesn't really have a message, it doesn't help that it portrays Iraqis in a low manner as well.
> 
> If its only saving redemption story wise...is that it is a film about Chris Kyle, then who ever wrote the film doesn't understand how stories work or their purposes. What is compelling about this movie?



The movie not having a point is a plus for me, because that's life. What I found compelling is it gave me a closer look on what Soldiers overseas are most likely going through. Not saying I didn't already know, but seeing makes you more sympathetic than hearing, ya know?

Also i'm not saying it's a factual depiction of Chris K , but it has the right framework to be true for _someone_, right?


----------



## Cyphon (Jan 28, 2015)

Gesy is on the right track for what I think draws in most people. It really put you there from a single perspective with the emotion and what you go through. It also helped that Cooper was so good in the role. 

While I was watching I was thinking "would I have been able to shoot that kid?" or "could I have pulled the trigger?". Shit like that.


----------



## Black Superman (Mar 8, 2015)

Selma was better and it doesn't even have a thread.


----------

