Features Editor
Controversy
loomed around the patriotic blockbuster American
Sniper following tweets made by actor Seth Rogen and director Michael
Moore, leaving Hollywood and many Americans at large abuzz with opinions about
the film.
In
his January 18 tweet, Rogen stated that, “American Sniper kind of reminds me of the movie that's
showing in the third act of Inglourious Basterds.” This references the satirical
faux Nazi propaganda movie “National Pride” shown to a theater filled with Nazi
officials in the climactic final act of the movie. Many attacked the tweet,
alleging that it compared American troops to Nazis. Rogen later clarified,
stating that, “I wasn't comparing the two. Big difference between comparing and
reminding. Apples remind me of oranges. Can't compare them, though.”
Just an hour after Rogen’s American Sniper tweet, controversial filmmaker Michael Moore added
his own sniper tweet. “My uncle [was] killed by sniper in WW2. We were taught
snipers were cowards,” Moore said. “Snipers aren't heroes. And invaders r worse,”
an obvious shot at the American invasion of Iraq in 2003, during which the plot
of the film takes place.
While Moore’s tweets appear to be made purely
for their incendiary views and shock value, Rogen’s comparison is not
necessarily incorrect.
At its core, American Sniper is a propaganda film; the movie-within-a-movie
shown in Inglorious Basterds is also propaganda
film. The similarities exist, and in each film’s most basic concept outside of
any other context, can be seen easily. Both are also anti-war films, with American Sniper showing the serious side
of war and its negative effects on people, and with the Inglorious Basterds film showing the absurd side of war and making
a satirical dig on how war can induce pride in a country.
People like Rogen are pointing out the
similarities between the films because American
Sniper is almost exactly what “National Pride” is satirizing: a war movie
which stirs up national pride. Every time a fellow soldier feels down or every
time his wife questions him returning for another tour, Bradley Cooper as Chris
Kyle is constantly making an appeal to pride, reminding others of how important
the passion for God and country is, a sentiment sure to inspire the same
feeling in the audience. Therefore, both films are similar at the basic level
in terms of theme rather than context. Nobody was comparing Americans to Nazis.
The only comparison was between two wartime propaganda films.
