Two Movies in the News -- "The Interview" and "American Sniper"

I watched the two movies that have been in the news recently:  "The Interview" and "American Sniper". Without further adieu, here is what I thought about them:

The Interview:

Watching The Interview became an epic 4 day struggle.  I made it through the first 20 minutes on day one, fell asleep on day two, made it to the actual interview in The Interview on day three, and finally finished the film on Day Four.

My two big takeaways:  the North Koreans need to develop a sense of humor, and I was glad I was able to watch this movie for free on Netflix.  I got my money's worth.

Was it funny?  Sure, in parts.  It had good special effects.  But it was also needlessly crass and just...dumb. Surely a poster-child for free speech should at least be interesting. I felt a little dumber for having watched it.

American Sniper:

Now we're talking.  I've been looking to see this movie since it came out, and I finally got my chance today. I wish I had gotten the chance to see it before it became a political football.  It's a shame that in this country we have become so commercialized that we can only express ourselves in what we consume, and have to graft our culture wars onto what is, in my opinion, a fairly nuanced film about the war.

Yes, you can complain that the movie doesn't portray Iraqis and Muslims well, and there is no mention about Abu Ghraib or other atrocities perpetrated by the American military during the war.  But I don't see why a movie about Iraq, specifically one that focuses on Chris Kyle, has to include all of those things.  There are other media, other films, that investigate those issues quite well for the person who cares enough to explore.  There shouldn't be a checkbox that you have to go down to please everyone when it's time to make a film about Iraq War; God knows you simply can't.

I know as well that there are some (Michael Moore, the aforementioned wunder-kind Seth Rogen, Bill Maher) who try to paint Chris Kyle as some kind of war loving, rascist psycho-path.  Michael Moore goes so far as to insinuate that Chris Kyle is a coward, and that the insurgents are merely just trying to defend their homes against invaders (us).  I wouldn't disagree with these liberal figureheads (though what Seth Rogen is doing in there I don't know...) that the war in Iraq was a horrible, misguided, tragic mistake.  That being said I wouldn't allow those feelings about the war to denigrate someone's service and turn him into something that he is not.  I don't like the fact that American culture is one that continues to honor violence, but in the same breath I would say I'd consider Kyle to be an American hero, not only for what he did on the battlefield but also the work he did when he finally came off with sufferers of PTSD, work that cost him his life.  In that way he himself is a casualty of this horrible war.

Enough with the politics.  As a movie itself it's really quite good.  It lacks the epic sweep of a Saving Private Ryan, but as a character study it is top notch.  We see Chris Kyle change in small, subtle ways as the war goes on and his combat tours increase, thanks to a brilliant performance by Chris Cooper.  Kyle seems human at the beginning, and human at the end when he's found his way back to his family, but during the war he gets more and more like a machine, and Cooper gives subtle hints that behind the stoic exterior the violence is starting to affect him.

Anyways, my two cents.

Reckon I'll go watch Rambo now.