The controversy surrounding “American Sniper” is petty and self-serving. The feud basically revolves around the back-and-forth quips of two distinct groups of people. The first group is what I like to call the “America Rah! Rah!” group. These are the people that have the song “Free Bird” as their ringtone, and have more guns in their house than people living in it.
The second group is called the “Worldly Contrarians.” These people have glasses that don’t proportionally fit their head, brag about the latest avant-garde play they’ve seen and emphasize the word “French” in French fries.
If you think these descriptions are stereotypical, wait until you hear what each side is arguing! The America Rah! Rah! group believes that “American Sniper” is an absolutely accurate portrayal of an American hero. They believe the previous two wars were waged because the U.S. sought to save war-torn nations from a mad dictator and religious radicals.
The Worldly Contrarians come from an absolutist position that the wars did more harm than good, and that any portrayal of America sweeping into foreign nations and saving the day is wrong and fictitious.
The controversy was precipitated by tweets from, of all people, Seth Rogen and Michael Moore. Side note: You know a feud is facetious when it is conducted over Twitter and involves the director of “The Interview.”
Because Seth Rogen is an artist, I’ll quote him verbatim: “American Sniper kind of reminds me of the movie that’s showing in the third act of ‘Inglourious Basterds’.” For those who haven’t seen “Inglourious Basterds,” the movie-within-the-movie is a Nazi propaganda film about the deadliest sniper in the German army. It’s called “Stoltz der Nation,” which means “Nation’s Pride.” Rogen weakly backtracked his tweet, saying “I actually liked American Sniper.”
Michael Moore, while observing proper grammar, tweeted, “My uncle killed by sniper in WW2. We were taught snipers were cowards. Will shoot u in the back. Snipers aren’t heroes. And invaders r worse.” He continues, “But if you’re on the roof of your home defending it from invaders who’ve come 7K miles, you are not a sniper, u are brave, u are a neighbor.” Moore, like Rogen, backtracked and said that the tweets weren’t about the film. The damage was done.
It seems odd to me that people are so eager to play “Stump the Shmuck” with two vapid individuals over a medium that generates these trivial disputes.
I wish that the controversy was only contained within the Twitter-sphere. However, the America Rah! Rah! and the Worldly Contrarians have escalated the controversy and made it their casus belli to self-righteously declare their positions to the world.
This debate is an excuse for the people who supported the war to support the war and to use the brave men and women who actually participated in the battles as weapons. If you don’t like the movie, the America Rah! Rah! group says you must not support the troops who defend your freedom.
The Worldly Contrarians counter with calling those who like the film warmongers and take offense at the use of the word “savages” in the movie to describe some foreigners.
I can’t stress enough that both sides have valid points. But they are unfortunately using this controversy to proclaim their absurdly-absolutist beliefs and talk past each other.
These feuding sides fail to realize that they are arguing about a movie. A simple, two-hour movie. The events the movie was based on were real, but director Clint Eastwood took great artistic liberties with the picture. To say the film was completely true or completely false is completely ridiculous. But that does not stop warring sides from using it as the basis of their arguments.
Here’s what we can take away from the film: Bradley Cooper did a fantastic job portraying Chris Kyle. The battle scenes were intense and suspenseful. The movie showed the horrors of post-traumatic stress disorder. And perhaps most importantly, the film featured the best use of an incredibly fake-looking baby. If you think that’s a trivial comment, you should hear the controversy surrounding the film.
Michael Beato is a UF economics junior. His column appears on Thursdays.
[A version of this story ran on page 6 on 1/21/2015 under the headline “‘American Sniper’ shouldn’t be big deal"]
