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The Paladin remembers an American Sniper

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American Sniper, directed by Clint Eastwood, is now the top grossing war movie of all time. This is both extremely fascinating and surprising. American Sniper is a modern tale about a modern war, where most successful war movies are those about the second World War where the enemy is clear, the Americans are the heroes, and a victory is certain. American Sniper doesn’t give us a clear enemy, the Americans are heroic but not infallible, and victory is just surviving to the next day. What makes this movie so powerful is not wrapping the film in a flag and singing “God Bless America”, it’s that it is wrapped in humanity.

Chris Kyle was the most deadly sniper in US Military history with 160 confirmed kills, edging out Marine Sniper Chuck Mahwinney from the Vietnam War who was credited with 103. Bradley Cooper turns in an excellent performance as the bold, yet caring Chris Kyle. We are able to see and feel the weight of Chris’ war with every scene – how it eats at his own soul and on the relationship with his wife. The focus is what’s really the fascinating part about this film; it juxtaposes Chris’s life at war with his life at home where we can see the effects of his four tours and the PTSD he is obviously suffering from. This is highlighted in a fantastic scene at a mechanic’s shop where Chris is confronted by a man he saved and considers him a hero. The scene is long and awkward and you as a viewer share in Chris’ suffering through this hero worship. You feel for the guy because he doesn’t consider himself a hero and yet he very much is.

American Sniper, I think works where other modern war films do not is that it is an honest look at the Iraq war with a protagonist you connect with and can root for. He’s not going back tour after tour because he’s a war junkie like Jeremey Renner’s character in the Hurt Locker and its not preachy like other “war” films. Chris is portrayed as a guy who goes back because he cares about people and returns again and again because he want to make sure others can go home. The final part of the film gives a glimpse to how he uses that heart of service to help himself and others rebuild their shattered lives from PTSD. A heart that sadly costs him his life.

American Sniper is not perfect. The actors are great, the pacing is superb, and the heart of the film is never lost. However the visual effects are not so great. I’m assuming the studio didn’t have much faith in this film because the effects look like a ScyFy channel movie-of-the-week or something from the 90’s. It was just off and in some places distracting. You may have also heard about the fake babies. It is true, the babies are fake and I can’t explain why. Maybe Bradley Cooper doesn’t work with babies? Or maybe it’s Clint? Either way it’s weird.

Still, you should see this movie if you haven’t already. It is a haunting and honest look at war, but also a touching tribute to love and life.

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Don’t Visit Pompeii!

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Oh man, I have been dreading this day.  Today is the day that I review the 2014 film Pompeii distributed by TriStar Pictures.  What is sad about this movie is that it could have been a mindless action/disaster movie and been okay, but instead it is just all around bad.  The acting is bad, the special effects are bad, and you guessed it the script is bad.  That is the trifecta of bad.  I should expect no less (more?) of Paul W. S. Anderson.  He has a true gift for making terrible movies.

The story is about a young Celt named Milo (Kit Harington) who watches his family get butchered by the Romans and then is forced to become a gladiator.  He becomes a premier fighter and is moved to Pompeii where he falls for the Governor’s daughter (Emily Browning).  She is also being wooed (poorly) by Senator Quintas Attius Corvus (Kiefer Sutherland) who just happens to be the guy responsible for killing Milo’s family.  None of this really matters because they are all going to get killed by a Volcano.

Oh man this movie.  Really it is a Gladiator ripoff with a little Titanic thrown in for good measure.  Now I understand that there has to be some sort of story so we care about the people running from the fiery ash at the end of this movie.  Sadly, you don’t because they are all very stupid and one note.  You have to watch them make dumb move after dumb move until the end.  I wish at that point they would stop being dumb, but no, they continue to hold their grudges and act out their stupid storylines while the city is falling down around them.  Luckily for them the Volcano will stop erupting for them to have their epic(?) face-offs.

Normally with a script this terrible I give the cast a pass.  I mean there is only so much you can do with something like this, but these people all find ways to add to the garbage pile.  Harrington always looks like a sad puppy.  Browning looks confused, but best (worst) of all is Sutherland.  He tries his best to have a British accent (never mind that he should be trying to have an Italian one), but it is awful, but he does it with such gusto that it is almost funny.  Almost.  No one comes out looking good in this film.

The special effects artists deserve a Razzie for their work in this film.  I have never seen so many obvious green-screen shots in my life.  It was like watching a 90s made for TV Sci-Fi movie.  I was blown away with how bad everything looked.  If this was on the Discovery Channel or something maybe it would be passible, but for a big budget film it is inexcusable.

I have spent way too much time writing about this film, but all you need to know is that it is terrible.  It isn’t even so bad it is good, and I love those types of films, no this movie fails at even that.  Don’t watch Pompeii.  It is an hour and a half of your life that you will never get back.  Everyone who was part of this movie should feel bad about themselves.

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The Paladin has a Feast for Thieves

(Full Disclosure: The Paladin knows the author of Feast for Thieves, Marcus Brotherton, personally; although he didn’t get a free copy, a personal reading, or foot massage as one would expect from their relationship. You think you know some people…) FeastForThieves_COV.indd

Feast for Thieves is the first work of fiction from Marcus Brotherton; who’s best known for his non-fiction work, especially his works chronically the lives of the men of Easy Company, 506th PIR, 101st Airborne better known as the Band of Brothers. If you enjoy the HBO Miniseries “Band of Brothers” and/or the Stephen Ambrose book it is based on, Marcus’ books are excellent additions to the stories of those men – giving greater detail into who they were, what they did, and how they lived after the war. My favorite is probably Shifty’s War, about Darrell “Shifty” Powers’ life before, during, and after the war.

Feast for Thieves uses the stories and personalities Marcus has accumulated for his time sitting across from the men of the Greatest Generation to create a story of the most unlikely of Pastors in a small Texas town. The title character is Rowdy Slater, a paratrooper who fought, caroused, swore, and drank his way across Europe only to end up back in the States after a dishonorable discharge and no prospects for work. Desperate he teams up with an old prison mate to rob the bank in Cut Eye, Texas.

After robbing the bank the two are separated and Rowdy has a crisis of consciousness and returns the money. The town’s Sherriff, presses Rowdy for his story and see in him an opportunity to redeem both the man and the town – so he makes Rowdy the town’s preacher.

Guiding Rowdy in his duties is the Sherriff’s daughter, a feisty young woman with her own ideas and deep confidence. As he slowly learns the skills to pastor the small flock, Rowdy finds purpose and even success. His skill at fighting wins him converts amongst the tavern going men of town and his plain and simple preaching keep them in the pews. Of course Rowdy’s past catches up with him and the story heaps all sorts of troubles on his head before the end.

Feast for Thieves is a great redemptive story and the adventure aspects are well written, paced, and exciting. My one complaint would be that we don’t get to experience more of Rowdy’s growth as a preacher and pastor. We get to see his faltering first steps but a lot of his work afterwards is not fleshed out. This does provide more time for key scenes with certain figures such as the Sherriff’s daughter and a grieving father, as well as several exciting action scenes; it just would have been nice to walk alongside Rowdy more as he figured out his faith as he tried to share it at the same time.

This is a Christian book, however Marcus does a wonderful job of presenting faith with subtlety and grace. You’re not beat over the head with it, but it permeates the whole story as if it were part of the landscape. I enjoyed the book, the characters, and the way the story unfolded beside my one complaint (which is understandable really, reading a 700 page book would be far more daunting, so I’ll let it slide… this time), so I would recommend it and hope to read the next chapter in the life of Rowdy Slater.