Movie Talk (New Films, Old Films... doesn't matter) (44 Viewers)

[Mohad]

You guys are so cute. :sick:

 

Buy on AliExpress.com

[Dostoevsky]

Unlike American Sniper.

 

[Hust]

I didn't eat since yesterday. So I pretty much didn't eat anything for like 30h bar a banana.

Ibra thread

 

[Post Ironic]

Interesting that an extremely conservative movie is nominated for Oscars, including best picture, in an extremely liberal Hollywood. Furthermore, not only is it nominated for best picture but Bradley is nominated for best actor which counters your argument considerably.

-Best picture
-Best Actor
-Best Writing Adapted Screenplay
-Best Film Editing
-Best Sound Mixing

Lastly, if you actually payed any attention to the movie you should have realized it's actually an anti-war movie. It clearly shows the effects of war on a solider and the deadly effects of PTSD as a result of exposure to war and how it changes the psyche of human emotions and the aftermath of what happens to the family on the home front. If anything, and its obvious you completely missed the point of the movie, Eastwood was showing the ugly emotional toll on soldiers. Now, regardless of your view on America's Military/Government/Decisions to go to war are in fact irrelevant because nothing about the movie portrays any of that. It's strictly down to the emotional toll soldiers endure (my wife included, she was Navy & at Gitmo) on what happens to a soul once it has actually seen war. If anything this movie was to show America the bad side (death included) of war, not the reward ceremony at the end but that actual day-to-day regress in quality of life for soldiers as they cope with what they saw.

Your criticism is certainly noted, but I'll take actual movie critics opinion more seriously. It's interesting because here in DC the movies are obviously loaded with current/retired US soldiers who can speak to the horrors they faced/committed during wartime.

Again, I'm sure there will be another smart ass comment that follows this that people laugh at or poke comments at Americans, like myself, and that's fine but you won't see me stoop down so go right ahead with the rash comments.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/american-sniper-is-almost-too-dumb-to-criticize-20150121?page=2

This review sums American Sniper and it's problems up very well. The fact audiences in theatres around America were standing up and cheering when Kyle took out Mustafa is so appalling, that it's almost hilarious. These lines are particularly apt.

But to turn the Iraq war into a saccharine, almost PG-rated two-hour cinematic diversion about a killing machine with a heart of gold (is there any film theme more perfectly 2015-America than that?) who slowly, very slowly, starts to feel bad after shooting enough women and children – Gump notwithstanding, that was a hard one to see coming.

Sniper is a movie whose politics are so ludicrous and idiotic that under normal circumstances it would be beneath criticism. The only thing that forces us to take it seriously is the extraordinary fact that an almost exactly similar worldview consumed the walnut-sized mind of the president who got us into the war in question.

It's the fact that the movie is popular, and actually makes sense to so many people, that's the problem. "American Sniper has the look of a bona fide cultural phenomenon!" gushed Brandon Griggs of CNN, noting the film's record $105 million opening-week box office.

Griggs added, in a review that must make Eastwood swell with pride, that the root of the film's success is that "it's about a real person," and "it's a human story, not a political one."

Well done, Clint! You made a movie about mass-bloodshed in Iraq that critics pronounced not political! That's as Hollywood as Hollywood gets.

The characters in Eastwood's movies almost always wear white and black hats or their equivalents, so you know at all times who's the good guy on the one hand, and whose exploding head we're to applaud on the other.

And I could write a pretty long list of films and actors nominated for best picture and best actor over the last 30 years, that were not in the slightest deserving.

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Then again, America is a culture where a deliberate and perfidious anti-intellectualism and "dumbing down" goes on almost continuously. So it figures that such "baby food" as this film is spoon-fed to a public that mostly doesn't have the capacity for critical thought.

 

[Hust]

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SO much knowledge of US media & coverage of cinematic know-all from someone that doesn't live here.

 

[Dostoevsky]

The Trial - Eh, mixed feeling about this one but it's leaning towards the bad side. It was (and still is) kinda hard to cover the topic of existentialism and absurdity, especially if we're talking about a 2h movie with way too many things happening. What I loved about the movie is how (and especially where) it was filmed, shooting were really powerful. I also liked the selected of actors (bar the lawyer, I think he was really a bad choice and he totally ruined it). Now what I didn't like about it: Too big discontinuities in the story (yeah, even the book had some) managed to screw the whole feeling. I also think some very important parts were either skipped or when they were done it was rather poorly (some parts were actually quite bad and way too short). Also, why the hell did they change the very ending of the book? But okay at least that didn't make it any worse unlike other parts. I don't think I'd recommend watching this one if you haven't read the book tbh as I believe it would be too confusing and quite weird. On the other hand it always good to see how would someone make a movie out of such great book. In this case I was left pretty disappointed.

 

[GordoDeCentral]

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SO much knowledge of US media & coverage of cinematic know-all from someone that doesn't live here.

hes right though

 

[Post Ironic]

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SO much knowledge of US media & coverage of cinematic know-all from someone that doesn't live here.

I've spent a lot of time in America, and live here in Canada, your neighbour. If you think I'm placing Canada somehow above America culturally or intellectually, you are mistaken. My culture is much the same, and starting from the government and working down to the lowest level, engages in a cultural war of sorts against intellectualism and the arts whenever possible. Value is placed on puerile and patriotic baby formula being held up as great art regardless of artistic merit. If there is a country that matches America in terms of unthinking patriotism, it's my own, though perhaps not so often in a militaristic fashion. North American culture has been in the process of this "dumbing down" since the Reagan-Mulroney era of the 80s.

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Anyways, the point is that Eastwood turned a psychopath (read the book, it's pretty clear that this guy enjoyed killing these savages he hated so much, and also was entertained by it and his little competitions with other snipers) into a "real American hero" and somehow managed to apoliticize the entire conflict. The fact that he thought this was a good idea is somewhat mind-boggling. Once more America has a psychotic hero to inspire the masses with his patriotism and killing of those dangerous "savages" that are the enemy, another convenient blanket draped over the ugly truth of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians dying.

Watch a documentary sometime called The End of Faith. It's about Americans losing faith in God (including Priests and Rabbis) after the 9/11 attacks, and perfectly illustrates the dangerous Amero-centrism that's been bred. Who cares about 900,000 Rwandans dying in 100 days in '94. Who cares about millions of Vietnamese civilians dying in the Vietnam war from American bombings. Who cares about the Khmer Rouge genocide, the hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqi and Afghan civilians, etc etc etc etc etc. it's this idea that 5000 dead Americans is the world's biggest tragedy ever and has made someone lose faith in God that is absolutely disgusting.

 

[Hust]

hes right though

Partially he but not entirely, like I said with Dusan (for some reason I almost typed Buffon instead of Dusan, ) the mixed review says a lot...usually its a mindless sweeping consensus with the media/hollywood but there is a mixed review of the movie here at home in the states.

 

[GordoDeCentral]

Partially he but not entirely, like I said with Dusan (for some reason I almost typed Buffon instead of Dusan, ) the mixed review says a lot...usually its a mindless sweeping consensus with the media/hollywood but there is a mixed review of the movie here at home in the states.

i was agreeing with his point regarding the dumbing down of the culture, i dont know about the movie, havent watched it yet

 

[Hust]

I've spent a lot of time in America, and live here in Canada, your neighbour. If you think I'm placing Canada somehow above America culturally or intellectually, you are mistaken. My culture is much the same, and starting from the government and working down to the lowest level, engages in a cultural war of sorts against intellectualism and the arts whenever possible. Value is placed on puerile and patriotic baby formula being held up as great art regardless of artistic merit. If there is a country that matches America in terms of unthinking patriotism, it's my own, though perhaps not so often in a militaristic fashion. North American culture has been in the process of this "dumbing down" since the Reagan-Mulroney era of the 80s.

Here is my question to you and the other gents from the states that swing on the other side of the political spectrum than I do:

If the media, which is majority liberal, higher educational institutions (again predominately liberal), Hollywood (obviously liberal), & overall general consensus of liberals as anti-bush & Iraq war then why isn't everyone taking the same tone (^^) hook, line & sinker?

I think there is genuinely a mixed review of the movie.

Furthermore, with all the liberal influence in the US how can one feel there is a "dumbing down" of culture?

Maybe I'm misunderstanding what is being dumbed down so someone elaborate

 

[GordoDeCentral]

Here is my question to you and the other gents from the states that swing on the other side of the political spectrum than I do:

If the media, which is majority liberal, higher educational institutions (again predominately liberal), Hollywood (obviously liberal), & overall general consensus of liberals as anti-bush & Iraq war then why isn't everyone taking the same tone (^^) hook, line & sinker?

I think there is genuinely a mixed review of the movie.

Furthermore, with all the liberal influence in the US how can one feel there is a "dumbing down" of culture?

Maybe I'm misunderstanding what is being dumbed down so someone elaborate

democrats and repubs are the same shit, though repubs smell a lil worse because of their self-righteous tone, and the tea party is the incest child of kock bros and murdoch. the current system promotes the rise to the top of the slimy and unscrupulous, more so than before.

 

[Hust]

democrats and repubs are the same shit, though repubs smell a lil worse because of their self-righteous tone, and the tea party is the incest child of kock bros and murdoch. the current system promotes the rise to the top of the slimy and unscrupulous, more so than before.

Agree with the last part.

But repubs as self-righteous? Have you tried debating with a college professor lately that disagrees with you politically? Have you watched mainstream news lately and the nasty attacks like they do on Palin, for example?

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Matthews/the other idiot Bill Maher/etc...they take attacks and make them personal.

 

[GordoDeCentral]

Agree with the last part.

But repubs as self-righteous? Have you tried debating with a college professor lately that disagrees with you politically? Have you watched mainstream news lately and the nasty attacks like they do on Palin, for example?

i hate school, the press, and politicians i just love me my tuz bros

 

[Hust]

i hate school, the press, and politicians i just love me my tuz bros

 

[Post Ironic]

Agree with the last part.

But repubs as self-righteous? Have you tried debating with a college professor lately that disagrees with you politically? Have you watched mainstream news lately and the nasty attacks like they do on Palin, for example?

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Matthews/the other idiot Bill Maher/etc...they take attacks and make them personal.

The same could be said of the opposite side also. They attack on a personal level too. Both sides are retarded, and unwilling to concede even when the other side has a good idea, due to stupid partisanship and dogmatic ideology. In Canada, Representatives basically have to vote with their party on each issue, there's a party whip to try to ensure it. One former MP actually said that "I always voted at my party's call and I never thought of thinking for myself."

As X says, the system provides one certainty, and that is that the unscrupulous and slimy rise to the top.

 

[Hust]

The same could be said of the opposite side also. They attack on a personal level too. Both sides are retarded, and unwilling to concede even when the other side has a good idea, due to stupid partisanship and dogmatic ideology. In Canada, Representatives basically have to vote with their party on each issue, there's a party whip to try to ensure it. One former MP actually said that "I always voted at my party's call and I never thought of thinking for myself."

As X says, the system provides one certainty, and that is that the unscrupulous and slimy rise to the top.

 

[Klin]

I really liked American Sniper too. Screw you Dusan.

You're not alone in this, @Hustini.

 

[Hust]

I really liked American Sniper too. Screw you Dusan.

You're not alone in this, @Hustini.

Elaborate because I've been going at this alone all day.

 

[Dostoevsky]

I really liked American Sniper too. Screw you Dusan.

You're not alone in this, @Hustini.

You... you suck.