I have not read the book. I was aware of Chris Kyle, having heard of him before he died and I recall seeing the photos online of his funeral procession and memorial service when it happened. I knew that Kyle’s family had not received a letter or a phone call from the President when Chris was murdered. Why would he? Obama only seems to care about the death of young men who looked like him as a kid, which he also seems to think is the greatest compliment he can pay to grieving parents. whatever. You can’t expect the POTUS to call every vet who dies tragically, on or off the field of battle. So much golf, so little time!
I am not a fan of Clint Eastwood as a director. I can appreciate that he’s very good but he tends to choose subject matter that bores me. I loved Gran Torino, was bored by Flags of Our Fathers and hated Unforgiven. Mostly because I was soooo bored.
I’m not a Bradley Cooper fan. Oh, I think he’s a good actor and I’ve enjoyed him in many parts, I’m just saying I don’t sit around waiting for his next movie. I don’t find him hot. Too much hair.
I loved this movie.
Anyone who thinks it ‘glorifies war’ hasn’t seen it. This movie makes Iraq seem about as ‘glorious’ as Saving Private Ryan made D-day. It’s Hell. Hot, dry, dirty, gritty, scary, boring, bloody, dangerous, horrific hell.
Eastwood does a brilliant job of making the conditions horrendous and tedious without letting the movie become either. He demonstrates the horror of the enemy’s determination without grossing us out with special effects. Death is ugly and unexpected and even uglier and predetermined.
The attacks of 9/11 occur early in the movie. Those images hit me harder than I would have guessed they would. Over 13 years later, too many Americans seem to have decided that it was an anomaly and that it could never happen again. Or that it was all our fault and if we’d just leave other cultures alone, we’d be left in peace.
I wondered, watching certain scenes in the movie if the peaceniks hate the people of the Middle East. The entire region is being held hostage by people with no humanity in them. Or perhaps I’m being too Christian centric; maybe the ability to kill a child with a power drill is nothing special in a human who doesn’t know Christ. Maybe I’m just short selling diversity.
Either way, how can a person with any claim to what we in the west consider ‘humanity’ just turn their backs on an entire region that is being ruled by monsters masquerading as religious zealots? Especially after those zealots have demonstrated their willingness to come to our shores and take out as many of us as possible?
I’m sure there are folks who don’t know how ruthless the Taliban or ISIS is; they can’t imagine murdering a child so they assume no one else would do it either. They hear the tales of parents being forced to watch their young children be raped and dismembered before being beheaded themselves and convince themselves the stories can't be true; it's just war mongering propaganda. Just last week, a Christian couple were burned to death for an alleged slight against Islam. Our press won’t tell us these stories or show us the photos…for whatever reasons. N’est pas Charlie.
The movie opens with Kyle on a rooftop with his partner, a suspicious character in his sights. He believes his target poses a threat to the marines coming down the street. His partner reminds him to be sure; that if he’s wrong he’ll go to prison.
I know there are plenty of people who think this is only humane. I think it’s outrageous.
Wars aren’t won by killing the enemy. Wars are won by breaking the enemy’s will. Fighting a war with civilian preserving precision makes the journalists and the viewers at home feel good about themselves but in truth, it simply makes the job our soldiers are trying to do impossible. How does one fight a war while worrying about going to prison if they do it effectively? I'm not saying there's no such thing as a war crime; I'm saying getting shot on a battle field doesn't make you the victim of a war crime.
Six years ago, my Dad, whose knowledge of military and political history is second to none (not just in my acquaintance, he’s the real deal) told me not to worry about the election of the most leftist president we’d ever seen. He said no President wants to be the guy who loses a war.
I reminded him that the Democratic left is now run by the Vietnam peace movement, who still think their protests “Ended a war”.
Wars don’t ‘end’. They are won or lost. Ask the 3,000,000 dead in Cambodia after we pulled out of Vietnam who won that war. Ask the millions of Hmong boat people who lost that war.
And now John Kerry is our Secretary of State.
It breaks my heart that for once, my Dad was wrong and I was right.
There were perfectly valid reasons to be against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. What I find reprehensible are those who sent our soldiers there to fight, then burdened them with rules of engagement making it impossible for them to bring the war to a conclusion. What I find unforgivable are those in this country, even in elected office, who have worked tirelessly to break our will before we can defeat the enemy.
If liberty and justice for all aren't worth fighting for, we will lose it.
We are engaged in a cultural/societal battle with an implacable enemy that believes it has God on its side. Call it Islam, call it terrorism, call it extremism…we will lose if we don’t understand that this movement is serious and a real threat to everything we value.
These are the thoughts that ran through my head as I watched the movie.
I knew how the story ended and I liked the way Eastwood handled it.
AS the credits rolled, the screen showed the real footage of the funeral, motorcade and memorial service.
The last shot was that of Kyles’ casket; covered in the wings of his fellow Navy SEALS.
Anyone who could watch this and remain unmoved has my pity. You are what C.S. Lewis called a man ‘without a chest’.
“We make men without chests and expect from them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man
One last thought, on irony:
Former Governor of Minnesota, Jesse Ventura won a defamation suit against the estate of Chris Kyle (that’s right; he sued the grieving widow) for an account in the book that Jesse claims paints him in a bad light. I heard that Kyle changed the name but Jesse says everyone knows it was supposed to be him. Well, everyone sure knew after Jesse brought suit, which he won, having successfully demonstrated to the jury that the story made him look bad.
Nothing could make Jesse look worse than his own actions, now that this movie is a box office smash.
I couldn’t have been the only one leaving the theater after seeing this movie to think “Jesse Ventura can eat shit and die.”