Wow...what a crazy movie...what has me though is the end...the man who killed Kyle is said to have had a history of mental illness.... I just hope that there is not a lot of stigma attached to the movie causing more hate or fear of people with mental health issues. I know that even at my worst I have never hurt anyone or ever will I'm more a danger to myself in all honesty. as it is with most people with mental health problems. Anyway I just wanted to get that out there!
I'm far more concerned with the fact that this movie portrays a psychopathic, racist human being who probably would have ended up becoming a serial killer if he hadn't joined the military as one of the greatest American heroes of all time. Read Chris Kyle's autobiography, dude refers to Muslims as subhuman and boasts about how much he loved killing people in damn near every chapter of the book. Bradley Cooper's character in this movie is a complete work of fiction in everything but name and occupation. Oh, and there's also that whole bit where the movie completely revises history to make it look like Chris Kyle was in Iraq hunting the Taliban even though the Taliban was never in Iraq in the first place. And the fact that it's arguably the biggest piece of anti-Muslim propaganda ever fed to the American public. But hey, nothing wrong with getting a bunch of conservatively-prone white people riled up and wanting to go out and kill some towel heads for the sake of breaking box office records, right? Yeah, with all the other big controversial topics surrounding this movie, the whole mental illness stigma is probably not going to be too big of a problem. I didn't really even think about it until reading your post, honestly. It's certainly a problematic portrayal of mental illness, but it's a rather small footnote compared to everything else going on in the movie that people are arguing about.
I haven't read the book or anything about how he refers to Muslims as subhuman so I wouldn't know about any of that.. I do like the fact that it draws attention to the plight of a soldiers life...from experience it is extremely stressful. I know the movie is causing some people to want to harm Muslims and that makes me feel bad.
Without people like Chris Kyle we wouldn't be able to enjoy the things we do. Linkin Park might not be a band. Things like the LPA would be censored/illegal. Regardless of what you think you should be respectful of the people who sacrifice their lives for our freedom. No one makes them go out and join the armed forces, it's a conscious decision they make because they want to help protect our country. Chris Kyle loved America and what it stood for. He died trying to help fellow veterans that came home with mental illness, and here you are complaining about a movie and 'how bad of a person'. You're being a keyboard warrior, and I mean damn that makes you right about everything. You didn't know him, so you can't judge him. Was he talking about killing all Muslims when he said he liked killing them, or was he talking about the ones that took down the towers? The ones that killed hundreds of children at school in Peshawar recently? The ones that are currently executing innocent hostages, murdering children and innocent civilians, and invoking terror attacks like the one at Charlie Hebdo? Basically, you didn't know Chris Kyle so you can't jump to conclusions about what kind of a man he was or wasn't. Bottom line is that he gave it all protecting our freedoms and helping out his fellow man.
The Iraqi war had nothing to do with freedom. Absolute zero. I guess I'm gonna be that guy, but this was far from an American hero even before the possibility of being a deranged racist with a lot of blood on his hands. Now, I haven't seen the movie and I don't plan to because as far as I can tell, here we have another "patriotic", war mongering piece of propaganda. Now, if someone can tell me otherwise, I'm open. If someone can show me that this movie hasn't dressed up some lunatic as a war hero and glorified our little escapades in the middle east, I will go see this movie.
I'm sorry, you're right. I should have the utmost respect for all the trigger-happy racist shitbags in this country who signed up for the military after 9/11 because it gave them a free ride to the Middle East to kill all of those "subhuman sand niggers" who were clearly to blame for everything. Never mind the fact that we singled out Afghanistan and Iraq when the 9/11 attacks were actually financed by a bunch of very wealthy Saudi Arabians with ties to the Bush family, which is clearly detailed in the 28 redacted pages of the 9/11 Joint Congressional Inquiry...oops did I say that out loud? Shit, I can hear the black helicopters already. Chris Kyle referred to Iraqis as "savages." Not just the terrorists, Iraqis in general. He went so far as to say that he "couldn't give a fuck about them." He also believed that every single one of the 250+ people he killed during his military career were "the bad guys." Even if they were unarmed women and children. He claimed to have murdered looters during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The "logic" this guy based his career on was basically "Americans are always the good guys, and the brown people are all crazy and need to be killed." Not surprising, considering he was a simple-minded Republican from Texas raised by two fanatical Christians who gave him his first rifle when he was fucking eight years old. And Chris Kyle didn't protect a goddamn one of my freedoms, because he spent his entire military career killing people in a country that never had any fucking intention of invading mine. This guy was about as much of an American hero as Joe the Plumber as far as I'm concerned. I know nothing about Eddie Ray Routh (he never put out a hatred-filled, egotistical autobiography, so forgive me for being ignorant about his history), so I'll stop plenty short of calling the guy a hero or anything, but hey, his actions made it so there was one less shitbag out there making me ashamed to be from the same country as them, so fine by me.
He signed up before 9/11...not that it matters. Anyone who is willing to put their own life at risk protecting their country is a hero. Chris Kyle was protecting his people.
I don't know politics and I want to ask this without getting banned or offending people but this is a question I've had for long and it might come off as ignorant but I'll ask. What exactly did American soldiers do in other countries? Isn't that none of your business? I don't know how to phrase this. Like can't you just stop terrorists from entering your country? Are you people helping the civilians there? I am sorry if this really offends anyone, I am from India and this doesn't make much sense to me.
ask anything you want...I was in Germany and I did Supply. I was in the Air Force. I don't follow politics much either. There are a lot of not so nice people on this planet. I believe we are empowering those who can't defend themselves to do so.
What was in Iraq that was a threat to us? A threat to our freedom? What was to be gained from invading that country, killing thousands (many innocent), and spending trillions of dollars. I once had an older friend who told me a story of innocent people being cut in half (literally) with machine guns. Why are we glorifying that? Honest questions. Why was all that blood necessary?
I think.. just an opinion is because after 9/11 everyone "everyone" was devastated very devastated and angry. We didn't want it to happen again. I got out shortly before 9/11 happened.
Chris Kyle has stated multiple times before that he called the people was killing savages, not the Iraqi people as a whole. In which, I would kinda agree with him.
An event such as 9/11 would have never happened had America not dabbled in shit that has nothing to do with them. People like Chris Kyle aren't "protecting our freedom." All they're doing is helping extended what is the American Empire. We aren't helping anybody by what is essentially invading their homeland. I just don't see what's honorable about about praising a man who helped slaughter people. It's fucking barbaric. ^American logic.
Except, ya know, the people over there are being ruled by terrorist groups like ISIS and the Taliban who rule with fear and take control of villages and enforce their extremists views on those people. Not to mention other crimes like rape and murder that they commit freely with no consequences.
Yeah, 'cuz the American military is completely innocenct from ever doing anything like that. All of the things you mentioned in your post could also be applied to American forces there. How are we any different?
I feel the need to point out that most of the people fighting wars tend to get a tad bit racially insensitive. Or did you guys not know back in World War 2 they would take the skulls of dead Japanese and mail them back home as souvenirs?
I think if you've never been in the service you really can't claim to know something like that. http://insidemovies.ew.com/2015/01/21/fact-checking-american-sniper/ http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/23/entertainment/american-sniper-misunderstood-feat/index.html for those of you who might be wondering I don't have PTSD...I have Schizophrenia
Your use of words like "Keyboard Warrior" dismiss any actual credence to anything you have to say in my opinion. Same with anyone who goes on about "Social Justice Warriors" and other nonsense hyperbole that denies actual empathy, thought, logic and rationality to current events.
So basically your trying to say that anyone who disagrees with what you might have to say...you are totally going to ignore them no matter what....because you believe you are better than they are? That you are in fact more knowledgeable then they are and of course have more empathy. When in fact I feel like I am under attack here just because I liked the movie and was in the military. Please tell me where is my understanding and empathy?
What I'm trying to say is that anyone that reduces themselves to using deragatory words like "keyboard warrior" are just doing so to dimiss others genuine concern. I didn't comment on anything else so I don't see how you glimpsed anything else from what I said unless you're just looking for an argument that doesn't exist.