When I read this exceptional review, I felt compelled to share it. As a part of my life's path, I have known several snipers, up close and personal. It has provided an acute sense of the folks they really are "down under". While the views I have garnered are quite varied, no doubt because of the character of the person before they even engaged in that "job". I say job, because there are many types of training, "employers", time in active duty, length of time performing the job, and the entire ecology of that person, etc.
I confess, when in any danger, I would be thrilled to have one of these folks "at my six" with their generally superlative training and keen instincts. At the same time, we would be naive not to take into account the percentage of sociopaths in any one of our services. How a Kyle could have made it as far as he did, with his disturbing statements and clear proclivities, remains to be seen....and see we will.
The "Kyles" in our services/ops are a psychologically interesting sort with much that forms them. So, my likely intention is to see the film. The trailers do intrigue me, not the least of which is Bradley Cooper, immensely pleasing to the eyes. But that is a point from which to proceed...the eyes, that is. In each of the trailers, Cooper plays the role with sharpness and clarity, in being able to fix his eyes in a vacuous, "sold my soul to the devil", "no one is really home here", chilling sort of way. His wife is oblivious to this...amazing. But it is clear something is stirring in her soul. It may be that to really acknowledge that, she must face her own demons head on. Whether she does that will be revealed in the film.
Why Is the Real American Sniper -- a Hate-Filled Killer -- Being Treated as a Hero?
Retaliation from the rightwing twittersphere about the criticism of Chris Kyle was swift and violent.
January 9, 2015
"I have to confess: I was suckered by the trailer for American Sniper. It’s a masterpiece of short-form tension – a confluence of sound and image so viscerally evocative it feels almost domineering. You cannot resist. You will be stressed out. You will feel. Or, as I believe I put it in a blog about the trailer, “Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper trailer will ruin your pants.”
But however effective it is as a piece of cinema, even a cursory look into the film’s backstory – and particularly the public reaction to its release – raises disturbing questions about which stories we choose to codify into truth, and whose, and why, and the messy social costs of transmogrifying real life into entertainment." CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE
