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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAmerican Sniper Feeds America's Hero Complex, and It Isn't the Truth About War
http://www.alternet.org/american-sniper-feeds-americas-hero-complexLike most people, I could only imagine what war was like before I got there myself. At one point, I was outside of the less than 1% of Americans who served in Iraq or Afghanistan, where a minuscule fraction of that population would see ground or aerial combat. The average person has likely never met a modern combat veteran.
So as my deployment to Iraq got closer and I imagined what this war would look and feel like, I thought about Americas favorite storytelling medium: the movies. I pictured Baghdad as Black Hawk Downs Mogadishu, all claustrophobic and high-contrast gun battles with desperate men in dark alleys, and mostly I heard Ride of the Valkyries, that grim killing opus in Apocalypse Now, retrofitted for our urban assaults and nighttime raids.
But the stories I came back with dont really look like anything in the new breed of Hollywood war films, where central truths about war have all but vanished, even though theyre mostly based on real life. Now tales of elite troops are reshaping the public perception of war, even though war is still a tragic grind far more complex than any film of this era has shown.
American Sniper is the latest movie to capitalize on our insatiable hunger for stories about unstoppable commandos. Lone Survivor, the highest grossing war film of this era, portrays Navy Seals so adept at killing the Taliban that it seems their only weakness is mercy on goat-herders. In Zero Dark Thirty and Captain Phillips, Seal teams emerge only at the climax, with the long tail of logistical support from conventional aviation, infantry and intelligence units obscured by the shadow of the elite.
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American Sniper Feeds America's Hero Complex, and It Isn't the Truth About War (Original Post)
xchrom
Dec 2014
OP
This hardly strikes me as a uniquely American trait. I can't think of a single nation/culture that
Nuclear Unicorn
Dec 2014
#2
pipoman
(16,038 posts)1. War movies v. war is no different today than ever,
And no different than about any story v. reality scenario ever has been. ..
That said, my mother in law went to a lecture with the real Captain Phillips who said that the movie was pretty accurate.
Nuclear Unicorn
(19,497 posts)2. This hardly strikes me as a uniquely American trait. I can't think of a single nation/culture that
depicts its military as losing. However, we do also produce movies that make fun of the military, i.e. Periscope Down, McHale's Navy, Hot Shots.
And I'm also curious to see what foreign receipts on these films are like. I'd bet Americans aren't the only ones who like seeing movies about American warriors.
In one scene, Kyle sheds his gear to go help clear rooms with Marines he feels are not trained well enough for urban warfare. Its a moment meant to underscore Kyles lifelong commitment to protect others, but the ultimate message is that anyone not in Special Forces is sloppy or uncommitted. Lets coach em up, he says.
That's a pretty wild interpretation. Was he "peered-out" at selection?