This Story Left Me Crying

During the course of my years on Earth I have seen many war movies. Beginning with WWII to Korea to Viet Nam, To Iraq, to Afghanistan, and some I have forgotten. Many of the WWII films were rah-rah propaganda movies that formed my opinion about the Germans and the Japanese.  Nevertheless, John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, Rory Calhoun, all became super heroes in my mind. Today, I saw American Sniper and cried. In December I watched a short promo clip on the movie and decided this is one I had to see. My intuition was correct. I am glad I saw the film. The story is true and chronicles a true American from Texas. Raised in the country by strict parents who taught their sons not to start trouble, but if they were in trouble, or if one theirs was in trouble to come to their defense, and to end it. Kyle watched the twin towers fall after radical Islamists flew commercial airliners into the building. The incident caused him to serve his country, the rest is history.

It was easy to understand why this film has six nominations for Academy Awards including best picture of the year. It is easy to understand why the Academy nominated Bradley Cooper for best actor. I’ve seen Cooper in a couple of films, and each time I liked the way he played his character. In American Sniper he plays the role of Chris Kyle believably. To me if an actor can make me believe he is the character in the story he has succeeded in his craft. Cooper does so expertly. He also had to gain a lot of weight and muscle to look like a Navy Seal. He did that too.

His story is not all peaches and cream. Kyle’s drive to protect his fellow Marines from harm comes with a price to his own psyche. It became very clear that he progressively changed with each of his four tours of deployment. I give the VA doctor who finally out-physched him by suggesting that there are plenty of vets at home that he can protect.   The Doctor convinced him to use his energy to help fellow veterans disabled with PTSD. Kyle threw himself into the effort and that is what finally caused his death.

The Marines used Kyle as a sniper, and he was very good at it. However, Kyle did not think sniping saved enough people and he also served to conduct ground missions to clear the enemy from local hiding places. He was a well-rounded soldier.

There have been several people who made themselves news worthy by jumping on the Kyle story for their own benefit. It is my opinion that these people should lose their citizenship in the USA and be given one way tickets to live with the enemy in ISIS held territories. Who are these People?

1. Jesse Ventura, ex Navy Seal, professional wrestler, and former Governor of Minnesota accused Kyle as a liar. “Kyle wrote in his book, also titled American Sniper, about an incident in which he punched out a man in a bar for badmouthing the U.S. military. In a subsequent appearance on The O’Reilly Factor, Kyle identified Ventura as that man.” Ventura sued the Kyle estate for defamation, and won. Jesse continues to bad mouth Kyle as a liar, and not a hero. Leave it alone Jesse, the man is dead and your wrestling career is over, find a job shining the shoes of Liberal politicians.

2. Michael Moore, Documentary film producer and over eater made derogatory comments about Kyle. Still upset over his uncle being killed by a sniper during WWII, Moore resents making snipers into heroes. I have news for you Mr. Moore, a sniper is a weapon just like a hand grenade, or a bomb. The military uses the most effective weapon to get the job done. Kyle was acting out his orders. Oh Sure he could have turned down the assignment and been court martialed, but why even join the military if you refuse assignments.?

3. Seth Rogan, coward extraordinary who proudly made a movie about assassinating North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and then went into hiding when North Korea hacked Sony Corp computers. In response, Sony took the movie off the market because of fear of retribution from North Korea.  Rogan compared American Sniper to Nazi propaganda.

4. Howard Dean, former Doctor, Governor of Vermont, Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and a failed candidate for President. Is an outspoken Socialist who is so far left in his thinking he cannot understand another point of view like Conservatism. He invoked a lot of furor when he said the following:

“There’s a lot of anger in this country. And the people who go see this movie are people who are very angry,”

He was referring to Tea Party people when he said there is a lot of anger in this country. I agree with him, but the anger came after his comment not before.

American Sniper is a biography, a historical perspective, a documentary on the effect of war on the soldier, and his family, and an anti-war film all rolled up in the story of one man’s life.

We should all be proud of men like Chris Kyle who lived to protect us.

Good Guys Become Bad Guys, and Bad Guys Become Good Guys

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American Hustler is a film which has a complicated plot. The story centers on Irving Rosenfeld(Christian Bale) a local man who chooses a vocation as a hustler even though he runs several successful legitimate businesses. Irving’s life changes when a young and eager to succeed FBI agent Richie Di Maso(Bradley Cooper), snares and arrests him. The FBI then uses Irving and his partner/girl friend Sydney Prosser(Amy Adams) as decoys to catch a local New Jersey mayor taking a bribe. The mayor, however, is a good guy who only wants to help make jobs for the people of his city by reopening an old casino. The young FBI agent uses Irving to entrap the mayor by introducing him to a fake Shiek from Saudi Arabia. The story gets more complicated though when a mafia man played by Robert Dinero, from Miami, enters the scene as a silent partner. The mafia man advises the mayor to find a way to make the Arab Shiek with the money an US citizen to make the deal legitimate.

The ambitious FBI man seizes this opportunity to entrap bigger fish because fast tracking a citizenship for an Arab will involve US Senators. Irving advises the FBI man to slow down and keep the scam small, but the FBI likes the idea of headline grabbing an US Senator.

The plot gets more involved as the FBI arranges meetings with Senators for the purpose of filming them taking money.

So a bad guy is caught by a good guy, but the good guy turns bad. The new bad guy uses the former bad guy in his scheme and ultimately the new bad guy becomes the villain while the former bad guy becomes a hero.

The story has a happy ending.

Oh, for the men, Irving’s girl friend Sydney Prosser(Amy Adams) has an affinity for wearing deep V-cut dresses without a bra. She certainly kept me awake. Irving’s wife Roslyn(Jennifer Lawrence) plays a perfect bitch who keeps Irving on her line by refusing to give him a divorce.

The film felt long because it is long. Yet, we were totally entertained by all the mayhem that takes place.

Are Five Hearts Better than Five Stars?

Yesterday, it occurred to me as I wrote a scathing movie review that I had not commented on some of the good ones we saw. Today, I will make an effort to make amends and write about an outstanding film which is highly under rated.

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About two months ago, Peggy and I saw “Silver Linings Playbook.”  This film is the opposite of  “Tyler Perry’s Temptation, Confessions of a Marriage Counselor.” Maybe I liked Silver Linings because I know people who suffer from bi-polar disease and saw the disease portrayed accurately in the character Pat, played by Bradley Cooper (nominated for best actor).

Silver Linings touches on a disease which many people have a hard time understanding. How can someone so gentle and kind turn into a bitching monster within so short a time? The disease is more common than we would like to believe, but it is real and the people affected by it suffer in silence. The person affected does not realize what is happening to them nor do they believe they are acting any different.

I particularly enjoyed the scene where Pat who lives in the attic bedroom of his parent’s home stays up late to read Hemingway’s “Farewell to Arms,” a book his ex-wife has accused him of not being intellectually capable of understanding. Pat reads the book hoping he can impress her into believing he has changed and he is desperately seeking her affection.  He comes to the end and shouts “what the f___”  and violently tosses the book through a closed window to the front lawn.  He then proceeds to barge into his parent’s bedroom at four a.m. to talk about how stupid Hemingway’s ending is.

The characters in this movie are very believable, the story is real, The actors are outstanding. I can’t understand why Hollywood didn’t recognize Silver Linings as the best of the year, it is certainly a better film than Argo, but that will be another review. At least Jennifer Lawrence of Hunger Games gave a Best Actress performance as the troubled young woman opposite Cooper’s bi-polar character. I thought Cooper should also have received the Oscar for his performance.

If you haven’t seen this movie, see it, this one is worth the money.

Five Hearts ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

If I knew how to make stars I would, but really, hearts are better than stars for this film.