Rolling Stone:American Sniper a story without context

[donquixote99]

Originally Posted by Dondilion

Finn you are looking for a documentary.

The major thrust of a movie, even if it takes some inspiration from real event,
should be entertainment.

We should not get too serious about movies. The reviewer transmitted his annoyance that the movie goers should be exultant, excited when the sniper scored big. It is a movie...just another Rambo but with a real name.

Dond, you can't say a film is 'just entertainment.' Films are, in fact, art. One of the things art does is create and share meaning. The film says things that go to 'What does this war stuff mean? What do we think about it?' This is whether the audience is consciously examining these questions or not. But perhaps, for example, it means something that we are 'exultant, excited when the sniper scored big."

No one says you have to agree with the reviewer, or even read the review in the first place. No one says you have to consciously think about anything in particular, if you don't want to for any reason. Feel totally free to just 'sit back and be entertained.' But criticism that looks at what art means, and affirms or questions it on that basis, is generally legitimate.

And it's perfectly likely that a film will have an agenda, and be pushing certain meanings.