I'm still around. : )

I just now saw this. Nice way to put it. Evil must be crushed. I suppose that's the kind of fantasy that this Circuit Guy is talking about. Collectivist slobs are what Kyle was fighting, and he had no problem calling it what it was.....and is.

I don't criticise Eastwood & Hall for changing a few details. See my positive review on the same site of The Imitation Game. I blame them for not structuring their narrative at all, an also for ignoring one essential detail that everyone knew. A Few Good Men, Patton had great dialogues, intriguing characters, a structure.....it's all in those 2 reviews..

I haven't seen the movie, and I found it confusing which parts were plot elements from the movie and which parts were the author's fantasy-oriented view of the real world.

I'll reread your piece with your closing comment in mind...but I seriously doubt that Eastwood would ever try to show Kyle as "a simpleton cowboy in Texas", as you wrote.

Funny that you would offer Patton (the movie) as a successful heroic war movie, since I just finished O'Reilly's Killing Patton. The movie ended with the impression that a runaway cart strikes Patton's car, killing him.

The cart event really happened, but no one in Patton's car was harmed. At a later time though, an errant Army vehicle has a head-on collision with Patton's Cadillac, and he was paralyzed. Even though he was recovering by all accounts, Patton dies within days....

How do you rate Patton's screenwriter for getting the ending totally wrong...? ;-)

I WANTED to love Sniper, the movie, so badly, that I had juxtaposed the two photos—Birdman and Sniper, before I saw Sniper, and after I saw Birdman. I was fully expecting to write a contrast between a great movie and a poor one, not between a poor one and a poorer one. Alas, not to be -- Birdman, caught in Hollywood’s narcissism of self-indulgent myopic disturbed neurosis, versus an old-fashioned clean conscience untroubled maverick, a Zorro on the battlefield.

I also say that the REAL Chris Kyle deserves our respect. It is there in that article, in B&W.

I think because America is desperate for a war hero film, in which the military is praised, they will take anything, even a badly structured narrative.

I didn't know Chris Kyle. I didn't call him a simpleton. I clearly say Eastwood depicts him as such. All I see is the character played (badly) by Cooper, the way he is written in. Eastwood plays into the hands of the Left.

Now, remember Patton (1970)? A flag as big as the screen, a General that is a hero, a proud American? Let's have real war movies like that again.

My attack is on Eastwood and Hall, all the way through.

Just finished it.

I kept thinking that Kolhatkar is really scratching to find fault with a real life character that he really doesn't like. Kolhatkar actually calls Chris Kyle a "simpleton". The author clumsily uses his attack on Eastwood's art, to veil his real target...the American soldier on the front line.

Kolhatkar's panning of the film (and Kyle's motives) spits in the face of the public's acceptance of both. Kolhatkar is writing to his audience...the one that wouldn't see this film for love, or unending gluten free tofu.

Thanks for the link...I enjoyed the read!

just today:http://www.galtsgulchonline.com/posts/210af434/american-sniper-compared-with-birdman

Great article, as always. Chris Kyle used his rifle as you use that whip, knocking evil down, exposing it for what it is. Leaves them with no defense, their vile, evil self is out there for all to see. Thanks again Overmanwarrior :)

Not sure. Got a link?

:)

I miss the Overman...
Interesting article. Always thought provoking.

haha. Did you read vinay's critique of the movie?

This movie has really shown the scaly underbelly of the liberal Left.

It is working better than waterboarding....

"knowledge that they are not alone"
Thats what makes Galts Gulch so important to me- I am not alone.