I have not seen the movie “American Sniper”, nor do I intend to. I’ve read several reviews and critiques and have noticed a particular congruence of opinion, that being it is a fine example of film-making as well as a pure fount of mythopeic propaganda designed to obfuscate the destructive evil of our illegal and immoral invasion of Iraq behind the necessarily Nietzschean simulacrum of heroism of a competitive killer “just doing his job”. The film’s director, Clint Eastwood, must have had a particular mindset to ferret out this heroic thread in a militaristic tapestry which viewed in it’s entirety depicts the mens rea of psychopathic imperialism.
It has been said that the film is “a character study” of a man, a soldier, required to isolate the innate goodness clothed within his uniform from the inexplicable malevolent resentment of a conquered people at having the un-wanted goodness foisted upon them - and then shoot them for their geopolitical temerity. It’s as if neither they nor us need to associate the head-exploding bullets to the man, the army, the armory, or the government which reasoned-out the trajectory and terminus of death-dealing in a land posing no threat to our domestic tranquility. We’re just supposed to appreciate the Zen-like focus on the controlled breathing of thoughtless patriotism.
Of course soldiers must suppress the luxury of deep thought. They (voluntarily) submit themselves as instruments to be wielded by plenipotent invisible hands. But what of the rest of us? Is our main obligation to “support the troops” or to assure they are properly, legally, and honorably used? This movie must, but doesn’t, from all I’ve heard, invoke this question. And unfortunately, for various commercial and fawning political reasons, I believe, it isn’t meant to.
It may be totally unfair to require a change of mindset of an eighty-four year old director who came of age during WWII and unquestioned American Exceptionalism. But the “most powerful” and most obscenely funded military in the world has not won any of several shooting conflicts with the postscript “war” since then. Why doesn’t artistic integrity reinforce and illuminate this fact instead of deluding the American mind with the deceptive numerators and denominators of “heroes” and body counts when the end product is the propagation of negative value?
I have read on-line of the exploits of the movie’s protagonist, Chris Kyle,. And no I do not intend to see the movie or monetarily contribute to the thematic bribe to our callow youths to interpret a virtuous silver lining to the ditheistic military-industrialism and imperialism they see subtlety ennobled on the silver screen.
Let’s instead make sure they understand Mr. Kyle and his skill were abused to implement the fantastical geopolitical visions of gold tower, comfortable, sociopathic theoreticians who have materially benefited even in our national failure
