Red meat for the red states

American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History (2012/01/03) Chris Kyle、Scott McEwen 他 商品詳細を見る

映画『アメリカンスナイパー』の興行成績が好調のようで、いろいろな意味で話題になっているようです。そのあたりを今週のTIMEは取り上げていました。洋書の方は読みやすいので、映画公開まで我慢できない方は是非。自分は海兵隊とNavy Sealの違いもよくわからなかったのですが（汗）、奥さんのコメントがいたるところに登場しているので、映画では奥さんの協力が不可欠だった理由がわかりました。
また、本を読んでいれば、共和党支持者の多い地域で受けるだろうとRed meat for the red statesとした部分が理解しやすくなると思います。映画boyhoodでも、お父さんが熱心なキリスト教徒で、銃を子供にプレゼントするような親を持つ女性と再婚するシーンが出てきますね。

ENTERTAINMENT
American Sniper’s Chances Rise in the Oscar Race
Richard Corliss Jan. 22, 2015

Drawing huge audiences from both coastal cities and the heartland, Sniper can be seen as red meat for the red states. This stirred prominent movie-doc leftie Michael Moore to tweet his disapproval of Kyle’s job. “My uncle killed by sniper in WW2,” Moore wrote. “We were taught snipers were cowards. Will shoot u in the back. Snipers aren’t heroes. And invaders r worse. … But if you’re on the roof of your home defending it from invaders who’ve come 7K miles, you are not a sniper, u are brave, u are a neighbor.” Translation: Hail to the Iraqi insurgent snipers, boo to American Sniper.

Moore then disingenuously claimed he hadn’t been referring to the movie. But he had fired the first shot in a Twitter war that brought Sean Hannity and Sarah Palin to the film’s defense. If Sniper took a step toward the Oscars with its mammoth opening, it took two steps back in its adoption by Fox News.

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TIMEの記事は定期購読者限定かもしれませんので、同じようなNPRの記事を紹介しておきます。主人公のKyleの素行を問題視する部分です。映画ではまったく取り上げていないようで、批判を招いているようです。

'American Sniper' Exposes Unresolved Issues About The Iraq War
JANUARY 23, 2015 4:13 PM ET

Another reason for the backlash against American Sniper is the fantastical stories Kyle told about himself after he left the Navy. He said he killed two men who tried to carjack him in Texas. He said he went to New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and shot people from the roof of the Superdome. On the radio Opie & Anthony Show, he claimed to have punched former Minnesota governor (and Navy veteran) Jesse Ventura at a bar after Ventura supposedly made disparaging remarks about soldiers.

It never happened, and Ventura won a defamation suit against Kyle. The other stories have also never been proved. Actor and producer Bradley Cooper has said that American Sniper is a "character study," but there's no mention of this part of Kyle's character in the movie.



日本でも中東の戦争が他人事ではなくなっていますので、この映画への関心は高くなるかもしれません。ブラッドリークーパーの米軍兵士へのメッセージです。