Why did “American Sniper” get nominated for an Oscar?
I watched the latest Clint Eastwood movie “American Sniper” this afternoon. I enjoyed it. I thought Bradley Cooper’s performance was excellent but not among the best I’ve seen this past year. I would recommend the movie to others. But it isn’t in my top ten movies of the past year. It might not even make make the top twenty list. The movie “Wild”, as one example, is a better movie and yet garnered only one nomination for lead actor. So I am genuinely mystified by how many votes “American Sniper” received. I’m guessing a big factor is the fetishization of the US military (as exemplified by the funeral scenes of the protagonist during the closing credits). A characteristic of US society that is deeply troubling as it makes us too reticent to question our overt and covert wars.
Updated 2015-01-31: I just read the review by Matt Taibbi in RollingStone. It crystalizes all the reasons I feel the movie is good as fiction but dangerous as documentary.