STORY BY MOLLY ADAMSON
When I saw “American Sniper” on opening night, the theater full of people was left in silent respect when Chris Kyle’s two dates, his birth and death, rolled across the screen. The movie portrays the life of Kyle, a soldier who holds the American record for most sniper kills.
Lately, however, I’ve been seeing articles online that bash this hero and his bravery, and I am astonished and angry at people’s lack of respect. Of course, this movie is about war, which is a controversial subject. I get that.
But people are missing the point here. People are claiming that it has a pro-war message, which I find incredible.
Cooper depicts the strong emotions Kyle felt of wanting to be back home with his family. He also shows Kyle’s want to fight for his country, to protect the American people.
A lot of soldiers go into war for that same reason. They see terrorists attacking American soil, and feel something stir in their hearts. A need to protect. A feeling that they could do something.
They seek revenge, and I’m not here to support revenge or say that we should go around shooting everyone who hurt the home soil blindly. In fact, I really wish we could figure out all our problems with words instead of blood. But sadly, we can’t. Our world doesn’t work like that. So men and women went to war.
American Sniper does not show Kyle as a solider who is running around, shooting the first person who is not on his team that he sees. He is methodical, making sure that the person in his sight is indeed a threat to the people he is supposed to protect before firing.
I was greatly surprised by one name that apparently is greatly opposed to this movie: Seth Rogen.
Rogen tweeted that the movie reminded him of a scene in “Inglorious Bastards,” which involved snipers in a Nazi propaganda scene.
The media immediately took that to mean Rogen was drawing comparisons from “American Sniper” to Nazi propaganda. Please keep in mind that Rogen is the man who recently released “The Interview,” a movie in which he tries to kill the infamous North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Hypocrite much? Your movie was supposedly about to start a war, in the movie and in real life, and yet you have the balls to criticize a war movie?
But then I browsed Rogen’s Twitter account, which had an explanation for his previous tweet. He said that he was only making the comparison to another sniper movie, not to Nazi propaganda. He praised “American Sniper,” and bashed the media for misinterpreting and over analyzing his tweet.
That, I guess, is a lesson on how media can sometimes be bad.
People seem to be against this movie because of its apparent pro-war message. What pro war message?
The movie seemed to concentrate more on Kyle’s family life and his mission after his service to try and help fellow soldiers deal with their Post-traumatic stress disorder.
If anything, this movie is pro-mental health solutions.
Kyle protected our country from enemy attacks, and then tried to help those who fought alongside him. He is a hero, and deserves respect.
