Quote:
Originally Posted by Sidd Finch
You make good points (but you still need to calm down). Mostly I think this underscores the problem with the term "hero." WTF does it mean? "Pure good guy?"
Using your Confederate soldier analogy -- I could certainly imagine such a story, portraying an individual as brave, selfless, whatever. I assume that the movie Das Boot has at least some likeable or sympathetic characters, and they are fighting for the Nazis.
I don't consider Kyle a "hero." Mostly, I found it an interesting and sad story, and he did get pretty f'd up by the whole thing. If he did anything "heroic", it was trying to help other f'd up vets when he came back, not killing people in Iraq.
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We are not in conflict on any of this stuff. I just wanted to point out what I believe to be Taibbi's perspective when he says you kind of fuck things up when you completely remove the larger context in which the viewer should be viewing Kyle's actions. I'm not sure if you noticed, but people aren't that smart. The more you get away from why the Iraq war was pointless and stupid in these movies, and the more you focus on individual stories of American heroism, the more people start to view any American soldier as an automatic hero.
I realize that may be way far past Taibbi's point (and I didn't read the article or see the movie*), but I can see where he's coming from.
TM
*But listen to my opinion, damn it!
