American Sniper opened this weekend, raking in $90.2 million and earning the attention of moviegoers and pundits on both sides of the aisle. Clint Eastwood masterminded the Oscar nominated film that chronicles the life of Iraq War veteran, Chris Kyle, and earned himself the best opening weekend of his career.
Bradley Cooper who stars as Kyle, began working on the project in 2012.
In an interview with the Navy Times, Cooper explained:
“There hasn’t been a character study of a soldier that’s gone through this war that I’ve seen on film,” he said. “I liked that idea, and I thought framing it as a Western would be very interesting.”
Cooper worked with the men who trained Kyle on sniper weapons. He told The Navy Times:
“The one thing that I could control is, I wanted it to look like this guy that you’re watching is very familiar and dexterous with his weapons, and I felt successful with that.”
Cooper’s portrayal of Kyle was so successful that Kyle’s widow told the Military Times she felt as though she was watching her late husband on the silver screen, not Cooper.
Paul Rieckhoff, Iraq veteran and founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America reviewed American Sniper for Variety:
I’ve seen just about every film about the Iraq War ever made. I’ve produced and associate produced a few. I even appeared in one (for about a millisecond). And without a doubt, “American Sniper” is the single best work of film about the Iraq War ever made.
Now, it’s not the most complex film. Not the deepest film. Not even the most provocative. But in terms of storytelling, action, emotion, production and performance, attention to detail and especially the frighteningly accurate soundscape, there’s been nothing else close that’s been made since my platoon entered the war in Iraq in 2003. It’s a cinematic bull’s-eye.
Less like a sniper’s shot and more like heavy artillery, the film tells an incredible story with pounding power and brings the average civilian viewer closer to the American post-9/11 combat experience than they’ve ever been before.
Unlike many of its predecessors which were framed with a liberal political perspective, perhaps one of the most enjoying aspects of American Sniper is that there’s no political angle. As Rieckhoff observed, “American Sniper” does not, however, much address the overall complexity of the larger political issues surrounding the war — or the complexity of the Iraqi side of the experience. And that’s OK.”
American Sniper is easily one of the best modern war films I’ve seen (and I’m always a sucker for military films), falling in the same category as Saving Private Ryan, which until now, was in a class of its own.
A great story about an American hero, American Sniper is a film that honors our troops, their families, and their sacrifices.
Take the family, splurge on a big bag of buttery pop corn, maybe even a coke, and go see American Sniper. Be sure to take Kleenex; you’ll need them. You’ll leave humbled, thankful, and wanting to fly 100 American flags. I know I did.
Official Trailer here:
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Comments
pretty much bedridden so have to wait for netflix. however not sure if I will see it or not, just not the type of movie I watch and since I would not really pay attn (I cannot sit in one position for more than 15 minutes) I feel I would dishonor it.
thats a slam against me not the movie.
really am glad its doing well. still tear up when I think about him dying helping a vet.
it pissing the libs off is icing on the cake.
I have a bit of Adult Attention Deficit Disorder which makes sitting in a movie theater for a film more than 2 hours or more a chore, this movie is an exception. There were no slow spots in the film at all, it was that fast paced.
Dh went to see this movie, with two other retirees. The only thing he said was that he hated being in a theater. It was crowded, there was a solid half hour of commercials, and a very long walk to the men’s rooms. He wished he had waited for Netflix. 🙂
And….Apparently the loathsome, corpulent, Lefty Slime, Mikey Moore, hasn’t been getting attention lately so he’s announced that our snipers–having killed countless numbers of IslamoNazi Butchers–are…ready….”Cowards”.
Got that? They weren’t playing fair with Dark Age Mass Murderers. CANNOT…Simply CANNOT make the S*** Up!!
Oh, I almost forgot, he went on to tweety his facey on Insta hashtag: “Invaders are worse.” Meaning us, NOT ISIS.
Boy, JaBBA
Wow. That was weird….
Boy, Jabba the Bungalow must REALLY hate artillery, tankers, and pilots. We don’t care which-a-way the enemy is facing. We just care where they are when the ordinance hits.
I have not seen the movie, but did read the book. I am thankful every day this nation still produces such young men.
As long as we do, we have hope.
michael moore has always been a POS. He makes a living trashing the United States. No surprise there.
Seth Rogen too, seems to be butthurt about not getting enough attention. He is also talking trash about American Sniper.
They both can say buh-bye to my hard earned dollars. Going to watch the sniper, though.
As usual, prog drones such as Mikey More lack the self-awareness to realize they are self-parodies in motion.
In many countries on this earth scum like him simply wouldn’t exist. He likely would have been snuffed out in the crib when Momma realized what a fat, ugly, worthless turd he was. And he certainly never would have made it to adulthood as he would have had his lying throats slit for him, or his fat skull bashed in with a rock or other implement, perhaps a couple of fists.
Only in the “evil” western world, the US in particular, which they despise so much, are spineless, mush-headed worms like him allowed to exist, nay thrive.
Fuck you, fat Marxist pig, fuck you.
Paul: IMMEDIATE Sensitivity Training for you, Bucko!!
Oh, and well & beautifully stated.
Actally since he was discussing that disgusting tub of useless goo known as Jaba….I mean Michael Moore, I think he was being pretty sensitive.
My 22 years of active duty did include a bit of combat. although never as a sniper. However, this old retiree has nothing but respect for the “13 cent killers” I knew in Vietnam, and on more than one occasion was damned glad for their overwatch. Mr. Less-is-Moore can take a flying leap; he is a poltroon not worthy to wipe any military member’s boots!
You’d think dumbasses like Moore would appreciate snipers for their surgical precision and lack of collateral damage. Instead, the heap scorn on the snipers and wax eloquent about our Drone President. Freaking idiots, all.
Good point about “invaders”. My late father told me a story, after he had thankfully gone almost a year in France, Belgium and Germany without stopping a German bullet, he was in occupation duty in Bremerhaven. Quite a few GIs had been beaten, in some cases to death, after leaving beer kellers after dark, by locals who considered them…invaders. All our guys had been disarmed by the Army, so my father bought a 25 Browning and ammo on the black market [where you could get ANYTHING]. And one night, alone, he was jumped. He told me “Frankie, the 25 might not kill you, but it will give you a terrible tummy ache”. And it did, and the assailants scattered. MPs later busted into the barracks where he was shivering but never found the gun. Case closed.
Michael Moore still won’t say which side his uncle was fighting for — could it have been the commies?
And since everything MM say’s is a nugget of truth with a web of lies spun around it, I bet the real story would be interesting to read.
Don’t blame the uncle. Blame the moronic nephew.
I saw American Sniper over the weekend. The silence as the credits rolled was stunning and no one in the theater moved for the longest time after it ended. I almost always listen to music in my car but needed the quiet on the ride home to regroup. I can’t remember ever being so touched by a movie. I live in Michigan so if I ever happen to run into Michael Moore, I promise all of the fine LI loyalists that I will crotch kick him!
I thought the solitary trumpet [or was it a bugle?] score played while Kyle’s funeral procession drove through the rain, scores of Texans lining the roads and overpasses, was most extraordinary. Would like to know who composed it and who played the trumpet.
You can tell it must be a great movie by the way the left is about to swallow its tongue trying to poo poo it.
As far as Michael Moore is concerned he is just jealous that all he can write is left wing fiction and could never handle a project like this, he just isn’t talented enough.
“Cooper’s portrayal of Kyle was so successful that Kyle’s widow told the Military Times she felt as though she was watching her late husband on the silver screen, not Cooper.”
Can there be a more powerful endorsement for an actor? I haven’t seen the movie but Cooper must have done excellent work cause this lady is not known to mince words or offer undeserved praise freely.
It is a very, very good movie. The Iraq combat sequences are extraordinary [contemptible that Eastwood didn’t get a director nomination]. The Kyle-at-home-between-tours sequences are unbearable. Whether or not Eastwood wanted to make the point that a man can be a warrior, and a man can be a husband and father, but no man can flip in 24 hours between the two, the point was made. IMHO the movie is the first time the American fighting man has been honored since those produced shortly after World War II. And no matter what the anti-American snobs at the Academy do, Eastwood is going to have the last laugh with so many in America giving his film and Chris Kyle the thumbs up.
As I’ve said elsewhere, make a good war movie that’s not Anti-America, and the American audience will want to watch it. This film makes more in the opening weekend than all of the Anti-American war movie of the last 10 years combined.
I thought it was a decent movie. Well worth the price of the ticket.
The fake baby though… that had me wondering. It was so obvious and weird on the screen, thankfully it was only a few seconds of film time.
But otherwise I would recommend the movie if you’re looking for something to see this week.
I thought it was a very, very good movie, but I too was thrown for a loop by the fake baby. I speculate that is the latest Hollywood “thou shalt not”. There was an endless series of trailers consisting 70% of CGI, people getting blown up, cars getting blown up, houses and bridges getting blown up, and the audience is supposed to be wowed by the fakery. I know my father as an adolescent was impressed with the buzzing spaceships from the planet Mongo in Flash Gordon but I am not.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/american-snipers-fake-baby-mocked-764702
“Shooting in California poses some challenges when employing a real baby given the state’s strict laws (part of the movie was shot in Los Angeles). Infants must be at least 15 days old, and babies from that age up to six months can be employed for only one period of two consecutive hours in any given day. Moreover, that time frame has to be between 9:30-11:30 a.m. or from 2:30-4:30 p.m., and one studio teacher along with one nurse must be on set during filming.
According to American Sniper screenwriter/executive producer Jason Hall, there’s actually a good explanation as to why fake babies were used on the film. In response to journalist Mark Harris’ tweet “That plastic baby in American Sniper is going to be rationalized by Eastwood auteur cultists until the end of days,” Hall replied: “hate to ruin the fun but real baby #1 showed up with a fever. Real baby #2 was no show. (Clint voice) Gimme the doll, kid.”
Thanks. Caught that article after making my post. Figures.
Hey, take it from a school nurse, that’s what happens when you work with kids.
I do however, wonder why they would need a teacher for a 6 month old, the nurse I get, but teacher?
Dear Mr. Rogan:
The Nazis were trying to take over the world. We try to save people. When the Nazis won a war the land became theirs. When America wins a war we give the land back. We never intend for it to become part of America.
Why is that so hard to understand?
Example: If we had wanted Iraq it would be ours right now. And Kuwait, too, for that matter. “War for Oil” my @ss. We could have driven our Abrams tanks straight across the desert to the oil fields and said, “You know what? All of this belongs to us now,” and nobody could have done a damn thing about it. But we didn’t. We did our thing and we left.
For Pete’s sake, we don’t even own Japan and we literally vaporized a couple of their cities to get them to surrender! They were utterly at our mercy. We could easily have turned Japan into our 49th state. But, no, we set them back on their feet and let them go.
And do you know why that is?
Because we’re the good guys!
^^^ THIS, This, a thousand times this!!! ^^^
LOVED IT! Humbled and Grateful for men like Chris Kyle. America needs more sheepdogs.
Regarding the lawsuit where Jesse Ventura won damages for libel AND unjust enrichment…can somebody explain to me how Ventura was able to get both? Unjust enrichment is an equitable remedy and my understanding is that a party may not have equitable relief where there is an adequate remedy at law available. Shouldn’t the defamation claim (being an adequate remedy at law) preclude any equitable claim of unjust enrichment? I know this was brought up in Chris Kyle’s wife’s trial briefs but I can’t find any explanation for how the court got around this.
Frank Natoli
” I’ll silenzio ” by Nino Rossi. Lots of covers on YouTube. See Melissa Venema particularly.
Husband and I watched this excellent film this past weekend. Kleenex needed at the ending! My husband didn’t know the story of Chris Kyle – and between tears I briefly explained the ending to him… he was stunned into a silent “ooohhh…” of sadness.
Great film.
Great acting.
Great statement of support by the American public.
– also –
A Great repudiation of the 24×7 leftist media/news/holly-weird pounding the USA endures…
You cannot FORCE your lefty-collectivist anti gun anti military anti patriotic memes on a VASTLY conservative / independent / freedom loving nation.
RIP Chris.