Posted on 01/31/2015 2:17:14 PM PST by Kaslin
American Sniper, the film about Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, who became the deadliest sniper in U.S. history while serving four tours of duty in Iraq, has broken box office records and is nominated for six Oscars, including best picture. To say that the film is a hit among American audiences (Michael Moore, and other haters aside) would be an understatement. What is receiving far less attention—though very interesting—is how the moving is faring in the Middle East.
In Iraq, the theater at Baghdad’s Mansour Mall was “full and rowdy” during the film’s opening week—and the crowd was into it.
When Gaith Mohammed, a young man in his twenties with a degree in accounting, went to see "American Sniper" during its opening week at Baghdad’s Mansour Mall, he says the theater was full and rowdy. […]
Mohammed says one of the film’s opening scenes, when Kyle spots a woman and child who appear to be preparing to attack US troops during the initial invasion of Iraq, had the entire audience on the edge of their seats.
“When the sniper was hesitating to shoot [the child holding the RPG] everyone was yelling ‘Just shoot him!’” he said.
When asked by the Global Post whether he felt the film was in any way racist or anti-Arab, as one MSNBC reporter suggested on Friday, Mohammed replied, “No, why? The sniper was killing terrorists, the only thing that bothered me was when he said he didn’t know anything about the Quran!”
Mohammed also went on to say that movies like American Sniper gave him “strength to face ISIS.”
Others, of course, did consider the film to be ‘against all Muslims,’ and Kyle, another ‘bloodthirsty’ American troop. It’s no surprise, then, that the theater ended up pulling the film a week after its release. Nevertheless, the number of supporters is noteworthy.
Even though he saw it on the big screen already, Jalal says he was hoping to bring his family back to see the movie again. Instead, they’ll just watch it at home, he says, holding up a pirated DVD in a thin plastic sleeve that he bought from a shop a few doors down. Most of his other friends have already downloaded it illegally.
Jalal says the movie doesn’t strike him as racist or anti-Arab. He says he finds the main character appealing regardless of the fact that he’s an American soldier killing Iraqis during the US-led occupation of his home country.
“He was a hero and he went through difficult training,” Jalal explained, saying Chris Kyle was just serving his country, a universal duty for all men.
And elsewhere…
American Sniper has also been playing to packed houses in Iraq’s Kurdish region, right behind Taken 3, including in theaters owned by the same chain that that shied away from opening the film at all in Baghdad.
“The Kurds don’t like the Baghdadis that much so they have no big problem seeing them getting shot by an American,” said one film exec who operates theaters in Iraq. “So far, the film is working well for our screens in Kurdistan.”
The film has also been drawing big crowds in Lebanon. Edited versions have opened in several Gulf states, with cuts to a scene involving the Quran. Jordanian censors originally rejected the film outright, though distributors plan to submit a re-edited version.
Iraqi audiences are engaged in films like American Sniper because conflict plays such a big role in everyday life, Iraqi filmmaker Mohamed Al-Daradji told the Post.
“[T]hey feel part of them is there,” he said.
Mostly in the Shi’ite areas, I would think.
They may think it is an instruction manual.
I saw it last night- I’m not in Iraq.
It’s a great movie and I have a new appreciation for my disgust with Michael Moore and Bill Mahr.
These are hateful men.
Most Iraqis hate the terrorists as much as we do. The ISIS crowd brings nothing but pain and death and misery and poverty. The majority of Iraqis don’t want to fight, but they also don’t want to be subjugated... kinda like most people, all over the world.
I don’t expect the Hollyweird left to give the Best Picture Oscar to “American Sniper” due it’s shortage of political correctness and failure to address homosexual “marriage” and “homosexuality” but they should at least give Brad Cooper the Best Actor Oscar. He did an outstanding job as Chris Kyle in that movie.
It’s still racist. The hero is a white conservative American who clings to God and to guns. The villains are all Muslims. The director should have cast Irish Catholics, half of them women, as the terrorists and chosen Denzel Washington and Oprah to play Chris Kyle and his Marine sidekick, then “American Sniper” would not have been racist. Either refuting or condemning the White Privilege Narrative matters more than matching movie scenes to reality, and a refutation through sensitive casting was the best option.
Looks like Kyle was right when he concluded the Iraqis are savages.
Many an American killed a Vietnamese kid with a shoe shoe box.
It is what it is.
Iraqis, whatever their sect or political afiliation, are not pacificts and they are not PC in the American sense, so I can see how they would appreciate a movie like this. And DVDs are all over the place.
Monday, Feb. 2, is “Chris Kyle Day” in Texas, per declaration of our new Governor Greg Abbott.
Be a great day to go see the movie!
My husband and I and another couple saw it last night. Theater was sold out and the manager was asking everyone to “squeeze in” to make room.
Excellent film. Sobering. Hardly a word was spoken as people exited afterwards.
There was a moment or two where I thought “oh, the left will latch on to this” — but I don’t think Eastwood intended to have a viewpoint one way or the other. I think it was meant simply to say, this is war and everyone is human. No right or left. JMHO
Should have had a heroine whose mother was Irish Catholic of oriental descent and a dad from Somalia. And the heroine would be a bigender paraplegic with Tourette’s syndrome. And a lisp. Who stuttered between epileptic seizures and voted for Obama on the way to the welfare office to collect an EBT card.
It was interesting during and when the movie ended.
We have been going to matinees for about twenty years. Sometimes we are the only two people in the theater. Rarely are there more than a handful, even on Saturdays.
The theater today was way over half full, maybe three quarters.
When the movie ended, not a soul moved until the end of the credits. Then everyone exited the theater, and I heard not even a whispered comment by anyone until we were in the lobby. That's intense.
The last time I experienced that was Flags of Our Fathers. My Dad was a Pharmacist's Mate (think Corpsman or Medic) who invaded Iwo Jima. We took him to see Flags of Our Fathers. He thought it was a as authentically rendered as Hollywood can render. Those movie fans left that movie in silence, as well.
My Son served two tours in Iraq. To my knowledge he was only in harm's way once, although he had a pretty interesting job, and that one time had zip to do with his job. I think because our Son was there, the movie was even more intense for my Wife.
It says right here I would highly recommend American Sniper to anyone who hasn't seen it. Don't plan on being entertained. Nevertheless, if you aren't moved, you have neither heart nor soul.
Most Iraqis hate the terrorists as much as we do. The ISIS crowd brings nothing but pain and death and misery and poverty. The majority of Iraqis don’t want to fight, but they also don’t want to be subjugated... kinda like most people, all over the world.
Just got home from watching American Sniper. Theater was filled. What a great movie. I want to go see it again.
Just came back from seeing it. Really powerful.
Which is why Michael Moore doesn't get it. He's not a man.
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