‘American Sniper’ Praised By Michael Moore; Calls Bradley Cooper’s Performance “One Of The Best Of The Year” – Update
UPDATE, 12:26 PM: A day after taking to Twitter to lambast snipers as “cowards,” the Academy Award winning director is now praising American Sniper the movie – to some extent.
My uncle was killed by a sniper. Here's my Facebook post on "American Sniper", and snipers in general: https://t.co/By4leT6b67
— Michael Moore (@MMFlint) January 19, 2015
“Awesome performance from Bradley Cooper,” said Michael Moore on his Facebook page late last night about the Clint Eastwood directed Oscar nominated film. “One of the best of the year. Great editing. Costumes, hair, makeup superb!”
Still, Moore does have a few critiques of the pic.
“Oh… and too bad Clint gets Vietnam and Iraq confused in his storytelling. And that he has his characters calling Iraqis ‘savages’ throughout the film,” he adds in his posting. “But there is also anti-war sentiment expressed in the movie. And there’s a touching ending as the main character is remembered after being gunned down by a fellow American vet with PTSD who was given a gun at a gun range back home in Texas — and then used it to kill the man who called himself the ‘America Sniper’.”
The Fahrenheit 9/11 helmer also says that American Sniper has the “best movie trailer and TV ads of the year.”
He ends his post with this: “Most of us were taught the story of Jesse James and that the scoundrel wasn’t James (who was a criminal who killed people) but rather the sniper who shot him in the back. I think most Americans don’t think snipers are heroes.”
“Hopefully not on this weekend when we remember that man in Memphis, Tennessee, who was killed by a sniper’s bullet,”says Moore in reference to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and the national holiday today celebrating him.
PREVIOUS, JAN. 18 PM: The Palme d’Or-winning director of the highest-grossing documentary ever doesn’t seem to like the Clint Eastwood-helmed Oscar nominee nor its subject, Navy SEAL Chris Kyle. In a tweet today, Fahrenheit 9/11 and former AMPAS Governor Michael Moore apparently lashed out at American Sniper and Kyle, who has been credited as the deadliest sniper in U.S. military history:
My uncle killed by sniper in WW2. We were taught snipers were cowards. Will shoot u in the back. Snipers aren't heroes. And invaders r worse
— Michael Moore (@MMFlint) January 18, 2015
The film stars Bradley Cooper as Kyle, who was killed after returning from Iraq in early 2013 at a Texas shooting range by a former soldier with PTSD whom he was mentoring. The movie about his life scored Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Adapted Screening nominations on January 15 from Academy voters. In a surprise snub, past Oscar winner and current DGA nominee Eastwood didn’t get a nom for Best Director. In a major consolation, the movie was a massive hit at the box office this weekend, its first in wide release, as it set box-office records for a January film (and for Eastwood’s work) with an estimated $105 million for the long holiday weekend.
Elected to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences’ Board of Governors in 2010, Moore lost out on another term in July 2013. While the controversy-generating doc director doesn’t like Sniper or snipers, he is a big supporter of fellow Best Picture nominee Selma, as he tweeted, not for the first time, on Friday:
Everybody else – try to see SELMA this weekend! Simply because it is a piece of brilliant filmmaking, the likes of which are so rare…
— Michael Moore (@MMFlint) January 17, 2015
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