American Sniper : Wed Jan 14, 2015 5:13 pm  

Amazing film!

Leaving aside the politics of the war in Iraq, this is a true story of Americas greatest ever sniper. The film is brutal at times yet also captures the sensitivity of Chris Kyle the husband, dad and family man.

It's the story of a man who was so good at his job he became known as "Legend" by Navy SEALs, a name he was never comfortable with and would prefer not to have.

Anyway, it's a fast paced, engrossing movie that fills it's running time so well it's busting at the seems and is over before you realise.

Watch it, you won't be disappointed

Re: American Sniper : Sat Jan 17, 2015 11:12 am  

Not seen it yet, but big fan of Clint so will borrow it off a mate when it comes out on blue-ray.

Not sure Clint will be showing me the real Chris Kyle, e.g. boasting killing was "fun", he "loved" it, and he hated "the damn savages,” and "couldn't give a flying f*** about the Iraqis.” I am wondering if Clint has left out the bragged about killing looters during Hurricane Katrina or how Chris Kyle reportedly boasted of "looting the apartments of Iraqi families in Fallujah,” author Rania Khalek called him the “American psycho”.

I am expecting a well polished flick. Clint is normally at home and a master of this genre.

Re: American Sniper : Sat Jan 17, 2015 1:10 pm  

V6Chuk wrote:

Not seen it yet, but big fan of Clint so will borrow it off a mate when it comes out on blue-ray.

Not sure Clint will be showing me the real Chris Kyle, e.g. boasting killing was "fun", he "loved" it, and he hated "the damn savages,” and "couldn't give a flying f*** about the Iraqis.” I am wondering if Clint has left out the bragged about killing looters during Hurricane Katrina or how Chris Kyle reportedly boasted of "looting the apartments of Iraqi families in Fallujah,” author Rania Khalek called him the “American psycho”.

I am expecting a well polished flick. Clint is normally at home and a master of this genre.

Well, since watching the movie last week I've spent some time looking into the character of Chris Kyle and read about some of his controversial comments. I've found a number of sources where he's said he thought the Iraqi insurgents he killed were savages but he certainly didn't mean all Iraqi's. He also admits that he had no doubt the Iraqis would be justified in calling some members of the coalition forces "savages" so he wasn't generalising about Iraqis as a people or limiting his description to just Iraqis.

IMO he had every right to "hate" those insurgents who were intent on killing him, his colleagues and in many cases other innocent Iraqi people. I've found no references to him looting or making the "flying fukc" comment although if he made that comment then I'm sure it was within the context set out above.

As for the shooting of looters, I doubt that happened but maybe it did, maybe it didn't. As with the Jesse Ventura case, I'm inclined to believe that it's true despite a jury saying there was insufficient eveidence to corroborate Kyles claim and awarding damages to Ventura.

In war there are always two sides to every account of events, I'm certain there are many Iraqi insurgents who hate Chris Kyle and have a very different version of events than those told by thus movie. I'm sure there are North Koreans, North Vietnamese etc who tell a much different tale to the popular conceptions prevalent in the West.

So, none of what you say detracts from Eastwoods movie, nor does it diminish Chris Kyles service record.

Re: American Sniper : Mon Jan 19, 2015 3:23 pm  

The Avenger wrote:

As for the shooting of looters, I doubt that happened but maybe it did, maybe it didn't.

If it didn't happen he was a liar who made a stupid lie where he falsely claimed to be a murderer. If it happened he was a murderer.

Re: American Sniper : Mon Jan 19, 2015 4:45 pm  

Lord God Jose Mourinho wrote:

If it didn't happen he was a liar who made a stupid lie where he falsely claimed to be a murderer. If it happened he was a murderer.

Unless he was under orders from the law enforcement authorities who treat looters extremely seriously during times of disaster like the one he mentions.
Or
Maybe he sensationalised a passage of his life to spice up the book, I don't know and neither do you. It makes me laugh though when people jump straight in calling someone a liar when you haven't a clue what's true and what's not.

Re: American Sniper : Mon Jan 19, 2015 9:45 pm  

The Avenger wrote:

Unless he was under orders from the law enforcement authorities who treat looters extremely seriously during times of disaster like the one he mentions.

Or
Maybe he sensationalised a passage of his life to spice up the book, I don't know and neither do you. It makes me laugh though when people jump straight in calling someone a liar when you haven't a clue what's true and what's not.

Kyle may have been an awesome sniper. He clearly was a Navy Seal, which earns most people's respect.

But beyond that he has a record of lying which means virtually nothing he has said can be accepted without verification.

If Kyle killed dozens of looters in New Orleans then the families of the people he murdered would have sued him. If there was an idiot he gave him those ridiculous orders they'd have been in court too. He wasn't taken to court because he's a liar.

If he shot two carjackers there would have been police reports and the dead men would have been named. By his account he was completely justified in shooting them, he wouldn't have needed to give the cops the special phone number of someone at the Pentagon to clear him.

If Kyle had punched Ventura then he would have had witnesses he would have backed him up. Because he was making it up his estate ended up coughing up nearly $2m.

Re: American Sniper : Tue Jan 20, 2015 11:29 am  

Excellent film

I got bored of the book, and packed in around half way, which meant I was unaware of the ending!

Re: American Sniper : Wed Jan 21, 2015 9:03 pm  

So it's safe to say if he hadn't been in the forces he'd have found his way onto 'Dexter s table'?

[Durham Giant]

Re: American Sniper : Tue Jan 27, 2015 11:54 pm  

A good war film if you dont mind war films devoid of historical accuracy, any sense of moral ambivalence , or a good old dose of US flag waving.

It was as good as John Waynes The Green Berets but not as good as black hawk down.

The only thing i was disappointed in was the fact that we never got to see Chris Kyle killing Iraqis who were just about to let loose their WMDs which were going to devastate London in 45 minutes.

Re: American Sniper : Wed Jan 28, 2015 11:28 am  

Durham Giant wrote:

A good war film if you dont mind war films devoid of historical accuracy, any sense of moral ambivalence , or a good old dose of US flag waving.

All of which I do mind; I didn't quite trust Clint Eastwood with this, particularly not after watching the god-awful Gran Torino, and it sounds like he's taken a similar approach; I'll watch it when it hits Sky.