American Sniper

[diablo53]

The movie was good, but I wish I would have seen the movie before I read the book. The differences in the movie were very difficult for me to overcome to really enjoy the film. I don't read anything, but I read this book. Reading the book after watching the movie would be an excellent way to get more detail on what the movie only touched on.
The problems he had with his need to defend his country vs his and his wife's need for him to be with his family were spot on with the book- the words were different, but the emotion was captured very accurately.

[Ken L]

Saw the movie this weekend. It was very powerful. I read the book shortly after it came out, and am re-reading it now.

Bradley Cooper deserves the best actor Oscar for his performance.

[DanTana]

I just got home from seeing this movie. One of the better movies I've seen. Very moving and emotional. At the end some clapped but mainly it was very silent and everyone stayed until the credits were over. Bradley Cooper was excellent as was the entire cast. Some scenes were very graphic, but not just to be shocking, Eastwood did a great job as usual. Another tour de force for him. There has been quite a bit written about the movie so far. I suggest you go watch it and make your own conclusion and opinion of it.

[ESAFO]

went to see this movie last night & it was better than expected, the way Mr. Cooper played this roll & held himself together were amazing.
there were 4 classless dirt bags that left before all scenes & credits were over, also on the walk out it was very quiet with not alot of chating going on i noticed.
in the short amount of time it took to iron everything out with getting this dedication film up & running is truely amazing, congradulations & thank you to everyone involved with making this film happen.

[muggsy]

I'm going to see the movie even if my wife has to take me in a wheelbarrow.

[marshal kane]

One of the few movies that I saw where the audience remained in their seats out of respect until the lights came on.

[Bawanna]

Same here. Nobody tried to beat the crowd. Also the most people I've ever seen in our theatre. It was packed.

[340pd]

An interesting LOOOOng e-mail I received on Chris Kyle's funeral.

TEXAS GOODBYE



This is why America will remain strong. We take care of our own as well as others who may not deserve taking care of. I just wanted to share with you all that out of a horrible tragedy we were blessed by so many people.

Chris Kyle was Derek's teammate through 10 years of training and battle. They both suffer/suffered from PTSD to some extent and took great care of each other because of it.

2006 in Ramadi was horrible for young men that never had any more aggressive physical contact with another human than on a Texas football field.

They lost many friends. Chris became the armed services number #1 sniper of all time. Not something he was happy about, other than the fact that in so doing, he saved a lot of American lives.

Three years ago, his wife Taya asked him to leave the SEAL teams as he had a huge bounty on his head by Al Qaeda. He did and wrote the book "The American Sniper." 100% of the proceeds from the book went to two of the SEAL families who had lost their sons in Iraq .

That was the kind of guy Chris was. He formed a company in Dallas to train military, police and I think firemen as far as protecting themselves in difficult situations. He also formed a foundation to work with military people suffering from PTSD. Chris was a giver not a taker.

He, along with a friend and neighbor, Chad Littlefield, were murdered trying to help a young man that had served six months in Iraq and claimed to have PTSD.

Now I need to tell you about all of the blessings.

Southwest Airlines flew in any SEAL and their family from any airport they flew into free of charge.

The employees donated buddy passes and one lady worked for four days without much of a break to see that it happened.

Volunteers were at both airports in Dallas to drive them to the hotel.

The Marriott Hotel reduced their rates to $45 a night and cleared the hotel for only SEALs and family.

The Midlothian, TX Police Department paid the $45 a night for each room. I would guess there were about 200 people staying at the hotel, 100 of them were SEALs. Two large buses were chartered (an unknown donor paid the bill) to transport people to the different events and they also had a few rental cars (donated). The police and secret service were on duty 24 hours during the stay at our hotel.

At the Kyle house, the Texas DPS parked a large motor home in front to block the view from reporters. It remained there the entire five days for the SEALs to congregate in and all to use the restroom so as not to have to go in the house. Taya, their two small children and both sets of parents were staying in the home.

Only a hand full of SEALs went into the home as they had different duties and meetings were held sometimes on a hourly basis. It was a huge coordination of many different events and security. Derek was assigned to be a Pall Bearer, to escort Chris' body when it was transferred from the Midlothian Funeral Home to the Arlington Funeral Home, and to be with Taya. A tough job.

Taya seldom came out of her bedroom. The house was full with people from the church and other family members that would come each day to help. I spent one morning in a bedroom with Chris' mom and the next morning with Chad Littlefield's parents (the other man murdered with Chris). A tough job.

George W Bush and his wife Laura met and talked to everyone on the Seal Team one on one. They went behind closed doors with Taya for quite a while. They had prayer with us all. You can tell when people were sincere and caring

Nolan Ryan sent his cooking team, a huge grill and lots of steaks, chicken and hamburgers. They set up in the front yard and fed people all day long including the 200 SEALs and their families. The next day a local BBQ restaurant set up a buffet in front of the house and fed all once again. Food was plentiful and all were taken care of. The family's church kept those inside the house well fed.

Jerry Jones, the man everyone loves to hate, was a rock star. He made sure that we all were taken care of. His wife and he were just making sure everyone was taken care of....Class... He donated the use of Cowboy Stadium for the services as it was determined that so many wanted to attend. The charter buses transported us to the stadium on Monday at 10:30 am. Every car, bus, motorcycle was searched with bomb dogs and police. I am not sure if kooks were making threats trying to make a name for themselves or if so many SEALs in one place was a security risk, I don't know. We willingly obliged. No purses went into the stadium!

We were taken to The Legends room high up and a large buffet was available. That was for about 300 people. We were growing.

A Medal of Honor recipient was there, lots of secret service and police and Sarah Palin and her husband. She looked nice, this was a very formal military service.

The service started at 1:00 pm and when we were escorted onto the field I was shocked. We heard that about 10,000 people had come to attend also. They were seated in the stadium seats behind us. It was a beautiful and emotional service.

The Bagpipe and drum corps were wonderful and the Texas A&M men's choir stood through the entire service and sang right at the end. We were all in tears.

The next day was the 200-mile procession from Midlothian , TX to Austin for burial. It was a cold, drizzly, windy day, but the people were out. We had dozens of police motorcycles riders, freedom riders, five chartered buses and lots of cars. You had to have a pass to be in the procession and still it was huge. Two helicopters circled the procession with snipers sitting out the side door for protection. It was the longest funeral procession ever in the state of Texas. People were everywhere. The entire route was shut down ahead of us, the people were lined up on the side of the road the entire way. Firemen were down on one knee, police officers were holding their hats over their hearts, children waving flags, veterans saluting as we went by. Every bridge had fire trucks with large flags displayed from their tall ladders, people all along the entire 200 miles were standing in the cold weather. It was so heartwarming.

Taya rode in the hearse with Chris' body so Derek rode the route with us. I was so grateful to have that time with him.

The service was at Texas National Cemetery. Very few are buried there and you have to apply to get in. It is like people from the Civil War, Medal of Honor winners, a few from the Alamo and all the historical people of Texas. It was a nice service and the Freedom Riders surrounded the outside of the entire cemetery to keep the crazy church people from Kansas that protest at military funerals away from us.

Each SEAL put his Trident (metal SEAL badge) on the top of Chris' casket, one at a time. A lot hit it in with one blow. Derek was the only one to take four taps to put his in and it was almost like he was caressing it as he did it. Another tearful moment.

After the service Governor Rick Perry and his wife, Anita, invited us to the governor's mansion. She stood at the door, greeted each of us individually, and gave each of the SEALs a coin of Texas. She was a sincere, compassionate, and gracious hostess.

We were able to tour the ground floor and then went into the garden for beverages and BBQ. So many of the Seal team guys said that after they get out they are moving to Texas. They remarked that they had never felt so much love and hospitality. The charter buses then took the guys to the airport to catch their returning flights. Derek just now called and after a 20 hours flight he is back in his spot, in a dangerous land on the other side of the world, protecting America

We just wanted to share with you, the events of a quite emotional, but blessed week.

[ripley16]

One of the few movies that I saw where the audience remained in their seats out of respect until the lights came on.

Ditto. Saw it just off base at Quantico. Stone quiet all through the procession footage and until the theater was empty, (I was one of the last out). A very reverent reaction at the finale.

[RevRay]

I saw it this past Thursday night with 3 other guys from my church. It's a very good movie and well worth seeing!

[downtownv]

It shows the struggle between being in the World and being In-County and the difficulty adjusting. Excellent movie, sad it ended that way.

[Barth]

One of the few movies that I saw where the audience remained in their seats out of respect until the lights came on.

+1
I've seen it twice.
Once in Hollywood CA and once in Phoenix AZ.
Both times the theater was packed and nobody moved.

[Armybrat]

Most people completely miss the point of the movie. There's an excellent write up by a Marine SOF Operator known as "Grifter" about it on OAF Nation.

http://oafnation.com/2015/01/26/amer...e-of-veterans/



Well, it’s a new year. Welcome to 2015. This is the year we were supposed to have flying cars and hover boards. Color me disappointed.

However, what 2015 HAS given us is a voice. I say this because I just saw American Sniper yesterday. I’m not going to get into Chris Kyle as a man. I never had the privilege of knowing him. I have a few friends that operated with him, and had nothing but great things to say about him. I’m not going to sit and ***** about any Hollywood inconstancies that arise when flash and pomp take precedence over authenticity.

I am, however, going to talk about the precedence this film set for veterans and the direction I’m hoping the population of this country will take.

American Sniper, though being marketed as a hero movie, goes far beyond that. It isn’t an action movie. Yes, there IS action in the film; but it’s not the sole focus. I can see a lot of people leaving the movie disappointed because there wasn’t as much running and gunning as in say, Act of Valor or Lone Survivor.

What the movie accomplishes, for me and for US is that it finally depicts WHY coming home is the hardest part for most of us. So many movies in Hollywood either touch briefly on the subject, but miss the mark. The Hurt Locker, love it or hate it, has a very poignant scene in the grocery store where Renner’s character has returned from a tour in Iraq and life seems mundane and boring compared to the excitement and rush of defusing bombs. The premise is botched in that, most veteran’s aren’t missing the experience because they’re bored and need an adrenaline rush; they miss their brothers and that bond that frankly WILL NEVER be experienced here at home. THAT is the drug for which most of us are fiending.

...
American Sniper portrayed Chris Kyle as a guy trying to do the best he could in ****** situations. Doing what he had to in order to protect American lives. It highlighted perfectly that coming home is almost impossible. There’s always an urge to go back and keep working. Not for fortune or glory, but for each other. The way I always thought was, “if I don’t go, who will?” I couldn’t bear the thought of some 18-19 year old kid taking my perceived place in the long line of casualties. American Sniper showed the anguish at the bureaucracy of the Iraq war and the tough decisions that had to be made and later scrutinized by someone at home on the couch. He even said, “we’re at war, and I’m going to the mall.” It accurately shows the disillusionment of returning to a country that isn’t engaged in any capacity with what’s going on with their troops. It captures the essence of what it’s like to come home and try to assimilate into a society that is oblivious.

It’s most powerful statement was that it clearly shows the absolutely bitter loneliness a vet can experience coming home. I don’t mean loneliness as is synonymous with solitude. Kyle was surrounded by family and loved ones. He had reasons to celebrate his life, his wife, and his babies. Yet, he still felt a void. He had the support structure of a family that needed him, yet he couldn’t relish in the love they gave. He could not sit back and enjoy being home, due to the longing for his brothers and a crippling grief for the men he could not keep from harm. These feelings, as I type them, could seem so trivial to a civilian reading this. “Guilt” and “loneliness” are emotions people go thru daily, yet no one is making a movie about them. That is the separation in our generation, even our emotions, though labeled the same, are so very different from the average straight. I’m sure there are Doctors that grieve over losing a patient, however, that patient probably wasn’t their best friend. I’m sure people experience loneliness because they’re by themselves a lot, but true loneliness comes from being surrounded by your loved ones and still feeling alone. This is the strength of the movie and what lends itself to us as veterans and our struggle to find our place in the world. This resonates with us, and hopefully opens the eyes of the general public as to what we feel every day.

That’s the first direction I’m hoping the country will go. It’s sad that I live in a country where the only way to truly reach the members of society isn’t through literature or research, but with pop culture. But, them’s the breaks. The optimist in me says that people will have at the very least, a better insight into WHY we feel the way we do. It’s not always nightmares and outrage, sometimes, most of the time, it’s a silent suffering. It doesn’t stem from a need for adrenaline, or bloodlust. It stems from a desire for a purpose that is bigger than ourselves; Our yearning to be around people we would literally die for, no questions asked; and a regretful grief for living when others whom we deem more worthy, died. We analyze and dissect every decision and action we made, wondering if we could have made a difference. Not a difference in foreign policy or winning a war single-handedly, but the difference between you coming home to an empty barracks room or your buddy coming home to his wife and kids.

The pessimist in me is starting to notice the seeds of a trend being sown. It’s that bashing our military, or at the very least, being anti-military, is going to become “cool” again. I’m not going to comment on Rogen or Moore’s idiotic comments about American Sniper. I was once a Rogen fan and always thought he was more discerning than most in Hollywood, and Moore is irrelevant now, both as a film maker and a human being. Bush isn’t in office, therefore he lacks a villain at which to point fat, sausage-esque finger. The reviews are all over the place and a striking majority are calling the film pro-war and anti-Muslim…

...
The film wasn’t about any of that because for US, the war wasn’t about any of that. Do you think any of us gave a **** about Saddam Hussein, WMD, Bush, Cheney, or any of that **** that was being ejaculated by the news? The film wasn’t about grey areas, because to us it didn’t matter. All that mattered to us was the guy to our left, and the guy to our right…and especially the guy that still had a can of Skoal. It wasn’t that we were willfully ignorant of the issues surrounding the Iraq, or that we were in denial, but when your finger is on a trigger, when you’re face is covered in your friends’ brain matter, you aren’t thinking about “good and evil” or “grey areas.” That is the entire point this civil rights attorney misses, the film was about a man on the ground and the struggle to come home with a head full of grief and regret, not the Iraq war itself.

The movie didn’t really take a political stance at all. Yes, it mentioned 9/11, but it didn’t tie it to Iraq. It tied it to Kyle the way it was tied to all of us. 9/11 signaled to a generation that we are not safe, that there ARE people out there that want to kill us, on our own soil. Yet, here is the left, all up in arms about a movie about one man’s struggle in a war. They create paper tigers to go after in order to blackball these movies into oblivion. They refuse to see the good in this film as it pertains to veterans, because they don’t care about veterans.

I fear the plaid shirt, hash-tagging, trust-fund protestors are going to start coming out of the woodwork. The people who have kept their mouths shut because the war was still ongoing, are going to come forward and start openly bashing on us. The war is “officially” over and as a country, we are no longer engaged in combating terrorism with any sort of genuine commitment. That allows the dissenters to come out of their holes now that it’s less likely someone is going to say “dude, my brother/husband/dad is over there right now.” Because, at the end of the day, they still don’t want to offend the “victims” of veteran’s decisions, only the vets themselves.

To the people that saw the movie for what it was, it was a glimpse into our world. It offered up our collective hearts to you in a manner a typical, movie-going civilian would understand. That is powerful, and hopefully opens a broader dialogue about our struggle to really come home. This is what we’re thinking and why we’re still fighting. As far as our silent war goes, this movie got it right.

To those that saw it as more “pro Bush/Iraq/Right Wing/anti-Muslim” political statement and wants to bash it and our military, I say this:

The movie wasn’t for you. It was for the guy with mud on his boots and a hole in his heart, and for the families that are left to pick up the pieces. Go back to your latte.

-Grifter

[Barth]

Most people completely miss the point of the movie.

Very revealing.
Thanks for posting.

[ltxi]

Being already somewhat familiar with Cris Kyle's life story and not a movie goer anyway....after all this ridiculous fuss and the snippets of dialog I've heard on radio I'm not going to go see it. He did what we do and was damn good at it. That, along with what I already know and have felt, is good enough for me. Don't care nor want to see it sensationalized.