Clint Eastwood – Douglas Ernst Blog

Bill Maher claps for Islam as ‘mother lode of bad ideas,’ blasts Chris Kyle for calling enemies ‘savages’

January 25, 2015January 25, 2015 by Douglas Ernst 4 Comments

Whenever someone tells me that liberalism is a mental disorder I get slightly uncomfortable, but occasionally it’s hard not to think that when a guy like Bill Maher demonstrates that moral relativism has done something incredibly weird to his mind. The HBO host turned into a giddy schoolgirl when atheist guest Sam Harris called Islam the “mother lode of bad ideas,” but on Friday night he labeled the late Navy SEAL war hero Chris Kyle as a “psychopath patriot” for calling al Qaeda-inspired Sunni terrorists, those who use children as suicide bombers, and future-members of the Islamic State group (the men currently chopping off heads in Iraq and Syria) “savages.”

Mediaite reported Mr. Maher’s opinion on “American Sniper” and Chris Kyle Jan. 23:

Hurt Locker made $17 million because it was a little ambiguous and thoughtful. And this one is just ‘American hero. He’s a psychopath patriot and we love him.’ You know, I read some of the quotes from the real Chris Kyle. He said: “I hate the damn savages.” Talking about the Iraqis: “And I’ve been fighting and I always will. I love killing bad guys. Even with the pain, I loved what I was doing. Maybe war isn’t really fun, but I certainly was enjoying it.’ I don’t know. Eisenhower once said, “I hate wars. Only a soldier who has lived it, can.” I just don’t see this guy in the same league as Eisenhower. I’m sorry. And, if you’re a Christian — I now this is a Christian country — ‘I hate the damn savages,’ […] it doesn’t seem like a Christian thing to say. […] The idea that Americans cannot see an ambiguity — that someone has to be pure hero or pure traitor — is ridiculous.”

It wouldn’t be an installment of HBO Real Time without taking a cheap shot at Christians, would it? In October, however, Bill Maher was loving every minute of atheist Sam Harris’ conclusion that Islam is the “mother lode of bad ideas.”

CNN reported Oct. 16:

Ben Affleck’s appearance on Bill Maher’s “Real Time” on Friday turned into a somewhat heated discussion when Maher and author Sam Harris voiced their opinions on Islam.

“Gone Girl” star Affleck took umbrage at the pair’s contention that Islam is, in Harris’ words, a “mother lode of bad ideas” and that liberals are squeamish about criticizing Islam for stances on women and LGBT issues because people “have been sold this meme of Islamophobia, where every criticism gets confused with bigotry toward Muslims as people.”

Bill Maher’s rants on Islam are prolific — and many of them do not contain the kind of “ambiguous and thoughtful” commentary he praises The Hurt Locker for. Most of them are not very ambiguous at all, and yet he bashes a guy who was deployed to Iraq four times for calling Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s henchmen and like-minded Iraqis “savages.” Telling.

In Bill Maher’s world, American snipers must be held to the General Eisenhower standard for articulating their world view or be deemed a “psychopath patriot.” If you’re a Christian, then you must utter each word and phrase with the tact and grace of a saint — even if you watched your buddy’s face get blown off while deployed to a war zone. If you’re an atheist, then you can make blanket statements about how Islam is inherently bad, and it’s considered nuanced. Is that a sign of a mental disorder on Bill Maher’s part, or are viewers just watching what happens when a man gets lost inside the maze of moral relativism he’s created in his own mind? It’s a tough question.

On Friday’s episode or “Real Time,” comedian Bill Burr tried to tell Mr. Maher that it isn’t right to “sum up a man by one quote taken out of context.” The host was having none of it, because doing that has served his bank account quite well for many years now. One might say that twisting a man’s words to further a political agenda is not a “Christian” thing to do, but since Bill Maher is an atheist — and right and wrong is simply dictated by whatever he decides on a moment-to-moment basis — then it’s no big deal.

Keep finding ways to slime veterans who served their country to the best of their ability, Bill Maher. Most Americans are willing to cut an Iraq War veteran with four tours under his belt some slack for not describing the experience as if he were a five-star general (yes, that’s right — five-star) who would go on to become the 34th President of the United States. With every petty insult hurled at Chris Kyle by men like Michael Moore and Seth Rogen, modern liberalism’s true colors are revealed. For that, I thank them.

‘American Sniper’: Clint Eastwood does Chris Kyle’s memory proud

January 20, 2015January 20, 2015 by Douglas Ernst 35 Comments

“American Sniper” Director Clint Eastwood was given a difficult task: he had to somehow squeeze Chris Kyle’s incredible life story into 132 minutes. What could have turned into an incredibly bloated mess had he tried to do too much was successfully streamlined in a way that stayed true to the autobiography while also teasing out the most important themes. Bradley Cooper and Sienna Miller both give strong performances, and audiences across the U.S. have rewarded them for all the hard work: “American Sniper” made $105 million in its first four days of wide-release.

Clint Eastwood seemed to have two goals with “American Sniper”:

Show the audience what makes guys like Chris Kyle tick.
Demonstrate the destructive power of combat on the war fighter’s psyche, as well as the family unit.

A glimpse of what Mr. Eastwood was able to transfer from the page to the screen comes towards the end of Chris Kyle’s autobiography, where he writes:

“My regrets are about the people I couldn’t save — Marines, soldiers, my buddies. I still feel their loss. I still ache for my failure to protect them.

I’m not naive and I’m beyond romanticizing war and what I had to do there. The worst moments of my life have come as a SEAL. Losing my buddies. Having a kid die on me.

I’m sure some of the things I went through pale in comparison to what some of the guys went through in World War II and other conflicts. On top of all the shit they went through in Vietnam, they had to come home to a country that spat on them.

When people ask me how the war changed me, I tell them that the biggest thing has to do with my perspective.

You know all those everyday things that stress you here? I don’t give a shit about them. There are bigger and worse things that could happen than to have this timely little problem wreck your life, or even your day. I’ve seen them. More: I’ve lived them,” (Chris Kyle, American Sniper. Harper Collins, 2012. Page 379.)

As I mentioned in my review of the book when it came out in 2012, Chris Kyle said that a guardian angel must have been looking over him on the battlefield on multiple occasions, yet he never really stopped to dwell on just how much of a guardian angel he was to his brothers-in-arms. The pressure he put upon himself to save everyone under his watch — an impossible task —would break any man. Yes, even Navy SEALs have a breaking point.

Families have breaking points, too. Again, Eastwood brings it home in a scene that takes place just before Chris Kyle’s fourth tour in Iraq:

Taya: Do you want to die? Is that what it is?

Chris: No.

Taya: Then just tell me. Tell me why you do it. I want to understand.

Chris: Baby, I do it for you. You know that I do it to protect you.

Taya: No you don’t.

Chris: Yes, I do.

Taya: I’m here. Your family is here. Your children have no father. […] You don’t know when to quit. You did your part. You sacrificed enough. You let somebody else go!

Chris: Let somebody else go?

Taya: Yeah.

Chris: Well, I couldn’t live with myself.

Taya: Well, you find a way. You have to. Okay? I need you — to be human again. I need you here. I need … you here. If you leave again, I don’t think we’ll be here when you get back.

Even to those who are closest to these very special men, it often seems like they have a death wish. But that is not the case. Even those who are supposed to understand what motivates a war fighter, can not. The question becomes: How do you dedicate your life to a man who has dedicated his own to ideas that are bigger than all of us?

At one point during “American Sniper,” Chris laments how obsessed civilians are with their cell phones, trips to the mall, and a variety of other seemingly-trivial things when he should be “over there.” But that’s the conundrum: Just as the principles a SEAL is willing to fight and die for make life worth living, it is also those little moments — a conversation on a lazy Sunday afternoon with your wife, or a quiet night alone with that very same woman — that make it special.

“American Sniper” is about one man’s attempt to successfully balance the desire to selflessly serve one’s country while also living up to the commitment to love and cherish his spouse with all his might.

Clint Eastwood may be an old man, but his latest movie shows that he can still direct better than most people who are half his age. If you get a chance, then you should check out “American Sniper” while it’s in theaters. It is one of the rare war movies within the past decade that is actually worth the price of admission.

Related: ‘American Sniper’ success prompts Michael Moore to take pot shots at deceased hero Chris Kyle

‘American Sniper’ success prompts Michael Moore to take pot shots at deceased hero Chris Kyle

January 19, 2015January 20, 2015 by Douglas Ernst 22 Comments

“American Sniper” is a box office hit. In four days of wide-release, it has pulled in $105 million. Audiences across the country have been moved by the Bradley Cooper’s portrayal of Navy SEAL Chris Kyle. Director Clint Eastwood did a marvelous job showing the kind of selfless service displayed by American war fighters while also not shying away from the psychological toll that combat takes on them and their loved ones. It’s a stellar film about an American hero, which is why Michael Moore and Seth Rogen responded just as the world expects Hollywood liberals to act: like pathetic men who deep down resent the fact that for all their fame and fortune they are still glorified clowns.

Chris Kyle was a real hero, and instead of just dealing with their envy and jealousy in the privacy of their own home, Michael Moore and Seth Rogen lashed out on Twitter so the world could see how truly petty they are.

Using Michael Moore’s logic, anyone who uses cover and concealment during the course of battle is a “coward.” Perhaps we should do away with camouflage and just wear bright red jackets with white pants in the middle of open fields, but I digress.
Once negative feedback came rolling in, Michael Moore decided to just make it abundantly clear that whenever he talks about cowards, he is really just projecting his own inner demons.

Translation: “What are you so upset about? I wasn’t disparaging Chris Kyle with my sniper comments, even though I made them on the very day millions of Americans were talking about him. Where would you get that idea?”

And then there is Seth Rogen, whose main achievement in life is that he made a dumb movie about North Korea (we all know why he didn’t target Iranian mullahs), which forced millions of Americans to confirm: yes, we will defend Hollywood actors’ right to the freedom of expression, even if they are classless imbeciles.

Seth Rogen’s tweet proves that he did not see “American Sniper,” or that he is a hate-filled buffoon (perhaps both?). The movie wasn’t a celebration of war or a piece of propaganda similar to faux-Nazi films created by Quentin Tarantino; if anything it was a clarion call to policy makers to think long and hard before sending men like Chris Kyle into war zones. Only a miserable person as defined by John Stuart Mill could watch Clint Eastwood’s “American Sniper” and think “coward.”

“The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.” — John Stuart Mill.

C.S. Lewis, who fought and almost died during World War I, puts it another way in his famous essay, “Why I am not a pacifist”:

“For let us make no mistake. All that we fear from all the kinds of adversity, severally, is collected together in the life of a soldier on active service. Like sickness, it threatens pain and death. Like poverty, it threatens ill lodging, cold, heat, thirst, and hunger. Like slavery, it threatens toil, humiliation, injustice, and arbitrary rule. Like exile, it separates you from all you love. Like the gallies, it imprisons you at close quarters with uncongenial companions. It threatens every temporal evil — every evil except dishonor and final perdition, and those who bear it like it no better than you would like it. On the other side, though it may not be your fault, it is certainly a fact that Pacifism threatens you with almost nothing. Some public opprobrium, yes, from people whose opinion you discount and whose society you do not frequent, soon recompensed by the warm mutual approval which exists, inevitably, in any minority group. For the rest it offers you a continuance of the life you know and love, among the people and in the surroundings you know and love.” — C.S. Lewis

Michael Moore and Seth Rogen are very much like the “miserable creatures” referenced in Mill’s “On Liberty.” On many levels they are not worth writing about; they run in social circles with like-minded fools who would never point out that maybe — just maybe — the dough-like man-boys disparaging Navy SEALs might have a few insecurities hiding in those rolls of skin. However, because of their Hollywood connections, men like Michael Moore and Seth Rogen do affect American culture. The bully pulpit they have access to almost demands that those who can push back against their attempts at character assassination, should.

Congratulations, Michael Moore and Seth Rogen: you’re the type of guys who take shots at deceased Navy SEALs and the creative works that respectfully honor their sacrifice. Try doing that outside Hollywood circles and see how much it endears you to the crowd.

Update: Seth Rogen is now backtracking with the incredibly lame “Apples remind me of oranges,” excuse. Next he’ll say that every once-in-awhile he sits down, bites into a banana, and thinks, “Zucchini.”

Eastwood’s ‘American Sniper’ trailer is out, and it looks like a movie Chris Kyle fans will appreciate

October 2, 2014October 3, 2014 by Douglas Ernst 14 Comments

When it was first announced that Navy SEAL Chris Kyle’s life would be made into a movie by Steven Spielberg, my first thought was, “Ummm, how is that going to work? Did Spielberg even read the book? Knowing his politics, I’m pretty sure that it’s going to be a horrible movie.”

Interestingly enough, Mr. Spielberg dropped the project and Clint Eastwood was there to pick it up. “That makes much more sense,” I thought. Now that the trailer is out, it appears as though the world will get the Chris Kyle story it deserves.

“They fry you if you’re wrong.”

How do you win a war when the men responsible for securing victory are paranoid that any mistake they make will land them in prison for the rest of their lives? The answer: You probably don’t win. You lose. Or you wind up pulling out of that country for political reasons and then having to go back in when things spiral out of control…

Chris Kyle wrote in American Sniper:

“You cannot be afraid to take your shot. When you see someone with an IED or a rifle maneuvering toward your men, you have clear reason to fire. (The fact that an Iraqi had a gun would not necessarily mean he could be shot.) The ROEs were specific, and in most cases the danger was obvious.

But there were times when it wasn’t exactly clear, when a person almost surely was an insurgent, probably was doing evil, but there was still some doubt because of the circumstances or the surroundings —the way he moved, for example, wasn’t toward an area where troops were. A lot of times a guy seemed to be acting macho for friends, completely unaware that I was watching him, or that there were American troops nearby.

Those shots I didn’t take.

You couldn’t — you had to worry about your own ass. Make an unjustified shot and you could be charged with murder.

I often would sit there and think, “I know this motherfucker is bad; I saw him doing such and such down the street the other day, but here he’s not doing anything, and if I shoot him, I won’t be able to justify it for the lawyers. I’ll fry.” Like I said, there is paperwork for everything. Every confirmed kill had documentation, supporting evidence, and a witness.

So I wouldn’t shoot.” — Chris Kyle, American Sniper. (Harper Collins, 2012), 149-150.

If you’re not familiar with Chris Kyle’s life, then check out American Sniper — the book. And then make sure to see Clint Eastwood’s cinematic take on the Navy SEAL’s life. I’d recommend seeing Angelina Jolie’s take on ‘Unbroken,’ but she apparently gutted one of the most crucial aspect’s of World War II hero Louie Zamperini’s life — his conversion to Christianity that kept his world from falling to pieces and allowed him to personally forgive the men who tortured him in Japanese POW camps. If you’re wondering why I feared Spielberg’s take on Chris Kyle’s life, just think about Ms. Jolie’s “Unbroken” for a few moments, but I digress.

I’m looking forward to seeing “American Sniper” when it opens in theaters December 25. If you are as well, then stop by here shortly after its release, check out my review, and let me know what you thought.

Eastwood plays grandpa at RNC — and there are a lot of grandpas

September 1, 2012September 1, 2012 by Douglas Ernst 5 Comments

Clint Eastwood’s speech at the Republican National Convention will be talked about in political circles for quite some time, but most of them are filled with jerks who like to have their ego massaged by ideological soul mates. And so, what you get is a bunch of people who either laugh at Eastwood or defend him — not because they seriously thought about what happened — but because they thought about the things they could say on television that would make them seem witty and smart. The degree between ego and reality can be small, but if you’re looking for precision then it might not be good to listen to the guy whose smile says, “look how bright I am.”

Someone very close to me deemed Eastwood’s speech a failure, and likened him to “Grandpa Simpson.” I responded by using the euphemism “unstructured” to buy myself a little time and turn over what happened for a few hours more before writing. There are a lot of grandfathers out there, and I think Eastwood’s speech was geared more towards them than the slick-suited young guys making fun of him on television. The elderly people watching Clint don’t care too much for that. A frazzled looking old icon walking on stage and speaking of-the-cuff probably carries a lot more weight with them than the guy with hair that could survive Hurricane Isaac’s best winds.

As usual, the man to turn to when it comes to finding an honest deconstruction of the latest cultural event turns out to be Mark Steyn. And why wouldn’t it be? He’s one of the few intelligent commentators out there who thinks for himself.

I’m not sure [Eastwood] could have pulled that off if he’d delivered a slick telepromptered pitch. As Mr. Hayward suggests, the hard lines packed more of a punch for being delivered in the midst of a Bob Newhart empty-chair shtick from the Dean Martin show circa 1968. Indeed, they were some of the hardest lines of the convention and may well prove the take-home (“We own this country . . . Politicians are employees of ours . . . And when somebody does not do the job, we’ve got to let them go”), but they seemed more effective for appearing to emerge extemporaneously from the general shambles.

Steyn only neglects to mention that in addition to the right hooks, Eastwood hits Obama with a left jab (at a Republican convention): “Well, I know even people in your own party were very disappointed when you didn’t close Gitmo,” and a body blow to the core:

“Whether you are a Democrat or Republican or whether you’re libertarian or whatever, you are the best. … We don’t have to be — what I’m saying, we do not have to be mental masochists and vote for somebody that we don’t really even want in office just because they seem to be nice guys…”

Are Democrats “the best”? Are Libertarians “the best”? Are confused people who don’t know what the heck they believe “the best?” I know that they’re not at a Republican convention unless the speaker is trying to appeal to voters of all political stripes. And so, while I don’t believe that I would have given Eastwood a speaking role on the final night of the Republican convention, it seems to me that his unconventional approach may have more impact with his intended audience than pundits give him credit for.

Do you want to know why ‘Honey Boo Boo’ topped the Republican National Convention in ratings? There are many reasons (some of them happen to be extremely sad commentaries on our culture), but one of them is because almost all politicians are viewed as empty suits and transparent liars these days. Citizens know that the language used by today’s political class is run through Frank Luntz style focus groups in order to better sell lies, and they’re tired of it. If the United States had more Paul Ryans and Marco Rubios more people would be involved. Instead, we have John Boehner and Nancy Pelosi.

Watch a snippet of ‘Honey Boo Boob’ and then weep for the nation. Then, go out and do something to save it.

It’s Not Halftime in America, Clint. It’s time to pull the quitters from the game.

February 8, 2012February 8, 2012 by Douglas Ernst Leave a comment

Clint Eastwood is now on record, denying there were political motives behind his “Halftime in America” Super Bowl ad for the U.S. auto industry. Regardless, the ad went viral, largely because the “two teams” metaphor is perfect for the upcoming election. Most commentators have largely focused on what the two teams have done domestically, but it’s the foreign policy parallels that are most striking. War is most certainly not a game, but sometimes the symbolism fits: when it was halftime in the Iraq War, Harry Reid literally forfeited the game.

It was just under five years ago that Senator Reid held a press conference to announce, “Now I believe, myself, that Secretary of State, the Secretary of defense – and you have to make your decision as to what the president knows – that this war is lost. And that the surge is not accomplishing anything as indicated by the extreme violence in Iraq yesterday. ” When the Bush Administration was trying to regroup and find a way to secure victory, Senator Reid and the major players in the Democratic Party were throwing in the towel. If Eli Manning took career advice from Senator Reid, the Giants would have packed it in after their second regular season loss to the Washington Redskins!

The Democrat Party’s quarterback, Nancy Pelosi, is no different. In 2005 Pelosi held her own press conference and declared, “The war in Afghanistan is over.” Oddly enough, the very same Democratic Party now frames President Obama’s handling of both wars in terms of a “win” for the administration! Perhaps Tom Coughlin should have interrupted Madonna’s halftime show to announce that the Giants were boarding the plane early and heading back to New York.

As voters go to the booths in a matter of months, they should remember Clint Eastwood’s Super Bowl commercial. If the Iranian nuclear crisis were to explode – literally – within the next four years (or within the next few months, as Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has predicted), do we really want a team on the field that tries to quit with every shift of momentum? It isn’t halftime in America, Mr. Eastwood. It’s just time to put the quitters on the bench.