Monday, January 26, 2015

"When Narratives Collide—SELMA Versus AMERICAN SNIPER"

I haven't seen American Sniper yet, but one of my friends has and said it had a subtle antiwar message.

I know that Kyle was a bit of a nut and a liar, but movies are mythology - and let's not forget all the lies about Magic Negroes in movies today. It's American mythology against the mythology of leftists who wish to destroy us.

This was written by Paul Kersey and is from VDARE.


American Sniper, the latest film from director Clint Eastwood, is americansniperseemingly designed to enrage the Left. The film tells the story of the late Chris Kyle, a rodeo rider from Texas who became a Navy SEAL and the deadliest sniper in American history. It unapologetically portrays Kyle as a proud warrior dedicated to his country and his profession, a bracing change from the usual Hollywood treatment of American servicemen as either psychopathic killers or ashamed and broken victims.

Associated Press attributes the film’s success to conservatives flocking to the see the movie [‘Sniper’ success reveals power of conservative audience, Washington Post, January 20, 2015]. But this is a simplistic assessment of American Sniper’s appeal—it’s an unapologetically pro-American movie with a white male hero at a time when white male Americans are constantly lectured to feel guilty about their race and nationality.

That would be bad enough in the eyes of the Left, but American Sniper also came out over the Martin Luther King holiday weekend. Worse, it’s competing with the latest political hagiography dedicated to “Dr.” King: Selma. As King is less a historical figure than a modern American god, a competing film about a heroic white man has been interpreted as nothing less than a form of blasphemy.

What’s especially infuriating to the Leftist nation of “anti-America” is that American Sniper made $110 million over the Martin Luther King Day weekend and received several Oscar nominations. [Wow! “American Sniper Four Day Take Was a Whopping $110.6 million, by Roger Friedman, Showbiz 411, January 20, 2015]. In contrast, Selma is a box office flop.

The response from the cultural commissars who govern the commanding heights of American entertainment: this is a kind of national moral failing.

Film critic Scott Mendelson moans:

The sad irony of a weekend dedicated to a black man who preached non-violence and created great social change through pacifism being dominated by a movie about a white guy who (at least in the movie, final ten minutes notwithstanding) is most noteworthy for his record-breaking body count on a battlefield is not lost on me. \[Box Office: ‘Selma’ Grossed $5M On Martin Luther King Day, Forbes, January 21, 2015]

Matt Taibbi, whose anti-establishment posturing conceals his shameful retreat on immigration, threw up a lazily written blog post for Rape Hoax Magazine entitled “’American Sniper’ Is Almost Too Dumb to Criticize” [Rolling Stone, January 21, 2015]. Unconsciously echoing the “millennial generation motto” of the permanently triggered, Taibbi intones, “It’s the fact that the movie is popular, and actually makes sense to so many people, that’s the problem.”

And of course, there’s Lindy West, a kind of walking (or waddling) caricature of the “Social Justice Warriors” who busy themselves searching for and complaining about “racism,”“sexism,” and “homophobia” among normal people. West compares American Sniper to Chappelle’s Show, a comedy show abandoned by its eponymous black creator because he found whites were laughing for the “wrong” reasons. West screeches:

If [Eastwood], intentionally or not, makes a hero out of Kyle—who, bare minimum, was a racist who took pleasure in dehumanising and killing brown people—is he responsible for validating racism, murder, and dehumanisation?

The real American Sniper was a hate-filled killer. Why are simplistic patriots treating him as a hero?, The Guardian, January 6, 2015]

It’s no wonder critics are so angry. Kyle was a real-life Captain America, the kind of positive heterosexual white male role-model our elites have been desperate to drive out of the military. [Bradley Cooper on portraying famed Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, by Meghann Myers, Navy Times, January 16, 2015]

But in an age when schools ban the American flag, American Sniper seems like a subversive phenomenon. The audience’s rejection of the official Narrative about evil traditional values and racist white males is eerily reminiscent of the public’s reaction to The Passion of the Christ. The film is a reminder the historic Majority of America thirsts for the type of heroes Hollywood, academia, and the federal government are increasingly devoted to destroying.

The rarely-spoken rationale behind the System’s hatred is that our cultural commissars link any expression of patriotism and pro-military sentiment to Nazism, a trope that Peter Brimelow calls “Hitler’s Revenge.”

Actor Seth Rogen made it explicit when he tweeted, “American Sniper kind of reminds me of the movie that’s showing in the third act of Inglourious Basterds.” He was referring to “Nation’s Pride,” a fake Nazi propaganda film shown during Quentin Tarantino’s 2009 Inglourious Basterds, a movie that featured the gleeful torture and slaughter of German prisoners by a fictional unit of Jewish-Americans. There were few Main Stream Media complaints about that film.

In contrast, “hate porn” like Selma is a product of the official culture and was heavily subsidized by both charities and the school system. Primarily black K-12 public school students were able to see Selma for free this past weekend thanks to the Selma for Students campaign. [Black business leaders raise over $2M so students can see ‘Selma’ for free, by Brooke Lefferts, FoxNews, January 19, 2015]

An estimated 275,000 tickets were provided to students just by part of this effort, making this cinematic entitlement an important part of Selma’s box office take. [275,000 Students Receive Free Tickets to Academy Award Nominated® “Selma,” Business Wire, January 16, 2015]

This includes students in:

Montgomery. [Montgomery students to receive free admission to ‘Selma’ showings thanks to local business leaders, by Amber Sutton, AL.com, January 16, 2015]

Memphis. [Mayor says students can see ‘Selma’ free, by Daniel Connolly, Memphis Commercial Appeal, January 15, 2015]

Detroit. [Free ‘Selma’ tickets available for Detroit students, by Julie Hinds, Detroit Free Press, January 17, 2015]

New Orleans. [Tickets to the civil-rights drama ‘Selma’ being offered free to local students, by Mike Scott, New Orleans Times-Picayune, January 14, 2015]

Washington D.C. [Thousands of D.C. students can see ‘Selma’ free, by Emma Brown, Washington Post, January 15, 2015]

Atlanta. [Free ‘Selma’ tickets for Atlanta Public Schools students in high school, by Rodney Harris, CBS Atlanta, January 16, 2015]

St. Louis. [STL among select cities offering 7-9 grade students free admission to ‘Selma’, St. Louis American, January 16, 2015]

Indianapolis. [Several Indy Venues Offering Free Admission on MLK Day, by Donna Schiele, Praise Indy, January 15, 2015]

Newark. [Free ‘Selma’ tickets for NJ students, by Stephen Whitty, NJ.com, January 14, 2015]

Philadelphia. [10,000 Philly students can see “Selma” for free through Jan. 19, by Josh Kruger, Philly Now, January 13, 2015]

Baltimore. [Free tickets for students to Selma, Baltimore City Schools, January 22, 2015]

Dallas. DISD students can see ‘Selma’ free, thanks to donations, by George Rodrigue and Demond Fernandez, WFAA, January 16, 2015

New York, Chicago, Oakland etc. [Selma’ Free Screenings Expand to Chicago, Dallas, D.C. and Other Cities, by Brent Lang, Variety, January 14, 2015]

Yet even with this artificial head start, Selma is a box office disappointment which will struggle to gross the $80 to $90 million it will need just to break even [As America Tires of Race Hoaxes, ‘Selma’ Disappoints At Box Office, by John Nolte, Breitbart, January 12, 2015].

Perhaps Barack Obama will issue an executive order dispensing reparations to reimbursing the producers of Selma, one of whom is his fellow ex-congregant at the Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s church, Oprah Winfrey.

The box office battle between Selma and American Sniper is just another chapter in our cultural Cold War. An official culture dedicated to multiculturalism, egalitarianism, and white guilt tries to impose itself on a historic American nation which is still showing signs of life. But, as the ticket sales show, racial fatigue is beginning to hit home. Even the cinematic equivalent of Affirmative Action can’t force whites to sit through yet another movie designed to trash the country they once possessed.

The real question: will Hollywood executives—and politicians—will take a look at the money made by American Sniper? Change will come when elites decide, if only out of self-interest, that they can benefit from championing the people that the official culture ignores.

5 comments:

TroperA said...

White People are sick and tired of hearing about how much they suck. Or why they're bad people for benefiting from a system built on slavery (which ended 50 years before their first European ancestor entered the country.)

Hollywood's mostly Jewish movie producers must now find themselves between Scylla and Charybdis, wanting to profit from that tantalizing market of white bread conservatives, yet being too afraid to break ranks with the kill-whitey leftist party line. Which of them will be the first to break?

Glen Filthie said...

It is unfair to call Kyle a nut or a liar. If he were a nut he never would have qualified for the SEALs and the fact is - he often got in supreme shit for telling the truth - chief among them that militant moslems are savage, ignorant enemies of civilization and that the best way to deal with them is a bullet behind the ear.

You talk about manliness, Bob - but that guy walked the walk. Let us dispense with the PC and call a spade a spade. The effeminate liberals have always hated the military. And Hollywood - a bastion of left wing liberal idiocy and a community famous for producing the worst of America's moral and intellectual cripples - hates them most of all.

I love it that the social justice warriors are fuming about how we refuse to be entertained and enlightened by their propaganda. They rage that Eastwood's movie is not true to life...how they would foam at the mouth and shit their pants in rage if the truth were told about MLK - that he was an abusive, philandering piece of shit and a race whoring hypocrite like Sharpton or Obama!

Listening to the liberals whining about movies taking liberties with facts is like listening to the pot complain about the kettle being black. Michael Moore's crockumentaries spring to mind. As for me...yeah, I would rather see a movie about a real hero and not black idiots posing as heroes. There has been far too much of that lately and I too am sick of it.

Unknown said...

Kyle claimed he punched out Jessee Ventura, which he did not, and lost a multi-million dollar lawsuit against him. He was claimed he was shooting people during Katrina, which he didn't. This is why I point out movies are mythology, not history.

Glen Filthie said...

Depends on who gives you your facts I guess. According to witnesses, Ventura started beaking off about the SEALS, and Kyle called him on it and told him he could apologize or answer for the comments. Ventura told Kyle to run along or get hurt - and that is when Kyle punched him out. Ventura lost the fight and later sued Kyle's estate for assault, slander and libel. He later dropped the assault suit. There is much controversy over exactly what happened but this much is public record.

I have no doubt there was a fight that night, and I have no doubt that Ventura got punched out and that he probably deserved it. In my scholarly opinion, Kyle was out of line, Ventura was out of line and the whole thing should have been hushed up, swept under the rug and forgotten about. Unfortunately Ventura's conceit and ego are legendary and by the time he could collect - Kyle was dead and only his wife and son would be hurt by the suit.

Ventura went ahead anyway and collected his cash and prizes from a recent widow and her heart broken son - proving himself to be the shitbird Kyle always said he was.

That incident was a stain on Kyle's memory but not his character - I wish more politicians were held accountable for how they treat the military.

The Ace said...

Since money was a key issue, has anybody else noticed that modern movies are infamous for not making a profit?

Unless there's serious product place, and alot of toys and merchandise, watch the "honest trailers" video of the Transformers: Age of Extinction trailer to see what I mean.

It hardly helps that most movies have painfully bad writing, and tend to be left wing ego masturbation, through the two tend to follow each other.