LIVELIVE

News USA UK Russian politics Business Op-Edge In vision In motion Shows Bulletin board More

03:49 GMT, Jan 25, 2015

TagsArmy, Celebrity, Conflict, Iraq,Movies, USA, Violence, War

Home / Op-Edge /

Hollywood uses ‘American Sniper’ to

destroy history & create myth

John Wight is a writer and commentator specializing in geopolitics, UKdomestic politics, culture and sport.

Published time: January 23, 2015 14:09

The moral depravity into which the US issinking is shown by American Sniperglorifying the exploits of a racist killerreceiving six Oscar nominations, whereas ‘Selma’ depicting Martin LutherKing’s struggle against racism has been largely ignored.

American Sniper is directed by Clint Eastwood, and tells the story of ChrisKyle, a US Navy Seal who served four tours of duty in Iraq as a snipercredited with 160 confirmed “kills”, and earning him the dubious honor of

Where to watchWhere to watch ScheduleSchedule

by Taboola

Screenshot from youtube.com/user/WarnerBrosPictures

33.5K 1.1K 229

RecommendedPregnant Austrian teenwho ran off to join ISIS…

ISIS introduces ‘pricescheme’ for selling…

Giant French robots fight inBeijing (PHOTOS)

Freevideo ИНОТВ RTД RUPTLY Applicationsالعربية ESP РУС DE

Get short URL

being lauded the most lethal sniper in US military history.

Played by Bradley Cooper, in the movie Kyle is an all-American hero, aTexas cowboy who joins the military out of a sense of patriotism and ayearning for purpose and direction in his life. Throughout the ‘uber-tough’selection process, Kyle is a bastion of stoicism and determination, willingto bear any amount of pain and hardship for the honor of being able toserve his country as a Navy Seal – America’s equivalent of the Samurai.

The personal struggle he endures as a result of what he experiences anddoes in Iraq is not motivated by any regrets over the people he kills,including women and children, but on his failure to kill more and therebysave the lives of American soldiers as they go about the business oftearing the country apart, city by city, block by block, and house by house.

If American Sniper wins one Oscar, never mind the six it’s been nominatedfor, when this annual extravaganza of movie pomp and ceremony unfoldsin Hollywood on February 22, it will not only represent an endorsement ofUS exceptionalism, but worse it will be an insult to the Iraqi people. In themovie they are depicted as a dehumanized mass of savages – occupyingthe same role as the Indians in John Wayne Western movies of old –responsible for their own suffering and the devastation of their country,which the white man is in the process of civilizing.

Anything resembling balance and perspective is sacrificed in AmericanSniper to the more pressing needs of US propaganda, which holds thatthe guys who served in Iraq were the very best of America, men who wentthrough hell in order to protect the freedoms and way of life of their fellowcountrymen at home. It is the cult of the soldier writ large, men who in thewords of Kyle (Bradley Cooper) in the movie “just want to get the badguys.”

The ”bad guys” are, as mentioned, the Iraqis. In fact if you had just arrivedin the movie theatre from another planet, you would be left in no doubtfrom the movie’s opening scene that Iraq had invaded and occupiedAmerica rather than the other way round.

Unsurprisingly, the real Chris Kyle was not as depicted by Clint Eastwoodand played by Bradley Cooper. In his autobiography, upon which themovie is supposedly based, Kyle writes, “I hate the damn savages. Icouldn’t give a flying f**k about the Iraqis.”

It is clear that the movie’s director, Clint Eastwood, when faced with thechoice between depicting the truth and the myth, decided to go with themyth.

But it should come as no surprise, given that the peddling of such myths isthe very currency of Hollywood. Over many decades the US movieindustry has proved itself one of the most potent weapons in the armory ofUS imperialism, helping to project a myth of an America, defined by loftyattributes of courage, freedom, and democracy.

As the myth has it, these values, and with them America itself, arecontinually under threat from the forces of evil and darkness that lurkoutwith and often times within. The mountain of lies told in service to thismyth has only been exceeded by the mountain of dead bodies on thebasis of it – victims of the carnage and mayhem unleashed around theworld by Washington.

Chris Kyle was not the warrior or hero portrayed in American Sniper. Hewas in fact a racist killer for whom the only good Iraqi was a dead Iraqi. Hekilled men, women, and children, just as his comrades did during thecourse of a brutal and barbaric war of aggression waged by the richestcountry in the world against one of the poorest.

They say that patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel. In the hands ofa movie director with millions of dollars and the backing of a movie studioat its disposal, it is far more dangerous than that. It is a potent weapondeployed against its victims, denying them their right to even beconsidered victims, exalting in the process, when it comes to Hollywood,those who murder and massacre in the name of America.

With this in mind, it is perhaps fitting that Chris Kyle was shot and killed bya former Marine at a shooting range in Texas in 2013. “Man was born intobarbarism,” Martin Luther King said, “when killing his fellow man was anormal condition ofexistence.”

by Taboola

MORE:

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solelythose of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.

RT NewsRT News

Why$‘AmericanSniperWhy$‘AmericanSniper……

4,583

8:18

Cookie policy

33.5K 1.1K 226

More from rt.comPregnant Austrian teen who ran off to join ISIS says she 'made a mistake'

ISIS introduces ‘price scheme’ for selling enslaved women and girls

Giant French robots fight in Beijing (PHOTOS)

846 comments

Login

Leave your comment...

-1

Replyan hour ago

Crusaderon

American " hero " is a liar in his book. ...he heJury awards Jesse Ventura $1.8 million in defamation case against deceased ‘American sniper’ Chris Kyle’s estate.

-3Jerry

Only a coward and a fool would blame a soldier for a war. The author of this article proves himself to be both. The woman and children that were killed in the movie

Replyabout 2 hours ago

proves himself to be both. The woman and children that were killed in the movie were in the process of attacking Marines when they were shot. While the children may have been innocent in the moral sense, one must understand that in war, being innocent and being a non-combatant are not one in the same. To applaud the death of a man who risked his life to save the lives of others demonstrates the moral depravity of journalism on this website.

0

Replyan hour ago

Jerry

@rwpla First of all I would like to congratulate you on your spelling and grammar. You're grasp on the English language is almost as brilliant as your understanding of geopolitics. I would like to counter, though, by saying that it is rather arrogant of you to generalize every single member of the United States Armed Forces (that is about 3.6 million people) as racist criminals. Remember, racism is basically generalizing a group of people into a set of (usually negative) characteristics. There is no obvious record of this, as you claim. Second, I am not talking about the Iraq war. I am talking about men and women that fight and die to protect the people they love. An open-minded person like you would surely agree that even the Nazis had good men among their ranks. I must repeat that it is foolish to blame a soldier for a war.

-1

Replyan hour ago

Amer Saabi

Jerry, American soldiers are nothing but raping and murdering scumbags. I saw them in Iraq. Also the US Government, media, intelligence, weapons manufacturers and military and all those who support them are sorry worthless scumbags.

0rwpla

Well done, you just proved the author's point and the dispicable moral depravity of americans. American sodleirs havea n obvious record of being some of hte most dispicable, murderous criminals and a disgrace to soldiers around the world. Many if not most are just racist, trigger happy criminals whose actions show that they are their to satisfy their sick mentlaity, never mind the rapes and looting. An idiot would first call ita "war" where an already destroyed country was invaded over and over again and pretend that its a war. Well done again, for showing us that you are a degenerate sick little prick. And that's your history, people like yourself actually jsutify nuking Japan twise by saying it was to save lives. The most

Next comments

Replyan hour ago

coward of acts are US military's mehtod of operation and then make movies to feel good about themlseves, since in reality, they know what kind of cowards they are with their fetish for killing.

+1

Replyan hour ago

Crusaderon

Also idiots blame civilians.

-1

Replyabout 2 hours ago

Crusaderon

Chris Kyle was coward , killing many civilians including kids.

+1

Replyabout 3 hours ago

tony p

For salivating cretins here who demand if you have seen the film, you ever been to Ukraine to witness the carnage that Kiev inflicts on its own people.

0

Replyabout 2 hours ago

hear my train a comin

How can you compare the 2? It's a film, dont critique it if you haven't actually seen it. With Ukraine 95% of us have no way of knowing anything about it because there is no possibility of being there, and even if we were there, we would see different events. This is a simple movie that almost EVERYONE can see the EXACT same thing firsthand. No comparison, dummy.

0

Replyabout 3 hours ago

tony p

Hollywood is reality for too many Muricans.

Applications RSS

RT NEWS ENGLISH APPSAndroidiOSWindows phoneWindows 8

News In visionUSA In motionUK ShowsRussian politics Bulletin boardBusiness MoreOp-Edge

LiveWhere to watchSchedule

Legal disclaimerPrivacy policyFeedbackAbout usContact info

العربيةEspañolРусский

Deutsch

FreevideoИНОТВ

RTДRUPTLYApplicationsRSS

Legal disclaimerPrivacy policyFeedbackAbout usContact info

© Autonomous Nonprofit Organization “TV-Novosti”, 2005–2015. All rights reserved.