I don't think any other movie out there did as good of a job as this one. Just saying. It didn't glorify or condemn the War. In the end, we're left just sitting there, just like we are now. What did we accomplish? What should we do now? Ohhhhhh, American Idle is on.
shareI think that's why I despised the film so much: its unwillingness to take a stand. The Iraq War was and remains a grotesque obscenity in the history of US foreign policy, on par with Vietnam (though not quite as many casualties). Redford's film comes off as politely liberal, something the Democratic Party itself could have concocted. Though it consists of supposedly "questioning" our post-9/11 military adventurism, it never questions the underlying premise of the dubious "War on Terror" and true foreign policy goals which made Afghanistan and Iraq (and, by extension, Libya, Syria, Ukraine) possible. I think I would almost prefer Clint Eastwood's stupid, jingoistic American Sniper to Lions for Lambs: at least Eastwood's film is taking a stand, however misguided.
shareYeah, but that's exactly the point. We as Americans, the majority of us did not take a stand with this war.
Now I want to be crystal clear here .... Big difference between wanting to take a stand on the war and supporting our troops.
If you ask any American "should we support our troops?" -- in this day and age 99.9% would said yes.
If you ask that same group of people, especially knowing what we know now, and after seeing what we've seen over the past decade, plus of fighting, "would you support the war in Afghanastan/Iraq?" -- I bet you would get a majority of answers which started to seem like the person had a clear stance ... But then ended with a shoulder shrug and "I don't know."
We didn't know then (but we kinda knew right ... But hell, we were just attacked, so who cares) and we still don't know now (but we kinda do, but not really, and we were attacked, but we had to do something right? But should we have done something else? And this war was about defending freedom, for sure, right? Not oil. Not setting up business ventures. Freedom right?)
Whatever. American Sniper. American Hero. Totally. He has to be, because Clint Eastwood says so, and Fox News says so.
'Merica! Show how much patriotism you have by the amount of tickets you buy to see "American Sniper," instead of, you know, actually following and dissecting any of the B.S. politics, and then taking an active role in the system by actually fixing those problems.
It's letting you make up your own mind and not shoving it down your throat one way or another
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