The duality of war

"The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas ... at the same time."--F. Scott Fitzgerald.

We ventured out Saturday to see Birdman, the satirical fantasy about the superficial, cynical and hypocritical cultures of Hollywood, Broadway and celebrity generally.

The theater was almost full as we settled into seats near the front to endure commercials and consider previews of coming films. Then the theater darkened and images introduced the main feature.

Military tanks rolled on dusty streets.

We had walked into the wrong theater.


This was American Sniper, a fact-based film about a young Texas cowboy and rifle ace named Chris Kyle who, from an urban sniper's perch as a member of the Navy SEALs, legendarily shot dead at least 160 enemy persons during the war in Iraq.

That explained the big crowd. Birdman is a tad too odd and esoteric to deliver a box-office bonanza. But American Sniper set January records over the weekend as Middle Americans, starved for a story of conservative values and American military heroism, streamed to theaters to see it.

I have this suspicion that a couple of people showed up late and got the last seats to our matinee. I fear they wandered in vain in the dark in search of seats filled by two intended Birdman viewers who had decided to stay where they were.

Sorry.

American Sniper is a strong movie, well-acted by Bradley Cooper in the lead role and effectively directed by the ever-interesting Clint Eastwood.

Eastwood keeps making movies that superficially gratify right-wingers, but actually demonstrate nuance in their cultural and political implications.

I refer to Unforgiven, which both glorifies and laments bounty-seeking killing. I refer to Gran Torino, in which a sad widower resentful of cultural diversity ends up sacrificing for people who move next door with their stark differences and the decency they share with him.

And now I refer to American Sniper, which showcases a great warrior but presents the damaging effects of war in a generally implicit, and a couple of explicit, ways.

It may be that Eastwood holds the first-rate intelligence to which F. Scott Fitzgerald refers.

I knew as I watched American Sniper, and confirmed as I scanned Twitter afterward, that the film provides a political rallying cry for conservatives.

Tweet after tweet reported viewers leaving filled theaters across the country in stunned and heightened--and appropriate--regard for the heroic sacrifice of our military veterans. Tweet after tweet reported emotional exhaustion, often because of the post-scripted ending that viewers had not previously known about.

Tweet after tweet celebrated that the film had outdrawn anti-war films. Tweet after tweet noted in disgust that President Barack Obama had never spoken Kyle's name publicly.

Tweet after tweet said the film ought to get all the awards but won't get any because Hollywood liberals hate real America and her real heroes.

My view of the film was expressed by the star, Cooper. He has told interviewers that the movie is not a political statement but a rich, personal American story and character study.

It's a story using a touch of literary license on Kyle's book, which itself has been accused of using literary license. So those politicizing the film ought to understand they're grounding their views in accounts, on storytellers, not confirmed reality.

But that happens every day in the news, doesn't it?

Typically, a rich and well-told American story will offer too much depth and nuance to champion one side of the political spectrum exclusively and condemn the other exclusively. That's the case here.

Kyle was a sure-enough Odessa conservative, patriotic and committed to applying his special skills to the protection of his cherished values and fellow warriors. But the movie has Kyle's brother, also deployed to Iraq, questioning the war. It has one of Kyle's best soldier friends writing a letter that doubts the wisdom of the war.

It has Kyle returning for tours of duty not as much for general patriotism as in the beginning. He seems eventually and understandably to be caught up in combat's narrow insularity--in settling old scores.

And it has Kyle returning from his last tour so emotionally damaged that he chooses not to go home right away to his wife and kids.

Thus American Sniper is the classic American war story, which invariably goes as follows: War produces great and endless moral debate. It produces brave American heroes. Good guys win. Good guys lose.

And war, as ever, is hell.

I recommend the film, regardless of whether you carry from the theater the simpler message of American conservatism or a troubled contemplation of deeper questions.

That probably will depend mostly on your preconceived notions. Either way, or neither way, the experience will do you good.

That's unless you're squeamish. The movie is not for the squeamish. That's because the war we waged wasn't. Thus its story isn't.

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John Brummett's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at jbrummett@arkansasonline.com. Read his blog at brummett.arkansasonline.com, or his @johnbrummett Twitter feed.

Editorial on 01/20/2015

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