American Sniper

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 1/26/15 at 10:12am

Saw it yesterday.It ranks as one of Eastwoods best & Coopers best performance to date.Even though I knew how the story ended it was gripping and held your interest. It is quite realistic in depicting what it must have been like.

It is a shame it has not got a prayer come oscar time

P.S. Even though he got numerous nominations for Direction awards from other venues, he was passed over for an Oscar nod.

Updated On: 1/26/15 at 10:12 AM

[javero]

Posted: 1/26/15 at 10:13am

Thanks for sharing. I'm going to check it out later today, finally.

[South Florida]

Posted: 1/26/15 at 12:17pm

Had the total opposite effect on me Roxy. I kept thinking this is a true story that is depicting this guy inaccurately, trying, without being able to make him a hero. I was surprised that I was the only person in a theater of about 100 viewers that walked out during the credits.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 1/26/15 at 12:22pm

Possible spoiler alert

Even though I knew what was coming you could figure out what was going to happen as the ending was telegraphed somewhat.Totally disagree .Ending was the only low point for me.

[South Florida]

Posted: 1/26/15 at 12:29pm

Do you think this sized up well against a movie like "Enemy at the Gates"?

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 1/26/15 at 12:30pm

Enjoyed Sniper. Did not see Enemy

[South Florida]

Posted: 1/26/15 at 12:37pm

I love a good war movie, even though I'm a pacifist. I strongly urge you to check that one out, the cast is amazing, the characters developed.

[javero]

Posted: 1/26/15 at 12:42pm

I saw Enemy at the Gates and was completed wowed. However, more than one historian has suggested that the duel between Jude Law and Ed Harris' characters was fictionalized.

[South Florida]

Posted: 1/26/15 at 12:45pm

I'm sure it was, but as a movie that kept you gripped it far exceeded this latest Clint effort. I dint see Jersey Boys, in NY and in the theaters, but I heard that sucked too, maybe it's time to quit.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 1/26/15 at 12:48pm

Thought Jersey Boys was unfairly maligned

We disagree re Sniper. Not bad for an 80 plus year old director.

[javero]

Posted: 1/26/15 at 12:54pm

Clint Eastwood is Hollywood royalty. He's one of the very select few individuals with certified hits as both an actor and director. Check out his BoxOfficeMojo stats as a director at the jump. Not everything he touches turns into gold but the man has put food on the tables of a bunch of folks in LaLa Land.
Clint Eastwood, the Director

[South Florida]

Posted: 1/26/15 at 1:02pm

Not a Clint hater. On a side note this continues a streak for me that has disliked every movie with the word "American" in it for a long time.

[javero]

Posted: 1/26/15 at 1:14pm

I'm willing to give American Sniper a chance. I tend to be a fan of his work until he starts shoving the US flag down my throat. He followed up a blockbuster like MILLION DOLLAR BABY with FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS. I refused to see the latter simply because Sean Hannity shilled it to death on Faux News.

[South Florida]

Posted: 1/26/15 at 1:29pm

Mystic River, Unforgiven, Million Dollar Baby, all enjoyed but his best direction was Josey Wales, classic.

[South Florida]

Posted: 1/26/15 at 1:43pm

The way that guy played around with guns in his house, loaded or unloaded made me hate him so much more, maybe that was them finally being honest, I dunno.

Updated On: 1/26/15 at 01:43 PM

[Bilbo3]

Posted: 1/26/15 at 2:08pm

I never thought they were trying to paint him as a hero at all. I actually thought the film did a great job on showing his anger was misguided and that his reasons for going to war weren't really ethical.

That being said, I didn't care much for the film and wouldn't have nominated it for Best picture. Not because of the politics people clearly think they see in it, but because I just found it to be mediocre. I would have preferred Gone Girl getting the last spot.

Updated On: 1/26/15 at 02:08 PM

[Wilmingtom]

Posted: 1/27/15 at 12:22am

Had Kyle not lied in this memoir, and if his family had not lied about proceeds from the book going to veterans' charities, the film might have had a bit more credibility. As it stands, I have no interest in seeing a movie about the self-proclimed "Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History." He was evidently proud to make that claim but as an American, it does not make me proud.

[Jungle Red]

Posted: 1/27/15 at 12:40am

After Roxy's raving review, I have no desire to see this.

I do love me some Cooper though. Maybe I can just watch Cooper on mute??

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 1/27/15 at 11:13am

To South

Not many directors would have tackled WW 2 from the Japanese side. Clint did

Check out Tora Tora Tora. Tells the Pearl Harbor story from both sides.

To Jungle. Nice to see you have an open mind. Got your sarcasm re raving. Maybe when someone makes a movie re ISIS you will take it off mute. I guess the snipers should not have been there so US soldiers could have been picked off one by one. In the movie, it shows the other side using a sniper. Guess that was OK. I guess the fact that it has been nominated for an Oscar & has received kudos from every sector means there are a lot of "raving" people out there. I am guessing you adore Bill Maher.

Try taking your blinders off. You cannot critique a movie you have not seen. It has some anti war elements in it. It is not a gung ho John Wayne recruiting poster movie. It shows that even those who survive come home with scars.

Updated On: 1/27/15 at 11:13 AM

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 1/27/15 at 12:30pm

That's a lot of guessing you just did, so nothing new to see here.

[haterobics]

Posted: 1/27/15 at 12:52pm

"I do love me some Cooper though. Maybe I can just watch Cooper on mute??"

I watched Twilight without sound. It was very pretty.

Is this an example of Bill Maher raving?! Seems pretty even-keeled to me...

[South Florida]

Posted: 1/27/15 at 2:06pm

When I first saw Tora Tora Tora, it was with my father, a Pearl Harbor survivor. It was in a Manhattan theater. There was a scene where a guy on fire goes running from the deck of a ship into the harbor. Someone had the bad taste to laugh at that scene, my father very angry, got up in the middle of the theater and started chewing that guy out loudly, it was quite an exhibition. I was raised on Patton, Midway, Tora... and those other movies. I'm 53 years old now Roxy and I've become aware of what this country stands for and it shares none of my interests.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 1/27/15 at 2:40pm

Sorry you feel that way

[haterobics]

Posted: 1/27/15 at 2:48pm

Eh, not sure what Roxy is commenting on there, but he probably doesn't either...

The problem is, even with your example of Tora, is that they are fictionalized versions of real events. We're not watching archival footage of a real battle.

I never saw Tora, but if the actor made some weird yelp as he was on fire, someone can find it amusing, since they know they are watching a movie where, after the scene was shot, both sides of the battle all had catering and gay sex together.

It's not a documentary, nor is it laughing at the people who were in the real battles that inspired the movie. You can't presume to know why someone would laugh at something you don't find funny, especially not to the point where you can then project your version onto their reality. Sometimes people laugh when they are uncomfortable, or to release tension...

It's not like someone clapping two seconds before a song is really over. That would be obviously be unforgivable...

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 1/27/15 at 2:59pm

"In the movie, it shows the other side using a sniper. Guess that was OK." <--- DOCUMENTARY! Right? I mean, the movie shows that.