Urban Lawn review of American Sniper.

Lawd help me if any of you want to fight me over my review as I cannot lie, I’m tired today. But if I delay and let my opinion of Clint Eastwood’s movie brain deflate, then I might not properly exhale, and if I do not sigh properly, this might cause some of you to believe me unpatriotic

So Here goes,

I first read about Chris Kyle a few years ago when a writer at the New Yorker wrote about Chris’s story. Needless to say I was moved by Chris’s story but not because of the obvious or what you might think

Funny enough Chris Kyle’s story came out right after my Texas sales guy Jamie had just walked into a vicious, murderous crime scene filled with the slaughtering of his two neighbors who lived next door to him right outside of Austin, Tx.

I have written about this story many times on Facebook and have told about the significance of Jamie’s heroism over the last few years as he himself has gone through a twisted version of Iraqi War PTSD.

“Their eyes, their eyes”, was a constant conversation I had with Jamie over his 2013-2014 year, as Jamie’s brain began to process the brutality and gore he had witnessed and later realized he had survived.

You see, Jamie’s Texas veteran PTSD predator had wanted Jamie there the night he shot both his parents over forty-two times, but luckily Jamie got a last minute call from a Houston builder who needed him to come by his jobsite and he couldn’t wait another minute

So unbeknownst to Jamie at the time of the call, this last minute builder’s call definitely saved Jamie’s life. Had Jamie not gotten the call, and not cancelled dinner plans with his neighbor-friends, then he would have been sitting with his friend’s son as the Iraqi war veteran opened fire on his entire family. A fact my buddy Jamie has had many mixed feelings about and many sweaty guilt-ridden nights over

“If only I’d been there, if only I’d been there, maybe I could’ve stopped him from going to get his guns, or maybe I could’ve grabbed his gun or maybe this or maybe that”, is still a conversation my sales buddy and I have shortly after we’ve finished our fourth or fifth beer

I guess the way I can sum up the way I felt leaving the theater last night was emotional, sad, moved and overwhelmed.

So many lives were effected by bad leadership in our country, on both sides of the political aisle and I will never vote for anyone who voted for the Iraq war, Hillary Clinton included.

I told my brother back in 2003 our country was making a horrible foreign policy miscalculation and there was going to be a lot of generational injuries and casualties

At the time I thought Iraq would be like Vietnam, the only difference; generational economic frustration and control would be replaced with exploited patriotism and glory.

One need look no further than the Pat Tillman documentary about military brand exploitation of Mr. Tillman’s death and service by all of our leaders to understand we are living in an era of unbridled fear and political greed driven by an over abundance of marketable absolutism

Clint Eastwood, Bradley Copper and I are no different than the countless patriots who came out on bridges and overpasses to salute Mr. Kyle for his service. I think this movie based on Chris Kyle’s well-marketed, over-blown, self-aggrandizing book that labels him as the baddest mofo to be born in Texas, second only to Davy Crockett, all while forgetting Davy Crockett was born in Tennessee and not in Texas, is simply what it is meant to be, a good movie. To make it something else seems unpatriotic in some way

I did however find that the movie made me feel guilty for not standing on bridges and overpasses for the countless PTSD veterans like Eddie Ray Routh, who killed Chris Kyle; not because I think Eddie was right to kill Chris, but because there is always a fine line between love and war. My Daddy always told me sports is ninety percent above the shoulders, so is war I suspect; and unfortunately for most of us our current plastic republicans and bank-owned democrats have lost sight of this since 9/11

I think I will donate to Eddie Ray Routh’s defense fund, in hopes he might not receive the death penalty in Texas, not because I don’t believe in the death penalty but because sometimes we must not act out of sheer emotional reason

I also plan to write Eddie’s family and thank them for their son’s military service. Explaining to them that I believe all military men and women deserve the same acknowledgment for their service, especially in times of war, regardless of whether I believe the war was right or wrong; and although their son’s body came back in one piece from Iraq, clearly his mind did not. A message I think had Chris Kyle lived another twenty years, he himself might be proud of me for sending.

I believe when you make heroes out of some men and villains out of others, based on unequivocal ideology, you actually degrade and decay humanity, patriotism and faith.

My take on the movie is that it was very moving and I got my money’s worth, but if I were being honest, I really hope those of you who flocked to see this film will also find your way to net flicks and Tommy Lee Jone’s Iraq PTSD flick called “In the Valley of Elah”.

It might not be as awe struck and crutch grabbing inspirational but it definitely to me is more of a patriotic masterpiece

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/06/03/in-the-crosshairs