American Sniper has sparked a lot of controversy from Hollywood in the past few days.
Clint Eastwood’s take on the Chris Kyle Book raked in more money than Avatar did on its January opening, closing out at more than $100 Million.
But, as can be expected, Michael Moore chimed in opposing the film, Sarah Palin defended the film (poorly: need I remind Palin that not ALL Hollywood personnel are/were leftists), and Seth Rogen compared the film to the Faux-Nazi-Propoganda-Film from Inglourious Basterds, featured below. A whole litany of responses to these responses were thrown about. It was a down-right accusation-hootenanny.
Overlooked in all this discourse about a movie is the fact that so many of the stories in the book have been discredited. So much so, that a defamation lawsuit was won against his estate, when he passed while the lawsuit was still pending. While I appreciate embellishment of non-fiction, I appreciate it when a liar admits his lies. (Hat-tip to Dostoyevsky for doing it best).
A review of Jesse Ventura’s lawsuit against Kyle, and its various appeals, makes it quite certain to any lawyer practicing defamation law that to win a case like that, to have 6 Federal jurors say “yeah, that’s a lie, and your lie actually hurt the reputation of a public figure” is not only a near impossibility, but it makes the lie so bad that it means one should be wary of celebrating all that can be associated with the teller of the lie. You can’t be trusted. You’ve been impeached.
I will admit that I haven’t seen the movie, and that I am still on the fence about seeing it; however, doesn’t it make more sense to just comment on the movie as opposed to the character of the author? It seems to me like his truthfulness can be called into question, at the very least, and as such, he isn’t necessarily the model example of our men and women in uniform.
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