Slate Is Off And Running Again: American Sniper is Full Of Lies

Slate is pissed that Amercian Sniper is full of lies. Why? Because he doesn't tell the stories outside of American Sniper's story.

But when critics catch a film in a lie, we have to ask it, “Why?” That’s what matters. Take American Sniper, one of the most mendacious movies of 2014. Clint Eastwood was caught in a trap: His subject, murdered Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, lied a lot. In his autobiography, he said he killed two carjackers in Texas, sniped looters during Hurricane Katrina, and punched Jesse Ventura in the face. None of that was true. So Eastwood was stuck. Should he repeat Kyle’s lies as truth? Expose him as a liar? Instead, he pretended Kyle never claimed any of it, but when a film erases the fact that its subject was a fabricator, then that itself is a lie.

Not having seen the movie or read the book, I can see that Chris Kyle was a Naval Seal and Jesse Ventura was a loudmouth truther. Slate has made a point of making our military and people on the right look like thugs and murderers. So I have a pretty biased view on who is telling truth here.

Regardless, the point is, the movie is centered around Chris's experiences in Iraq and psychological effects it had on him and his marriage. Not including incidents that may be ancillary to the story being told is not necessarily lying. It may simply be an artistic decision.

Jim and I spoke at length regarding "Unbroken." I did bemoan the lack screen time given to the fact that Louie Zamperini forgave his captors and found God after the war. He also has a tough time after the war and had a lot of trouble with nightmares. None of that is in the movie. A lousy omittance but did Angelina Jolie "lie?" Of course not.