American Sniper

See it.

4 Responses to “American Sniper”

1. Gunslinger says:

   January 20, 2015 at 4:20 pm

   Saw it this past Sunday. For those who haven’t, see it.

2. Syd B. says:

   January 21, 2015 at 9:37 am

   Saw it hear in Toronto. Even the far left Canadians applauded at the end of this movie. This could have easily been called “Canadian Sniper” without changing the storyline. The truth is that the story is about a a soldier who puts his own life behind his desire to save others. That’s a hero, regardless of geography.

   Great movie. Can’t help but laugh at the Oscar voters for passing on Eastwood for “Best Director”. Couldn’t give an award to the “empty chair” guy.

3. Skyler says:

   January 22, 2015 at 7:01 am

   NPR had a spot yesterday talking about how the shows on Broadway and other NY theaters can’t depend on reviews from the Times or other papers for filling seats. People rely on their own reviews and word of mouth. A pan from the Times no on ger matters. Glowing reviews don’t matter.

   So it goes with Oscars. The elites no longer can tell us what we like or don’t like.

4. Skyler says:

   January 22, 2015 at 7:19 am

   Wife and kid were asleep and I figured It’s time to sneak over to the local theater, which happily is stumbling distance from my home and they serve beer.

   Well wife was uncharacteristically awake at 1:30 when I returned. I’m in trouble. But it was worth it. Fantastic movie.

   I was especially impressed with the accuracy of the equipment and vehicles, especially how they showed the equipment used in each tour and the types of tactics used.

   I really like how they showed him hyper sensitive to noises and being hyper alert to movements. I had some of the same reactions when I got back from one tour in Iraq.

   Zarqawi was the asshole my battalion was chasing in Iraq. The stories about the guy with the drill sound vaguely right by my memory. I don’t know about the sniper, I suspect that was added as a classic and trite cinema theme.

   I noticed everyone was quiet leaving the theater, but that was orchestrated by the movie ending with the funeral. It made you feel like you were at the funeral so you left quietly.

   Very much worth getting in trouble for.

   There were only a few inaccuracies.
   As the guy who provided technology to my battalions, I have to tell you that it was not so easy to get internet access and it was slow and clunky. Iridium satellite phones were difficult to dial and get reliable connections. I don’t know anyone that would talk to a spouse during a fire fight and vehicles were far too loud to have conversations with the guy sitting next to you, let alone on a satellite phone.

   But so many details were included. I liked how they showed the water bottle filled with sand or water and used as a counter weight to keep the door closed. That was used on every door I ever saw in Iraq. in general they showed living structures very accurately, but with a lot less dust, Dust and sand were everywhere all the time. Also, in 2005 we still were seeing pinups of naked women in almost every living space and half the working spaces. Some officers didn’t allow it, but not many. Me, I figured it was good to keep the reminders of why we were fighting front and center. By 2011 in Afghanistan you would see a lot fewer places allowing pinups, but I was also at the headquarters of a two star general so things were a bit stricter.

   I thought it was absurd that they portrayed Marines as not knowing how to do urban warfare. None of the SEAL’s I met would have acted as though we needed to be taught how to do that.

   The SEAL’s in our AO (area of operations) were good guys. At first they started operating in our area without telling us. After we got in a fire fight with them they generally learned to tell us when they were coming around and we developed a good rapport with them. In general they were very secretive and quiet men, and unassuming (as a matter of fact, i only assumed they were SEAL’s they could have been rangers or CIA for all i knew, but my bet is they were SEAL’s). They had an aura of competence, but no braggadocio. They preferred anonimity. When people started using their task force number 626 too much and they developed a reputation and started getting too much attention, they changed it to 145, which they derived by adding the digits of 6+2+6 to get 14 and then adding 1+4 to get 5, or at least that’s what one of them explained to me. There’s no telling if he was pulling my leg, but I suspect not. I’m sure they used other designations too. I don’t know it they used numerology for other names.

   I think the one line by Kyle in the movie that I agree with was about the Sunni uprising. It wasn’t an uprising that brought peace in Al Anbar. It was that we had militarily smashed al Qaeda and the tribes wanted to join the winning side and stop getting killed by us and al Qaeda.

   Anyway, it was a good movie. Brought me back to Iraq and put me on edge for a while.