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JANUARY 2015 MOVIE DISCUSSION


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The action scenes in American Sniper were amateur hour and things like the morning of 9/11 were downright laughable. The dialogue was terrible. Also, firefight while wife is on the phone? Come on.

The firefight with the wife did actually happen. In fact, there were two different instances where Kyle was on the phone back home when fighting broke out - once with his wife, once with his father.

 

 

I read that it didn't and certainly not the way it was portrayed here. I'll tell you who I don't believe on anything. Chris Kyle. He lied and lied and lied some more.

 

 

Word is lied about the lies that he lied about.

 

I also have it on good authority that he even lied to his aunt when he went down South.

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My audience absolutely fell in love with Bradley Cooper; laughing at any light-hearted situation, cheering on his victories, shouting encouragement during his setbacks, and plenty of applause at the end of the movie.  It was like being in the studio audience for a '70s sitcom, and I think that overall experience lifted the film a few notches for me.

 

I think you nailed the problem Reed and many others (including myself) will/do have with this film in two short sentences. 

 

 

True.  It would receive much less flak if it wasn't the biography of a recently-deceased man whose actions, whatever your opinion of them, are fresh in our minds.  Take Bradley Cooper, make him a random gruff-but-lovable roguish family man who shoots people for a living, and you have a film that would be either loved or ignored.

 

I saw American Sniper last Friday night, and I went to see The Interview two nights before that.  American Sniper received more audience laughs than The Interview did.  That's probably not what was intended to happen, but there we are.

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My audience absolutely fell in love with Bradley Cooper; laughing at any light-hearted situation, cheering on his victories, shouting encouragement during his setbacks, and plenty of applause at the end of the movie.  It was like being in the studio audience for a '70s sitcom, and I think that overall experience lifted the film a few notches for me.

 

I think you nailed the problem Reed and many others (including myself) will/do have with this film in two short sentences. 

 

 

You just saved me from writing about a 1,000 words on this.

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Just kidding I still have some things to say...

 

It's a powerful story and one not changed by the protagonist's credibility issues in any meaningful way

 

The story itself is not changed by his credibility issues, but the decision to present the story in the way they did? That's why the internet is blowing up about this. When a vast majority of the audience is walking out thinking this guy was a good man, it leaves a sour taste in my mouth.  It does so because I know about the credibility issues.  I know that this guy claims to have killed American citizens in New Orleans post-katrina.  I know that they changed lines like "I don’t shoot people with Korans. I’d like to, but I don’t." to  "I don't know what a Koran looks like."

 

Clint could have copied word for word from the book and it would have at least been more honest.  If it was a lesser director I would probably just shrug it off, but it's Clint fucking Eastwood and he is better than this.

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I have issues with Kyle's credibility because I have trained Marine SPEC-OPS and SEALs before and those guys are patriotic but extremely tight lipped.  The fact that Kyle wrote a book seems somewhat disingenuous, but try not to be too acidic out of respect for his widow and the family he left behind.

 

I agree with most of the sentiment concerning the Iraq War, but I stop short of coming down too hard on the fighting forces in the field because they are out there so that civilians don't have to be.   Civs can remain at home exercising their Constitutional right of Free Speech to criticize the policy.

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I have issues with Kyle's credibility because I have trained Marine SPEC-OPS and SEALs before and those guys are patriotic but extremely tight lipped.  The fact that Kyle wrote a book seems somewhat disingenuous, but try not to be too acidic out of respect for his widow and the family he left behind.

 

I agree with most of the sentiment concerning the Iraq War, but I stop short of coming down too hard on the fighting forces in the field because they are out there so that civilians don't have to be.   Civs can remain at home exercising their Constitutional right of Free Speech to criticize the policy.

 

Part of me is very sympathetic to Kyle because he was following orders and just wanted to serve his country. Before, I'd have just shifted 100% of the blame on the people who put him in the position.

 

But that doesn't excuse some his cold and, frankly, racist remarks after he came back. Maybe it was just PTSD, I don't know.

 

I guess I do have sympathy for him...to an extent.

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I have issues with Kyle's credibility because I have trained Marine SPEC-OPS and SEALs before and those guys are patriotic but extremely tight lipped.  The fact that Kyle wrote a book seems somewhat disingenuous, but try not to be too acidic out of respect for his widow and the family he left behind.

 

I completely understand this criticism because you're right. It is a little disingenuous to try and capitalize from your experiences related to serving your country especially while your country is still manning operations over in Iraq and Afghanistan.

 

It's one thing for a vet to write a tell-all book 10-15 years after major operations have ceased there. It's another thing to feel that you have a certain notoriety to capitalize on a moment.

 

I am about as Pro-Capitalism as you'll find, but I can see where certain lines need to be drawn. This is definitely one of them.

Also, keep in mind that the screenwriter was initially writing this project for Spielberg, and Spielberg scripts are rarely ones to wrestle with tougher subject matter barring a few small exceptions. Even then, I think Spielberg is usually more fascinated with the story than the subtext.

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Clint could have copied word for word from the book and it would have at least been more honest.  If it was a lesser director I would probably just shrug it off, but it's Clint fucking Eastwood and he is better than this.

 

This is where people need to have a reality check about who or what Clint Eastwood is at this point. This is who he is so no, he is not better than this. This is the guy who spoke down to an imaginary president in a chair. Immediately before that he directed and acted in Gran Torino. GT should have been the point where people questioned how and why Eastwood changed. This was no longer the guy who did such fantastic work with Unforgiven, Flags of our Fathers/Letters from Iwo Jima, etc. What you're witnessing is the Fox News-ification of a man who was once a great director doing impressive work.

 

Clint Eastwood is now a lesser director. He was better than this. He is no longer presently better than this because this is who he now is and that's sad.

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Watched Filth last night. Since I'm a huuuuuuuge Irvine Welsh fan (though I haven't read the book) I enjoyed it, but it's a nasty downer of a film that honestly does get really tunnel-visioned by the main character's initial exploits. Welsh's characters are always sociopaths that somehow deep down have a heart of gold; this time he gives us a man who is truly bipolar and quite mad and though he's suffered some real tragedy is also a racist, sexist, homophobic asshole that stomps on the rights and lives of everyone. Welsh's explanation of the character is more interesting than watching his life transpire. But... goddammit, it's a Welsh story, I am obsessed with Scottish dialect, and James McAvoy (who Welsh rightly said looked like he was all of 10 when he walked in for the audition) somehow convincingly turns himself into a 40-year old cop having a high-speed come-apart. Your mileage may vary.

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Clint could have copied word for word from the book and it would have at least been more honest.  If it was a lesser director I would probably just shrug it off, but it's Clint fucking Eastwood and he is better than this.

 

This is where people need to have a reality check about who or what Clint Eastwood is at this point. This is who he is so no, he is not better than this. This is the guy who spoke down to an imaginary president in a chair. Immediately before that he directed and acted in Gran Torino. GT should have been the point where people questioned how and why Eastwood changed. This was no longer the guy who did such fantastic work with Unforgiven, Flags of our Fathers/Letters from Iwo Jima, etc. What you're witnessing is the Fox News-ification of a man who was once a great director doing impressive work.

 

Clint Eastwood is now a lesser director. He was better than this. He is no longer presently better than this because this is who he now is and that's sad.

 

 

Maybe he's lost his empathy and thoughtfullness as a director? That was part of why he was so good in the first place, wasn't it?

 

Also: he has gotten old. I imagine after you hit 80 it gets too tiring to do anything but phone it in.

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Watched Filth last night. Since I'm a huuuuuuuge Irvine Welsh fan (though I haven't read the book) I enjoyed it, but it's a nasty downer of a film that honestly does get really tunnel-visioned by the main character's initial exploits. Welsh's characters are always sociopaths that somehow deep down have a heart of gold; this time he gives us a man who is truly bipolar and quite mad and though he's suffered some real tragedy is also a racist, sexist, homophobic asshole that stomps on the rights and lives of everyone. Welsh's explanation of the character is more interesting than watching his life transpire. But... goddammit, it's a Welsh story, I am obsessed with Scottish dialect, and James McAvoy (who Welsh rightly said looked like he was all of 10 when he walked in for the audition) somehow convincingly turns himself into a 40-year old cop having a high-speed come-apart. Your mileage may vary.

 

I forgot, but I watched Filth recently as well. It takes a lot for a movie to be as much of a downer as Shame, so bravo Filth, you did it.

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And further, would anyone want Eastwood making a movie about Ferguson, MO?

 

No, but I am not sure that I want Michael Moore making a movie about Ferguson either.

 

I'm not even sure there is a director on earth that could tell that story evenly without vilifying one of the parties.

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Sofia Coppola's Ferguson.

 

Pretty much eveyone in the town is too busy looking despondently out of hotel room windows to actually get any protesting done. And instead of macing people, the cops just hang around bars complaining about how lonely they are.

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The only way I want Ferguson to be treated onscreen is in documentary form. 

 

Shame was a downer in a different, more realistic way, but yeah. Both movies are just fucked. Filth was like Bad Lieutenant filtered through Welsh. 

 

Speaking of Welsh on film, The Acid House was really really good and nobody talks about it. Ecstasy sadly came off like a poor man's Trainspotting. Still waiting for Porno to come out sometime before the decade is over.

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Sofia Coppola's Ferguson.

 

Pretty much eveyone in the town is too busy looking despondently out of hotel room windows to actually get any protesting done. And instead of macing people, the cops just hang around bars complaining about how lonely they are.

 

Great soundtrack, though

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Sofia Coppola's Ferguson.

 

I think I would enjoy David Lynch's Ferguson a lot more even though I would have no idea what the fuck was going on.  Especially during the scenes where the police officers wear rabbit masks.

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Sofia Coppola's Ferguson.

 

I think I would enjoy David Lynch's Ferguson a lot more even though I would have no idea what the fuck was going on.  Especially during the scenes where the police officers wear rabbit masks.

 

 

I look forward to Blomkamp using what happened in Ferguson as the basis for a sci-fi movie. The hardest sci-fi.

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