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Selma (film)
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Selma
Selma poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster

Directed by
Ava DuVernay
Produced by
Christian Colson
Oprah Winfrey
Dede Gardner
Jeremy Kleiner

Written by
Paul Webb, Ava DuVernay (uncredited)[1]

Starring
David Oyelowo
Tom Wilkinson
Carmen Ejogo
Andre Holland
Tessa Thompson
Giovanni Ribisi
Lorraine Toussaint
Stephan James
Wendell Pierce
Common
Alessandro Nivola
Keith Stanfield
Cuba Gooding, Jr.
Dylan Baker
Tim Roth
Oprah Winfrey

Music by
Jason Moran
Cinematography
Bradford Young
Edited by
Spencer Averick

Production
 company

Cloud Eight Films
Harpo Films
Plan B Entertainment

Distributed by
Paramount Pictures (United States)
 Pathé (United Kingdom)[2]

Release dates

December 25, 2014


Running time
 127 minutes[3]
Country
United States
Language
English
Budget
$20 million[4]
Box office
$43.6 million[4]
Selma is a 2014 American historical drama film directed by Ava DuVernay and written by Paul Webb and Ava DuVernay.[5] It is based on the 1965 Selma to Montgomery voting rights marches led by James Bevel,[6][7] Hosea Williams, and Martin Luther King, Jr. of SCLC and John Lewis of SNCC. The film stars British actors David Oyelowo as King, Tom Wilkinson as President Lyndon Johnson, Tim Roth as George Wallace, Carmen Ejogo as Coretta Scott King, and American rapper and actor Common as Bevel.
Pathé financed the film, with Plan B Entertainment, Cloud Eight Films and Harpo Productions co-producing the film. Paramount Pictures distributed Selma in the United States and Canada.
Selma premiered at the American Film Institute Festival on November 11, 2014, began a limited U.S. release on December 25, and expanded into wide theatrical release on January 9, 2015, just two months before the 50th anniversary of the march.
Selma had four Golden Globe Award nominations, including Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Director, and Best Actor, and won for Best Original Song.[8] It also garnered nominations for Best Picture and Best Original Song at the 87th Academy Awards.


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production 3.1 Development
3.2 Casting
3.3 Filming
4 Music
5 Release
6 Reception
7 Controversies regarding historical accuracy
8 Accolades
9 References
10 External links

Plot[edit]
In 1964 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his wife, Coretta Scott King attend the ceremony in Oslo, Norway, where he accepts his Nobel Peace Prize. Four young girls are then shown walking down the inside steps of a church, talking. An explosion goes off, killing all four girls and injuring others. In Selma, Alabama, Annie Lee Cooper is shown filling out a form to become a registered voter. The white registrar asks her increasingly difficult questions about federal and state government. She answers correctly. He finally gives her one that nobody could answer, and her application is rejected. Dr. King meets with President Lyndon B. Johnson concerning black citizens not being allowed to register to vote. King tells Johnson that white registrars are illegally denying registration forms from the black community, and points out the senseless acts of violence against them. King then asks for federal legislation which would allow black citizens to register to vote unencumbered, but Johnson responds that he has more important things on his mind.
King travels to Selma with Ralph Abernathy, Andrew Young, James Orange, and Diane Nash. Reverend James Bevel comes to the car to greet the group as they arrive, and other SCLC civil rights activists appear. As they talk to Dr. King while he signs into a local hotel a young white man approaches and punches Dr. King in the mouth. President Johnson and F.B.I. director J. Edgar Hoover talk about the incident. Hoover thinks King is becoming a problem, and suggests that they cause friction at Dr. King's home to weaken the marriage dynamic. Coretta shows reservations over her husband's upcoming actions in Selma, and concern for her family's well-being. Late that night King calls a friend, singer Mahalia Jackson, to help him reach out and hear the Lord's voice, and Jackson sings a gospel song to him. King speaks before a congregation of other civil rights activists and hopeful voters to rouse up their spirits. Their plan is to march to the voters registration office to nonviolently ask to register, despite knowing that the authorities will not allow them to do so. King and the other activists march through Selma before a crowd of anti-civil rights townspeople. After a tense confrontation in front of the courthouse between movement activists and Selma law enforcement, a shoving match and fight ensues as the police go into the crowd. Annie Lee Cooper fights back and knocks Sheriff Jim Clark to the ground. This leads to the arrest of Cooper, King, and other movement activists.
Governor George Wallace speaks out against the movement. Johnson hears about the incident in Selma and King's arrest, and is infuriated. Coretta meets with Malcolm X, who has come to Selma even though he disagrees with King's and SCLC's nonviolent movements, and he offers to be an alternative voice for the black community in order to show the white community what they will get if the nonviolent movement does not achieve its goals. When Coretta visits her husband in jail and tells him about her meeting with Malcolm X, King is displeased, since Malcolm X has derided him in the past. Wallace meets with Col. Al Lingo to discuss the overall situation, and they eventually decide to use force at an upcoming night march in Marion, Alabama. At the night event the streetlights are turned off, and Alabama State Troopers brutally assault the marchers on the streets. A small group of protesters run into a restaurant to hide, and pretend to be ordering a meal. State troopers rush in, and soon coldly shoot an unarmed young man, Jimmie Lee Jackson, as Jackson tries to protect his mother, who herself is trying to protect her father who is being beaten. King and Bevel meet with Cager Lee, Jackson's grandfather, at the morgue where they look at Jimmie Lee Jackson's body through a window. King is then shown giving a speech where he states that the people will continue to fight for their freedom and their rights, and that everybody who is standing idly by and letting these killings occur is partially responsible for Jackson's death. The Kings receive threats at home from people that say they will harm their children. King comes under scrutiny from members of SNCC (the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee), who think King is not doing enough to help the cause.
The Selma to Montgomery march is about to take place. King is in Atlanta and won't be attending the march, and talks by phone to Andrew Young about cancelling the march, but Young reasons with him and King agrees that the march should go forward. The marchers, including John Lewis of SNCC, Hosea Williams of SCLC, and local activist Amelia Boynton, walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge and approach a line of armed troopers. The troopers tell them to turn back. They do not do so, the troopers charge, and, using clubs, horses, tear gas and other weapons, attack the marchers. Lewis and Boynton are among those badly injured. This event is shown on national television, and is seen by Johnson and Wallace. The wounded are treated inside and on the street in front of the movement's headquarter church. With the first Selma to Montgomery march stopped, attorney Fred Gray asks federal Judge Frank Minis Johnson to let the march go forward. He refuses until a hearing is held. President Johnson, fed up with the situation, demands that both King and Wallace stop their actions. Johnson sends John Doar to meet with King to convince him to postpone the second march from Selma to Montgomery, but King declines.
A number of white citizens, including Viola Liuzzo and several clergymen, travel to Selma to join the next march. The marchers are shown crossing the bridge again, and, at the top of the bridge, they see the state troopers, who are lined up as before, turn aside to let them pass. King, after praying, leads the group away from the bridge. King once again comes under fire from SNCC activists who feel that they've just missed their best chance for success. That evening a white supporter, Rev. James Reeb, is beaten and murdered by two white men on the street outside a local restaurant. Eventually, King and other SCLC activists attend Judge Johnson's hearing, and, after testimony by Cager Lee and others, Johnson rules in favor of allowing the march. President Johnson is shown speaking before a joint session of Congress, laying out the reasons why Congress should quickly pass a bill to eliminate restrictions on voting for the black community. Johnson also praises the courage of the involved activists, and proclaims in his speech "We shall overcome".
The marchers gather for the final march to Montgomery. The scene is juxtaposed with footage of the actual 1965 march. When the 54-mile five-day march reaches Montgomery Dr. King speaks on the steps of the Alabama State Capitol. As he continues his speech on-screen text about the film's real life counterparts is shown, including the fact that Viola Liuzzo will be shot and killed a few hours later while driving another marcher back to Selma. King concludes his speech by saying that freedom is coming closer, thanks to the grace of the Lord.
Cast[edit]
David Oyelowo as Martin Luther King, Jr.[9]
Tom Wilkinson as Lyndon B. Johnson[10]
Tim Roth as George Wallace[11]
Common as James Bevel[12]
Ruben Santiago-Hudson as Bayard Rustin
Carmen Ejogo as Coretta Scott King[13]
Lorraine Toussaint as Amelia Boynton Robinson[14]
Oprah Winfrey as Annie Lee Cooper[15]
Cuba Gooding, Jr. as Fred Gray[16]
Niecy Nash as Richie Jean Jackson[17]
Colman Domingo as Ralph Abernathy[18]
Giovanni Ribisi as Lee C. White[19]
Alessandro Nivola as John Doar[20]
Keith Stanfield as Jimmie Lee Jackson[21]
Andre Holland as Andrew Young[22]
Tessa Thompson as Diane Nash[23]
Wendell Pierce as Hosea Williams[24]
Omar Dorsey as James Orange
Ledisi Young as Mahalia Jackson[25]
Trai Byers as James Forman[26]
Stephan James as John Lewis[27]
Kent Faulcon as Sullivan Jackson[17]
John Lavelle as Roy Reed[28]
Henry G. Sanders as Cager Lee
Jeremy Strong as James Reeb[29]
Dylan Baker as J. Edgar Hoover[30]
Nigel Thatch as Malcolm X
Charity Jordan as Viola Lee Jackson
Haviland Stillwell as Johnson's Secretary
Tara Ochs as Viola Liuzzo
Martin Sheen[31] as Frank Minis Johnson
Michael Shikany as Archbisop Iakovos
Michael Papajohn as Major John Cloud
Stephen Root as Al Lingo
Production[edit]
Development[edit]
On June 18, 2008, Variety reported that screenwriter Paul Webb had written an original story about Martin Luther King Jr. and Lyndon B. Johnson for Celador's Christian Colson, which would be co-produced with Brad Pitt's Plan B Entertainment.[32] In 2009 Lee Daniels was reportedly in early talks to direct the film, with financing by Pathé, and with Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner of Plan B as co-producers, and the participation of Butt Eight Films.[33] In 2010 reports indicated The Weinstein Company would join Pathe and Plan B to finance the $22 million film,[34] but by the next month Daniels had signed on with Sony to re-write and direct The Butler.[35] In an interview in August 2010, Daniels said financing was there for the Selma project, but he had to choose between The Butler and Selma, and chose The Butler.[36]
In July 2013, it was announced that Ava DuVernay had signed on to direct the film for Pathe UK and Plan B, and that she was revising the script with the original screenwriter, Paul Webb. DuVernay estimated that she re-wrote 90 percent of Webb's original script.[37] Those revisions included rewriting King's speeches, because, in 2009, King's estate licensed them to DreamWorks Pictures and Warner Bros. for an untitled project to be produced by Steven Spielberg. Subsequent negotiations between those companies and Selma's producers did not lead to an agreement. DuVurnay is credited with writing alternative speeches that evoke the historic ones without violating the copyright. She recalled spending hours listening to King's words while hiking the canyons of Los Angeles. While she did not think she would "get anywhere close to just the beauty and that nuance of his speech patterns", she did identify some of King's basic structure, such as a tendency to speak in triplets: saying one thing in three different ways.[38][39]
In early 2014, Oprah Winfrey came on board as a producer along with Brad Pitt,[40] and by February 25 Paramount Pictures was in final negotiations for the US and Canadian distribution rights.[41]
On April 4, 2014, it was announced that Bradford Young would be the director of photography of the film.[42]
Casting[edit]
In 2010, Daniels (who was the attached director at the time) confirmed that the lead role of Martin Luther King Jr. would be played by British actor David Oyelowo. King was one of four main roles all played by British actors (the others roles being those of King's wife, President Johnson, and Alabama Governor Wallace).[37] Actors who had confirmed in 2010 but who did not appear in the 2014 production include Robert De Niro, Hugh Jackman, Cedric the Entertainer, Lenny Kravitz, and Liam Neeson.[9][43][44][45][46]
On March 26, 2014, British actor Tom Wilkinson was added to the cast to play U.S President Lyndon B. Johnson.[10] On April 7, it was announced that British actor Carmen Ejogo would play Dr. King's wife, Coretta Scott King.[13] On April 15, actor and rapper Keith Stanfield had reportedly joined the cast to play civil rights protester Jimmie Lee Jackson, who was shot and killed on a nighttime march and whose death led James Bevel to initiate the Selma to Montgomery marches.[21][47] On April 22, Lorraine Toussaint joined the cast to portray Amelia Boynton Robinson, who was very active in the Selma movement before SCLC arrived and was the first African-American woman in Alabama to run for Congress.[14] On April 25, it was announced that Ledisi had been added to the cast to play Mahalia Jackson, a singer and friend of King.[25] On May 7, Andre Holland joined the cast to play politician and civil rights activist Andrew Young.[22] On May 8, Tessa Thompson was cast to play the role of Diane Nash, a civil rights activist and founding member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.[23] On May 9, Deadline confirmed the role of Common as James Bevel, the Director of Direct Action and Director of Nonviolent Education of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.[12] On May 16, Trai Byers was added to the cast to play James Forman, a civil rights leader active in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.[26] And on June 20, Deadline cited the role of Colman Domingo as SCLC activist Ralph Abernathy.[18]
On May 28, Stephan James was confirmed portraying the role of SNCC activist John Lewis in the film.[27] On May 29, Wendell Pierce joined the film to play civil rights leader Hosea Williams.[24] On May 30, Cuba Gooding, Jr. was set to play civil rights attorney and activist Fred Gray.[16] On June 3, British actor Tim Roth signed on to play Alabama governor George Wallace.[11] On June 4, Niecy Nash joined the cast to play Richie Jean Jackson, wife of Dr. Sullivan Jackson played by Kent Faulcon, while John Lavelle joined to play Roy Reed, a reporter covering the march for The New York Times.[17][28] On June 10, it was announced that the film's producer, Oprah Winfrey, would also portray Annie Lee Cooper, a 54-year-old woman who tried to register to vote and was denied by Sheriff Clark – whom she then punched in the jaw and knocked down.[15] Jeremy Strong joined the cast to play James Reeb, a white Unitarian Universalist minister from Boston and murdered civil rights activist.[29] On June 12, it was reported that Giovanni Ribisi joined the cast to play Lee C. White, an adviser to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson on strategies regarding the Civil Rights Movement.[19] Alessandro Nivola also joined to play John Doar, a civil rights activist and attorney general for civil rights for the Department of Justice in the 1960s.[20] Dylan Baker was added to the cast to play FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover , who carried out extensive investigations of King and his associates, on July 17.[30]
Filming[edit]
Principal photography began May 20, 2014, around Atlanta, Georgia.[48][49] Filming took place around Marietta Square[50] and Rockdale County Courthouse in Conyers. The Conyers scene involved a portrayal of federal judge Frank Minis Johnson, who ruled that the third and final march could go forward.[51] In Newton County, Georgia, filming took place at Flat Road, Airport Road, Gregory Road, Conyers, Brown, Ivy and Emory Streets, exteriors on Lee Street, and an interior night shoot at the Townhouse Café on Washington St.[52]
In Alabama, scenes were shot in Selma, centering on the Bloody Sunday march to the Edmund Pettus Bridge, and at Montgomery, Alabama, where, in 1965, King led civil rights demonstrators down Dexter Avenue toward the Alabama State Capitol at the conclusion of the third march from Selma.[53]
Music[edit]
Jason Moran composed the music for the film, marking his debut in the field.[54]
John Legend and Common, who plays James Bevel in the film, released the accompanying track "Glory" in December 2014, ahead of the film's theatrical release. "Glory", which has been described as a protest anthem, references the 2014 Ferguson protests and earned a Golden Globe for Best Original Song.[55][56]
Release[edit]
Selma premiered in Grauman's Egyptian Theatre at AFI Fest on November 11, 2014, in Los Angeles[57] for which it received a standing ovation.[58] The film opened in limited release in the USA, including Los Angeles, New York City, and Atlanta,[59] on December 25, 2014, before its wide opening on January 9, 2015.[60] The film is scheduled to be screened in the Berlinale Special Galas section of the 65th Berlin International Film Festival.[61]
Reception[edit]
Selma has received universal acclaim from film critics. Praise has gone particularly to the film's acting, cinematography, screenplay, and direction. On Rotten Tomatoes the film currently holds a rating of 99%, based on 160 reviews, with an average rating of 8.8/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Fueled by a gripping performance from David Oyelowo, Selma draws inspiration and dramatic power from the life and death of Martin Luther King, Jr. — but doesn't ignore how far we remain from the ideals his work embodied."[62] On Metacritic the film has a score of 89 out of 100, based on 43 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[63]
Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun Times praised the film, calling it "an important history lesson that never feels like a lecture. Once school is back in session, every junior high school class in America should take a field trip to see this movie."[64] Joe Morgenstern, writing for The Wall Street Journal, also lauded the film. "At its best, Ava DuVernay's biographical film honors Dr. King's legacy by dramatizing the racist brutality that spurred him and his colleagues to action."[65] A.O. Scott of The New York Times gave a glowing review, praising the acting, directing, writing, and cinematography. "Even if you think you know what’s coming, “Selma” hums with suspense and surprise. Packed with incident and overflowing with fascinating characters, it is a triumph of efficient, emphatic cinematic storytelling."[66] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone was also extremely positive towards the film. "DuVernay's look at Martin Luther King's 1965 voting-rights march against racial injustice stings with relevance to the here and now. Oyelowo's stirring, soulful performance as King deserves superlatives."[67]
David Denby, writing for The New Yorker, also praised the film. "This is cinema, more rhetorical, spectacular, and stirring than cable-TV drama."[68] Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post was also positive and gave the film four stars. "With Selma, director Ava DuVernay has created a stirring, often thrilling, uncannily timely drama that works on several levels at once...she presents [Martin Luther King, Jr.] as a dynamic figure of human-scale contradictions, flaws and supremely shrewd political skills."[69]
A critical perspective came from Glen Ford, editor of Black Agenda Report, who claimed that Selma is a political work that reflects the "conservative Black political worldview" of producer and star Oprah Winfrey.[70] In a similar vein regarding a discussion as to why the film didn't garner more Academy Award nominations, Adolph Reed, Jr., political science professor at the University of Pennsylvania, opined that "now it’s the black (haute) bourgeoisie that suffers injustice on behalf of the black masses."[71]
Controversies regarding historical accuracy[edit]
As in many other films, like JFK and Zero Dark Thirty, the historical accuracy of the story has been the subject of controversy about the degree to which artistic license should be used in historical fiction.[72][73] Most controversy centers around the film's portrayal of President Lyndon Johnson and his relationship with King. To many, President Johnson was seen as a champion of civil rights legislation and a proactive partner of King, whereas the film is accused of falsely depicting the President as a reluctant or obstructionist political actor that had the FBI monitor and harass King.[74] Notable criticism came from two associates of President Johnson: LBJ Presidential Library director Mark Updegrove[75] and Joseph A. Califano, Jr.. Having served as Johnson's top assistant for domestic affairs and as US Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, Califano questioned whether the writer and director felt "free to fill the screen with falsehoods, immune from any responsibility to the dead, just because they thought it made for a better story".[76] SCLC activist and official, and later U.S. Congressman and Ambassador to the United Nations, Andrew Young, told The Washington Post that the depiction of the relationship between President Johnson and Dr. King “was the only thing I would question in the movie. Everything else, they got 100 percent right."[77] According to Young, the two were always mutually respectful, and King respected Johnson’s political problems.[77]
Director DuVernay and U.S. Representative John Lewis (whom she portrays when a young man) responded separately that the film Selma is a work of art about the people of Selma, not a documentary. DuVernay said in an interview that she did not see herself as "a custodian of anyone's legacy".[78] In response to criticisms that she rewrote history to portray her own agenda, DuVernay said that the movie is "not a documentary. I'm not a historian. I'm a storyteller".[79] Lewis wrote in an op-ed for The Los Angeles Times: "We do not demand completeness of other historical dramas, so why is it required of this film?"[80]
Accolades[edit]

List of awards and nominations

Award
Date of ceremony
Category
Recipient(s) and nominee(s)
Result

87th Academy Awards[81] February 22, 2015 Best Picture Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Christian Colson and Oprah Winfrey Pending
Best Original Song John Legend/Common, "Glory" Pending
African-American Film Critics Association[82] December 8, 2014 Best Picture Selma Won
Best Director Ava DuVernay Won
Best Actor David Oyelowo Won
Best Music John Legend/Common, “Glory” Won
Alliance of Women Film Journalists[83] January 12, 2015 Best Film Selma Nominated
Best Director Ava DuVernay Nominated
Best Woman Director Ava DuVernay Won
Black Film Critics Circle[84] December 23, 2014 Best Picture Selma Won
Best Director Ava DuVernay Won
Best Actor David Oyelowo Won
Best Supporting Actress Carmen Ejogo Won
Best Original Screenplay Paul Webb Won
Best Ensemble Cast Won
Casting Society of America[85] January 22, 2015 Big Budget Drama Aisha Coley, Robyn Owen Nominated
Central Ohio Film Critics Association[86][87] January 8, 2015 Best Film Selma Won
Best Director Ava DuVernay Won
Best Actor David Oyelowo Won
Best Original Screenplay Paul Webb Won
Best Film Editing Spencer Averick Nominated
Breakthrough Film Artist Ava DuVernay Won
Costume Designers Guild[88] February 17, 2015 Excellence in Period Film Ruth E. Carter Pending
Critics' Choice Movie Awards[89] January 15, 2015 Best Picture Selma Nominated
Best Director Ava DuVernay Nominated
Best Actor David Oyelowo Nominated
Best Acting Ensemble Cast Nominated
Best Song "Glory" Won
Georgia Film Critics Association[90] January 9, 2015 Best Picture Selma Nominated
Best Director Ava DuVernay Nominated
Best Actor David Oyelowo Nominated
Best Original Screenplay Paul Webb Nominated
Best Original Song "Glory" Won
Best Ensemble  Nominated
Oglethorpe Award for Excellence in Georgia Cinema Ava DuVernay, Paul Webb Won
Golden Globe Award[91] January 11, 2015 Best Actor in a Drama Motion Picture David Oyelowo Nominated
Best Director Ava DuVernay Nominated
Best Drama Motion Picture Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Christian Colson, and Oprah Winfrey Nominated
Best Original Song "Glory" – John Legend and Common Won
Houston Film Critics Society Awards[92][93] January 12, 2015 Best Picture Selma Nominated
Best Original Song "Glory" by John Legend and Common Nominated
Independent Spirit Awards[94] February 21, 2015 Best Film Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Christian Colson, and Oprah Winfrey Pending
Best Director Ava DuVernay Pending
Best Actor David Oyelowo Pending
Best Supporting Actress Carmen Ejogo Pending
Best Cinematography Bradford Young Pending
Iowa Film Critics[95] January 7, 2015 Best Song "Glory" Runner-up
Make-Up Artists and Hair Stylists Guild Awards[96] February 14, 2015 Best Period and/or Character Hair Styling in Feature Length Motion Picture Melissa Forney and Pierce Austin Pending
MPSE Golden Reel Awards[97] February 15, 2015 Feature Music Julie Pearce, Clint Bennett Pending
NAACP Image Award[98] February 6, 2015 Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture David Oyelowo Pending
Outstanding Directing in a Motion Picture Ava DuVernay Pending
Outstanding Motion Picture Selma Pending
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture André Holland Pending
Common Pending
Wendell Pierce Pending
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture Carmen Ejogo Pending
Oprah Winfrey Pending
Satellite Awards[99] February 15, 2015 Best Film Selma Pending
Best Director Ava DuVernary Pending
Best Actor – Motion Picture David Oyelowo Pending
Best Screenplay – Original Paul Webb Pending
Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Awards[100] December 8, 2014 Best Film Selma Nominated
Best Director Ava DuVernay Nominated
Best Actor David Oyelowo Nominated
Best Ensemble  Nominated
The Joe Barber Award for Best Portrayal of Washington, DC  Nominated
Women Film Critics Circle[101] December 16, 2014 Best Movie by a Woman Selma Won
Best Female Action Star Oprah Winfrey Won

References[edit]
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38.Jump up ^ Appelo, Tim; Golloway, Stephen (December 16, 2014). "Oscars: How 'Selma' Filmmakers Made a Movie About MLK Without Using His Words". The Hollywood Reporter.
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40.Jump up ^ Shaw, Lucas (January 19, 2014). "Oprah Winfrey Joins Brad Pitt as Producer of Mlk Drama ‘Selma’". thewrap.com. Retrieved June 4, 2014.
41.Jump up ^ Fleming Jr, Mike (February 25, 2014). "Paramount To Make Mlk Pic ‘Selma’; Oprah Winfrey Producing". deadline.com. Retrieved June 4, 2014.
42.Jump up ^ Mumin, Nijla (4 April 2014). "Talented Cinematographer Bradford Young To Shoot Ava DuVernay's Upcoming Feature 'Selma'". indiewire.com. Retrieved June 4, 2014.
43.Jump up ^ Freydkin, Donna (March 3, 2010). "Lee Daniels at the Oscars: New film, new shoes, new shirt". usatoday.com. Retrieved June 3, 2014.
44.Jump up ^ Fischer, Russ (March 8, 2010). "Lenny Kravitz and Hugh Jackman Join Selma, Lee Daniels’ Next Film; De Niro Confirmed". slashfilm.com. Retrieved June 3, 2014.
45.Jump up ^ Graham, Bill (March 11, 2010). "Hugh Jackman to Play Sheriff Jim Clark in Lee Daniels’ Upcoming Civil Rights Drama Selma". collider.com. Retrieved June 3, 2014.
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49.Jump up ^ "Paramount and Pathe Start Principal Photography on Selma". comingsoon.net. 20 May 2014. Retrieved May 30, 2014.
50.Jump up ^ Brett, Jennifer (May 23, 2014). ""Selma" filming closes Marietta Square streets". accessatlanta.com. Retrieved May 30, 2014.
51.Jump up ^ "'Selma' filming in Olde Town; Oprah expected to be on set". newtoncitizen.com. May 30, 2014. Retrieved June 3, 2014.
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53.Jump up ^ Sutton, Amber (June 27, 2014). "Dexter Avenue revisits the 1960s as 'Selma' begins filming in Montgomery". al.com. Retrieved July 1, 2014.
54.Jump up ^ "Jason Moran Scoring Ava DuVernay’s ‘Selma’". filmmusicreporter.com. November 5, 2014. Retrieved November 10, 2014.
55.Jump up ^ Strecker, Erin. "Golden Globes: John Legend Calls 'Selma' Song 'A Labor of Love'". Billboard.com. Retrieved December 15, 2014.
56.Jump up ^ Zo. "John Legend & Common Deliver The Anthemic Collaboration 'Glory'". okayplayer. Retrieved December 15, 2014.
57.Jump up ^ McNary, Dave (October 31, 2014). "Oprah Winfrey’s ‘Selma’ Set for First Look at AFI Fest". variety.com. Retrieved November 1, 2014.
58.Jump up ^ Hammond, Pete (November 10, 2014). "Oscars: Paramount’s Contender ‘Selma’ To Debut In Its Entirety Tuesday At AFI Fest". deadline.com. Retrieved November 10, 2014.
59.Jump up ^ Brett, Jennifer (December 24, 2014). "Timely "Selma" opens at two Atlanta theaters Christmas Day". ajc.com. Retrieved December 28, 2014.
60.Jump up ^ "'Selma' Release Date: Paramount Dates MLK Jr. Pic For Christmas". Deadline.com. February 18, 2014. Retrieved June 21, 2014.
61.Jump up ^ "Many World Premieres in the Berlinale Special 2015". Berlinale. Retrieved 17 January 2015.
62.Jump up ^ "Selma". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved February 1, 2015.
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65.Jump up ^ Morgenstern, Joe (December 25, 2014). "'Selma' Review: Honoring the Legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved January 24, 2015.
66.Jump up ^ Scott, A.O. (December 24, 2014). "In 'Selma', King Is Just One of Many Heroes". The New York Times. Retrieved January 24, 2015.
67.Jump up ^ Travers, Peter (December 23, 2014). "'Selma' Movie Review". Rolling Stone. Retrieved January 24, 2015.
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70.Jump up ^ Ford, Glen. "Selma: Black History According to Oprah". Black Agenda Report. Retrieved January 26, 2015.
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74.Jump up ^ ""Selma" Movie". http://www.lbjlibrary.org. Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library. Retrieved 21 January 2015.
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76.Jump up ^ Joseph A. Califano Jr. (December 26, 2014). "The movie ‘Selma’ has a glaring flaw". Washington Post.
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78.Jump up ^ Ifill, Gwen (January 8, 2015). "Director Ava DuVernay on sharing the story of ‘Selma’ and deconstructing American heroes". PBS. PBS. Retrieved 20 January 2015.
79.Jump up ^ Milliken, Mary (January 6, 2015). "'Selma' director makes history before awards are bestowed". Reuters. Reuters. Retrieved 20 January 2015.
80.Jump up ^ Lewis, John (January 16, 2015). "John Lewis tells his truth about Selma". The Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, CA: The Los Angeles Times). Retrieved January 20, 2015.
81.Jump up ^ Jagernauth, Kevin (15 January 2015). "2015 Oscar Nominations Led By 'Birdman' & 'The Grand Budapest Hotel' With 9 Nominations Each". The Playlist (Indiewire). Retrieved 15 January 2015.
82.Jump up ^ "'Selma' African American Film Critics Association". Deadline. December 8, 2014. Retrieved December 8, 2014.
83.Jump up ^ "'Birdman,' 'Only Lovers Left Alive' popular with Alliance of Women Film Journalists". Hitfix. January 8, 2015. Retrieved January 9, 2015.
84.Jump up ^ "'Selma dominates Black Film Critics Circle awards'". 'HitFix'. December 23, 2014. Retrieved December 24, 2014.
85.Jump up ^ "Casting Society Unveils Artios Film Nominees". Deadline.com. January 6, 2015. Retrieved January 6, 2015.
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88.Jump up ^ "Costume Designers Guild Awards: 'Birdman', 'Boyhood', 'Grand Budapest Hotel' Among Nominees". Deadline.com. January 7, 2015. Retrieved January 7, 2015.
89.Jump up ^ Gray, Tim (December 15, 2014). "‘Birdman,’ ‘Grand Budapest’ Top Critics Choice Awards Nominations". Variety. Retrieved December 15, 2014.
90.Jump up ^ ""Boyhood," "Nightcrawler" Win Big as Georgia Film Critics Split the Board". Reel Georgia. January 9, 2015. Retrieved January 9, 2015.
91.Jump up ^ "Golden Globes 2015 nominations". BBC News. December 11, 2014. Retrieved December 11, 2014.
92.Jump up ^ "Houston Film Critics Announce Nominees". AwardsDaily. December 16, 2014. Retrieved December 18, 2014.
93.Jump up ^ "'Boyhood,' Larry McMurtry and the 'Grand Budapest' poster win Houston critics awards". Hitfix. January 12, 2015. Retrieved January 12, 2015.
94.Jump up ^ "Independent Spirit Award Nominations 2015:Full List of Nominees". Deadline.com. November 25, 2014. Retrieved November 25, 2014.
95.Jump up ^ "'Boyhood' is Iowa Critics' Best Picture of 2014". Hitfix. January 7, 2015. Retrieved January 9, 2015.
96.Jump up ^ "'GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY,' 'INTO THE WOODS' LEAD MAKE-UP ARTISTS AND HAIR STYLISTS GUILD NOMINATIONS". Hollywood Reporter. Hollywood Reporter. 8 January 2015. Retrieved 8 January 2015.
97.Jump up ^ "'Birdman,' 'Apes' Top 2015 Golden Reel Nominations". Deadline.com. January 14, 2015. Retrieved January 14, 2015.
98.Jump up ^ Jue, Teresa (December 9, 2014). "NAACP Image Awards announce nominations for film and TV". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved December 11, 2014.
99.Jump up ^ Pond, Steve (December 1, 2014). "‘Birdman’ Leads Satellite Awards Nominations". The Wrap. Retrieved December 3, 2014.
100.Jump up ^ Adams, Ryan (December 6, 2014). "Washington DC Film Critics announce 2014 Award Nominees". The Awards Circuit. Retrieved December 6, 2014.
101.Jump up ^ "'Still Alice' cleans up at the Women Film Critics Circle Awards". Hitfix. December 22, 2014. Retrieved December 24, 2014.
External links[edit]
Official website
Selma at the Internet Movie Database
Selma at Box Office Mojo
Selma at Rotten Tomatoes
Selma at Metacritic


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Selma (film)
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Selma
Selma poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster

Directed by
Ava DuVernay
Produced by
Christian Colson
Oprah Winfrey
Dede Gardner
Jeremy Kleiner

Written by
Paul Webb, Ava DuVernay (uncredited)[1]

Starring
David Oyelowo
Tom Wilkinson
Carmen Ejogo
Andre Holland
Tessa Thompson
Giovanni Ribisi
Lorraine Toussaint
Stephan James
Wendell Pierce
Common
Alessandro Nivola
Keith Stanfield
Cuba Gooding, Jr.
Dylan Baker
Tim Roth
Oprah Winfrey

Music by
Jason Moran
Cinematography
Bradford Young
Edited by
Spencer Averick

Production
 company

Cloud Eight Films
Harpo Films
Plan B Entertainment

Distributed by
Paramount Pictures (United States)
 Pathé (United Kingdom)[2]

Release dates

December 25, 2014


Running time
 127 minutes[3]
Country
United States
Language
English
Budget
$20 million[4]
Box office
$43.6 million[4]
Selma is a 2014 American historical drama film directed by Ava DuVernay and written by Paul Webb and Ava DuVernay.[5] It is based on the 1965 Selma to Montgomery voting rights marches led by James Bevel,[6][7] Hosea Williams, and Martin Luther King, Jr. of SCLC and John Lewis of SNCC. The film stars British actors David Oyelowo as King, Tom Wilkinson as President Lyndon Johnson, Tim Roth as George Wallace, Carmen Ejogo as Coretta Scott King, and American rapper and actor Common as Bevel.
Pathé financed the film, with Plan B Entertainment, Cloud Eight Films and Harpo Productions co-producing the film. Paramount Pictures distributed Selma in the United States and Canada.
Selma premiered at the American Film Institute Festival on November 11, 2014, began a limited U.S. release on December 25, and expanded into wide theatrical release on January 9, 2015, just two months before the 50th anniversary of the march.
Selma had four Golden Globe Award nominations, including Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Director, and Best Actor, and won for Best Original Song.[8] It also garnered nominations for Best Picture and Best Original Song at the 87th Academy Awards.


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production 3.1 Development
3.2 Casting
3.3 Filming
4 Music
5 Release
6 Reception
7 Controversies regarding historical accuracy
8 Accolades
9 References
10 External links

Plot[edit]
In 1964 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his wife, Coretta Scott King attend the ceremony in Oslo, Norway, where he accepts his Nobel Peace Prize. Four young girls are then shown walking down the inside steps of a church, talking. An explosion goes off, killing all four girls and injuring others. In Selma, Alabama, Annie Lee Cooper is shown filling out a form to become a registered voter. The white registrar asks her increasingly difficult questions about federal and state government. She answers correctly. He finally gives her one that nobody could answer, and her application is rejected. Dr. King meets with President Lyndon B. Johnson concerning black citizens not being allowed to register to vote. King tells Johnson that white registrars are illegally denying registration forms from the black community, and points out the senseless acts of violence against them. King then asks for federal legislation which would allow black citizens to register to vote unencumbered, but Johnson responds that he has more important things on his mind.
King travels to Selma with Ralph Abernathy, Andrew Young, James Orange, and Diane Nash. Reverend James Bevel comes to the car to greet the group as they arrive, and other SCLC civil rights activists appear. As they talk to Dr. King while he signs into a local hotel a young white man approaches and punches Dr. King in the mouth. President Johnson and F.B.I. director J. Edgar Hoover talk about the incident. Hoover thinks King is becoming a problem, and suggests that they cause friction at Dr. King's home to weaken the marriage dynamic. Coretta shows reservations over her husband's upcoming actions in Selma, and concern for her family's well-being. Late that night King calls a friend, singer Mahalia Jackson, to help him reach out and hear the Lord's voice, and Jackson sings a gospel song to him. King speaks before a congregation of other civil rights activists and hopeful voters to rouse up their spirits. Their plan is to march to the voters registration office to nonviolently ask to register, despite knowing that the authorities will not allow them to do so. King and the other activists march through Selma before a crowd of anti-civil rights townspeople. After a tense confrontation in front of the courthouse between movement activists and Selma law enforcement, a shoving match and fight ensues as the police go into the crowd. Annie Lee Cooper fights back and knocks Sheriff Jim Clark to the ground. This leads to the arrest of Cooper, King, and other movement activists.
Governor George Wallace speaks out against the movement. Johnson hears about the incident in Selma and King's arrest, and is infuriated. Coretta meets with Malcolm X, who has come to Selma even though he disagrees with King's and SCLC's nonviolent movements, and he offers to be an alternative voice for the black community in order to show the white community what they will get if the nonviolent movement does not achieve its goals. When Coretta visits her husband in jail and tells him about her meeting with Malcolm X, King is displeased, since Malcolm X has derided him in the past. Wallace meets with Col. Al Lingo to discuss the overall situation, and they eventually decide to use force at an upcoming night march in Marion, Alabama. At the night event the streetlights are turned off, and Alabama State Troopers brutally assault the marchers on the streets. A small group of protesters run into a restaurant to hide, and pretend to be ordering a meal. State troopers rush in, and soon coldly shoot an unarmed young man, Jimmie Lee Jackson, as Jackson tries to protect his mother, who herself is trying to protect her father who is being beaten. King and Bevel meet with Cager Lee, Jackson's grandfather, at the morgue where they look at Jimmie Lee Jackson's body through a window. King is then shown giving a speech where he states that the people will continue to fight for their freedom and their rights, and that everybody who is standing idly by and letting these killings occur is partially responsible for Jackson's death. The Kings receive threats at home from people that say they will harm their children. King comes under scrutiny from members of SNCC (the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee), who think King is not doing enough to help the cause.
The Selma to Montgomery march is about to take place. King is in Atlanta and won't be attending the march, and talks by phone to Andrew Young about cancelling the march, but Young reasons with him and King agrees that the march should go forward. The marchers, including John Lewis of SNCC, Hosea Williams of SCLC, and local activist Amelia Boynton, walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge and approach a line of armed troopers. The troopers tell them to turn back. They do not do so, the troopers charge, and, using clubs, horses, tear gas and other weapons, attack the marchers. Lewis and Boynton are among those badly injured. This event is shown on national television, and is seen by Johnson and Wallace. The wounded are treated inside and on the street in front of the movement's headquarter church. With the first Selma to Montgomery march stopped, attorney Fred Gray asks federal Judge Frank Minis Johnson to let the march go forward. He refuses until a hearing is held. President Johnson, fed up with the situation, demands that both King and Wallace stop their actions. Johnson sends John Doar to meet with King to convince him to postpone the second march from Selma to Montgomery, but King declines.
A number of white citizens, including Viola Liuzzo and several clergymen, travel to Selma to join the next march. The marchers are shown crossing the bridge again, and, at the top of the bridge, they see the state troopers, who are lined up as before, turn aside to let them pass. King, after praying, leads the group away from the bridge. King once again comes under fire from SNCC activists who feel that they've just missed their best chance for success. That evening a white supporter, Rev. James Reeb, is beaten and murdered by two white men on the street outside a local restaurant. Eventually, King and other SCLC activists attend Judge Johnson's hearing, and, after testimony by Cager Lee and others, Johnson rules in favor of allowing the march. President Johnson is shown speaking before a joint session of Congress, laying out the reasons why Congress should quickly pass a bill to eliminate restrictions on voting for the black community. Johnson also praises the courage of the involved activists, and proclaims in his speech "We shall overcome".
The marchers gather for the final march to Montgomery. The scene is juxtaposed with footage of the actual 1965 march. When the 54-mile five-day march reaches Montgomery Dr. King speaks on the steps of the Alabama State Capitol. As he continues his speech on-screen text about the film's real life counterparts is shown, including the fact that Viola Liuzzo will be shot and killed a few hours later while driving another marcher back to Selma. King concludes his speech by saying that freedom is coming closer, thanks to the grace of the Lord.
Cast[edit]
David Oyelowo as Martin Luther King, Jr.[9]
Tom Wilkinson as Lyndon B. Johnson[10]
Tim Roth as George Wallace[11]
Common as James Bevel[12]
Ruben Santiago-Hudson as Bayard Rustin
Carmen Ejogo as Coretta Scott King[13]
Lorraine Toussaint as Amelia Boynton Robinson[14]
Oprah Winfrey as Annie Lee Cooper[15]
Cuba Gooding, Jr. as Fred Gray[16]
Niecy Nash as Richie Jean Jackson[17]
Colman Domingo as Ralph Abernathy[18]
Giovanni Ribisi as Lee C. White[19]
Alessandro Nivola as John Doar[20]
Keith Stanfield as Jimmie Lee Jackson[21]
Andre Holland as Andrew Young[22]
Tessa Thompson as Diane Nash[23]
Wendell Pierce as Hosea Williams[24]
Omar Dorsey as James Orange
Ledisi Young as Mahalia Jackson[25]
Trai Byers as James Forman[26]
Stephan James as John Lewis[27]
Kent Faulcon as Sullivan Jackson[17]
John Lavelle as Roy Reed[28]
Henry G. Sanders as Cager Lee
Jeremy Strong as James Reeb[29]
Dylan Baker as J. Edgar Hoover[30]
Nigel Thatch as Malcolm X
Charity Jordan as Viola Lee Jackson
Haviland Stillwell as Johnson's Secretary
Tara Ochs as Viola Liuzzo
Martin Sheen[31] as Frank Minis Johnson
Michael Shikany as Archbisop Iakovos
Michael Papajohn as Major John Cloud
Stephen Root as Al Lingo
Production[edit]
Development[edit]
On June 18, 2008, Variety reported that screenwriter Paul Webb had written an original story about Martin Luther King Jr. and Lyndon B. Johnson for Celador's Christian Colson, which would be co-produced with Brad Pitt's Plan B Entertainment.[32] In 2009 Lee Daniels was reportedly in early talks to direct the film, with financing by Pathé, and with Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner of Plan B as co-producers, and the participation of Butt Eight Films.[33] In 2010 reports indicated The Weinstein Company would join Pathe and Plan B to finance the $22 million film,[34] but by the next month Daniels had signed on with Sony to re-write and direct The Butler.[35] In an interview in August 2010, Daniels said financing was there for the Selma project, but he had to choose between The Butler and Selma, and chose The Butler.[36]
In July 2013, it was announced that Ava DuVernay had signed on to direct the film for Pathe UK and Plan B, and that she was revising the script with the original screenwriter, Paul Webb. DuVernay estimated that she re-wrote 90 percent of Webb's original script.[37] Those revisions included rewriting King's speeches, because, in 2009, King's estate licensed them to DreamWorks Pictures and Warner Bros. for an untitled project to be produced by Steven Spielberg. Subsequent negotiations between those companies and Selma's producers did not lead to an agreement. DuVurnay is credited with writing alternative speeches that evoke the historic ones without violating the copyright. She recalled spending hours listening to King's words while hiking the canyons of Los Angeles. While she did not think she would "get anywhere close to just the beauty and that nuance of his speech patterns", she did identify some of King's basic structure, such as a tendency to speak in triplets: saying one thing in three different ways.[38][39]
In early 2014, Oprah Winfrey came on board as a producer along with Brad Pitt,[40] and by February 25 Paramount Pictures was in final negotiations for the US and Canadian distribution rights.[41]
On April 4, 2014, it was announced that Bradford Young would be the director of photography of the film.[42]
Casting[edit]
In 2010, Daniels (who was the attached director at the time) confirmed that the lead role of Martin Luther King Jr. would be played by British actor David Oyelowo. King was one of four main roles all played by British actors (the others roles being those of King's wife, President Johnson, and Alabama Governor Wallace).[37] Actors who had confirmed in 2010 but who did not appear in the 2014 production include Robert De Niro, Hugh Jackman, Cedric the Entertainer, Lenny Kravitz, and Liam Neeson.[9][43][44][45][46]
On March 26, 2014, British actor Tom Wilkinson was added to the cast to play U.S President Lyndon B. Johnson.[10] On April 7, it was announced that British actor Carmen Ejogo would play Dr. King's wife, Coretta Scott King.[13] On April 15, actor and rapper Keith Stanfield had reportedly joined the cast to play civil rights protester Jimmie Lee Jackson, who was shot and killed on a nighttime march and whose death led James Bevel to initiate the Selma to Montgomery marches.[21][47] On April 22, Lorraine Toussaint joined the cast to portray Amelia Boynton Robinson, who was very active in the Selma movement before SCLC arrived and was the first African-American woman in Alabama to run for Congress.[14] On April 25, it was announced that Ledisi had been added to the cast to play Mahalia Jackson, a singer and friend of King.[25] On May 7, Andre Holland joined the cast to play politician and civil rights activist Andrew Young.[22] On May 8, Tessa Thompson was cast to play the role of Diane Nash, a civil rights activist and founding member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.[23] On May 9, Deadline confirmed the role of Common as James Bevel, the Director of Direct Action and Director of Nonviolent Education of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.[12] On May 16, Trai Byers was added to the cast to play James Forman, a civil rights leader active in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.[26] And on June 20, Deadline cited the role of Colman Domingo as SCLC activist Ralph Abernathy.[18]
On May 28, Stephan James was confirmed portraying the role of SNCC activist John Lewis in the film.[27] On May 29, Wendell Pierce joined the film to play civil rights leader Hosea Williams.[24] On May 30, Cuba Gooding, Jr. was set to play civil rights attorney and activist Fred Gray.[16] On June 3, British actor Tim Roth signed on to play Alabama governor George Wallace.[11] On June 4, Niecy Nash joined the cast to play Richie Jean Jackson, wife of Dr. Sullivan Jackson played by Kent Faulcon, while John Lavelle joined to play Roy Reed, a reporter covering the march for The New York Times.[17][28] On June 10, it was announced that the film's producer, Oprah Winfrey, would also portray Annie Lee Cooper, a 54-year-old woman who tried to register to vote and was denied by Sheriff Clark – whom she then punched in the jaw and knocked down.[15] Jeremy Strong joined the cast to play James Reeb, a white Unitarian Universalist minister from Boston and murdered civil rights activist.[29] On June 12, it was reported that Giovanni Ribisi joined the cast to play Lee C. White, an adviser to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson on strategies regarding the Civil Rights Movement.[19] Alessandro Nivola also joined to play John Doar, a civil rights activist and attorney general for civil rights for the Department of Justice in the 1960s.[20] Dylan Baker was added to the cast to play FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover , who carried out extensive investigations of King and his associates, on July 17.[30]
Filming[edit]
Principal photography began May 20, 2014, around Atlanta, Georgia.[48][49] Filming took place around Marietta Square[50] and Rockdale County Courthouse in Conyers. The Conyers scene involved a portrayal of federal judge Frank Minis Johnson, who ruled that the third and final march could go forward.[51] In Newton County, Georgia, filming took place at Flat Road, Airport Road, Gregory Road, Conyers, Brown, Ivy and Emory Streets, exteriors on Lee Street, and an interior night shoot at the Townhouse Café on Washington St.[52]
In Alabama, scenes were shot in Selma, centering on the Bloody Sunday march to the Edmund Pettus Bridge, and at Montgomery, Alabama, where, in 1965, King led civil rights demonstrators down Dexter Avenue toward the Alabama State Capitol at the conclusion of the third march from Selma.[53]
Music[edit]
Jason Moran composed the music for the film, marking his debut in the field.[54]
John Legend and Common, who plays James Bevel in the film, released the accompanying track "Glory" in December 2014, ahead of the film's theatrical release. "Glory", which has been described as a protest anthem, references the 2014 Ferguson protests and earned a Golden Globe for Best Original Song.[55][56]
Release[edit]
Selma premiered in Grauman's Egyptian Theatre at AFI Fest on November 11, 2014, in Los Angeles[57] for which it received a standing ovation.[58] The film opened in limited release in the USA, including Los Angeles, New York City, and Atlanta,[59] on December 25, 2014, before its wide opening on January 9, 2015.[60] The film is scheduled to be screened in the Berlinale Special Galas section of the 65th Berlin International Film Festival.[61]
Reception[edit]
Selma has received universal acclaim from film critics. Praise has gone particularly to the film's acting, cinematography, screenplay, and direction. On Rotten Tomatoes the film currently holds a rating of 99%, based on 160 reviews, with an average rating of 8.8/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Fueled by a gripping performance from David Oyelowo, Selma draws inspiration and dramatic power from the life and death of Martin Luther King, Jr. — but doesn't ignore how far we remain from the ideals his work embodied."[62] On Metacritic the film has a score of 89 out of 100, based on 43 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[63]
Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun Times praised the film, calling it "an important history lesson that never feels like a lecture. Once school is back in session, every junior high school class in America should take a field trip to see this movie."[64] Joe Morgenstern, writing for The Wall Street Journal, also lauded the film. "At its best, Ava DuVernay's biographical film honors Dr. King's legacy by dramatizing the racist brutality that spurred him and his colleagues to action."[65] A.O. Scott of The New York Times gave a glowing review, praising the acting, directing, writing, and cinematography. "Even if you think you know what’s coming, “Selma” hums with suspense and surprise. Packed with incident and overflowing with fascinating characters, it is a triumph of efficient, emphatic cinematic storytelling."[66] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone was also extremely positive towards the film. "DuVernay's look at Martin Luther King's 1965 voting-rights march against racial injustice stings with relevance to the here and now. Oyelowo's stirring, soulful performance as King deserves superlatives."[67]
David Denby, writing for The New Yorker, also praised the film. "This is cinema, more rhetorical, spectacular, and stirring than cable-TV drama."[68] Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post was also positive and gave the film four stars. "With Selma, director Ava DuVernay has created a stirring, often thrilling, uncannily timely drama that works on several levels at once...she presents [Martin Luther King, Jr.] as a dynamic figure of human-scale contradictions, flaws and supremely shrewd political skills."[69]
A critical perspective came from Glen Ford, editor of Black Agenda Report, who claimed that Selma is a political work that reflects the "conservative Black political worldview" of producer and star Oprah Winfrey.[70] In a similar vein regarding a discussion as to why the film didn't garner more Academy Award nominations, Adolph Reed, Jr., political science professor at the University of Pennsylvania, opined that "now it’s the black (haute) bourgeoisie that suffers injustice on behalf of the black masses."[71]
Controversies regarding historical accuracy[edit]
As in many other films, like JFK and Zero Dark Thirty, the historical accuracy of the story has been the subject of controversy about the degree to which artistic license should be used in historical fiction.[72][73] Most controversy centers around the film's portrayal of President Lyndon Johnson and his relationship with King. To many, President Johnson was seen as a champion of civil rights legislation and a proactive partner of King, whereas the film is accused of falsely depicting the President as a reluctant or obstructionist political actor that had the FBI monitor and harass King.[74] Notable criticism came from two associates of President Johnson: LBJ Presidential Library director Mark Updegrove[75] and Joseph A. Califano, Jr.. Having served as Johnson's top assistant for domestic affairs and as US Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, Califano questioned whether the writer and director felt "free to fill the screen with falsehoods, immune from any responsibility to the dead, just because they thought it made for a better story".[76] SCLC activist and official, and later U.S. Congressman and Ambassador to the United Nations, Andrew Young, told The Washington Post that the depiction of the relationship between President Johnson and Dr. King “was the only thing I would question in the movie. Everything else, they got 100 percent right."[77] According to Young, the two were always mutually respectful, and King respected Johnson’s political problems.[77]
Director DuVernay and U.S. Representative John Lewis (whom she portrays when a young man) responded separately that the film Selma is a work of art about the people of Selma, not a documentary. DuVernay said in an interview that she did not see herself as "a custodian of anyone's legacy".[78] In response to criticisms that she rewrote history to portray her own agenda, DuVernay said that the movie is "not a documentary. I'm not a historian. I'm a storyteller".[79] Lewis wrote in an op-ed for The Los Angeles Times: "We do not demand completeness of other historical dramas, so why is it required of this film?"[80]
Accolades[edit]

List of awards and nominations

Award
Date of ceremony
Category
Recipient(s) and nominee(s)
Result

87th Academy Awards[81] February 22, 2015 Best Picture Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Christian Colson and Oprah Winfrey Pending
Best Original Song John Legend/Common, "Glory" Pending
African-American Film Critics Association[82] December 8, 2014 Best Picture Selma Won
Best Director Ava DuVernay Won
Best Actor David Oyelowo Won
Best Music John Legend/Common, “Glory” Won
Alliance of Women Film Journalists[83] January 12, 2015 Best Film Selma Nominated
Best Director Ava DuVernay Nominated
Best Woman Director Ava DuVernay Won
Black Film Critics Circle[84] December 23, 2014 Best Picture Selma Won
Best Director Ava DuVernay Won
Best Actor David Oyelowo Won
Best Supporting Actress Carmen Ejogo Won
Best Original Screenplay Paul Webb Won
Best Ensemble Cast Won
Casting Society of America[85] January 22, 2015 Big Budget Drama Aisha Coley, Robyn Owen Nominated
Central Ohio Film Critics Association[86][87] January 8, 2015 Best Film Selma Won
Best Director Ava DuVernay Won
Best Actor David Oyelowo Won
Best Original Screenplay Paul Webb Won
Best Film Editing Spencer Averick Nominated
Breakthrough Film Artist Ava DuVernay Won
Costume Designers Guild[88] February 17, 2015 Excellence in Period Film Ruth E. Carter Pending
Critics' Choice Movie Awards[89] January 15, 2015 Best Picture Selma Nominated
Best Director Ava DuVernay Nominated
Best Actor David Oyelowo Nominated
Best Acting Ensemble Cast Nominated
Best Song "Glory" Won
Georgia Film Critics Association[90] January 9, 2015 Best Picture Selma Nominated
Best Director Ava DuVernay Nominated
Best Actor David Oyelowo Nominated
Best Original Screenplay Paul Webb Nominated
Best Original Song "Glory" Won
Best Ensemble  Nominated
Oglethorpe Award for Excellence in Georgia Cinema Ava DuVernay, Paul Webb Won
Golden Globe Award[91] January 11, 2015 Best Actor in a Drama Motion Picture David Oyelowo Nominated
Best Director Ava DuVernay Nominated
Best Drama Motion Picture Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Christian Colson, and Oprah Winfrey Nominated
Best Original Song "Glory" – John Legend and Common Won
Houston Film Critics Society Awards[92][93] January 12, 2015 Best Picture Selma Nominated
Best Original Song "Glory" by John Legend and Common Nominated
Independent Spirit Awards[94] February 21, 2015 Best Film Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Christian Colson, and Oprah Winfrey Pending
Best Director Ava DuVernay Pending
Best Actor David Oyelowo Pending
Best Supporting Actress Carmen Ejogo Pending
Best Cinematography Bradford Young Pending
Iowa Film Critics[95] January 7, 2015 Best Song "Glory" Runner-up
Make-Up Artists and Hair Stylists Guild Awards[96] February 14, 2015 Best Period and/or Character Hair Styling in Feature Length Motion Picture Melissa Forney and Pierce Austin Pending
MPSE Golden Reel Awards[97] February 15, 2015 Feature Music Julie Pearce, Clint Bennett Pending
NAACP Image Award[98] February 6, 2015 Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture David Oyelowo Pending
Outstanding Directing in a Motion Picture Ava DuVernay Pending
Outstanding Motion Picture Selma Pending
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture André Holland Pending
Common Pending
Wendell Pierce Pending
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture Carmen Ejogo Pending
Oprah Winfrey Pending
Satellite Awards[99] February 15, 2015 Best Film Selma Pending
Best Director Ava DuVernary Pending
Best Actor – Motion Picture David Oyelowo Pending
Best Screenplay – Original Paul Webb Pending
Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Awards[100] December 8, 2014 Best Film Selma Nominated
Best Director Ava DuVernay Nominated
Best Actor David Oyelowo Nominated
Best Ensemble  Nominated
The Joe Barber Award for Best Portrayal of Washington, DC  Nominated
Women Film Critics Circle[101] December 16, 2014 Best Movie by a Woman Selma Won
Best Female Action Star Oprah Winfrey Won

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External links[edit]
Official website
Selma at the Internet Movie Database
Selma at Box Office Mojo
Selma at Rotten Tomatoes
Selma at Metacritic


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Films directed by Ava DuVernay


This Is the Life (2008) ·
 I Will Follow (2010) ·
 Middle of Nowhere (2012) ·
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Brad Pitt

















































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American Sniper
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
For the film adaptation, see American Sniper (film)
American Sniper
American Sniper book.jpg
Paperback cover

Author
Chris Kyle
 Scott McEwen
 Jim DeFelice
Country
United States
Language
English
Subject
Personal memoirs
Publisher
William Morrow and Company, an imprint of HarperCollins

Publication date
 January 2, 2012
Media type
Hardcover
Audiobook
Paperback
Pages
400
ISBN
978-0062082350
American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History is a memoir by American United States Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, written with Scott McEwen and Jim DeFelice. With 255 kills, 160 of them officially confirmed by the Pentagon, Kyle is the deadliest marksman in U.S. military history. The book was published by William Morrow and Company on January 2, 2012,[1] and appeared on The New York Times Best Seller list for 37 weeks.[2] Its film adaptation directed by Clint Eastwood was released in 2014.


Contents  [hide]
1 Post-publication retraction 1.1 Other controversies
2 Film adaptation
3 References

Post-publication retraction[edit]
In July 2014, the sub-chapter "Punching Out Scruff Face" was removed from later editions of the book after a three-week trial in U.S. Federal Court where the jury found that the author, Chris Kyle, had unjustly enriched himself by defaming plaintiff Jesse Ventura. In the book, Kyle described blackening the eye of "Scruff Face," whom he later identified in media interviews as Jesse Ventura.[3] The jury awarded $500,000 for defamation and $1,345,477.25 for unjust enrichment.[4][5] The lawsuit, Ventura v. Kyle, is being appealed by the defendant's estate to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.[6][7]
In December 2014, attorneys for Ventura filed a separate lawsuit against HarperCollins, the parent company of the publisher, for failing to check the accuracy of the story it used in publicity. The suit alleges that the false account used in publicity had “increased sales” and generated “millions of dollars for HarperCollins.”[8]
Other controversies[edit]
Chris Kyle’s family claimed he donated his book proceeds to Veterans’ Charity, but reports surfaced that he had kept most of the profit for himself.[9] National Review rebutted the claim that all proceeds of his book went to veterans’ charities. According to reports, around 2 percent – $52,000 – went to the charities while the Kyle's family took $3 million.[10]
Film adaptation[edit]
A film adaptation of the book was released by Warner Bros. and had its world premiere on November 11, 2014, at the American Film Institute Festival, followed by a limited theatrical release in the United States on December 25, 2014. It received a wide release January 16, 2015.[11][12][13]
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ "A Wave of Military Memoirs With You-Are-There Appeal". The New York Times. Retrieved 24 September 2014.
2.Jump up ^ "Nonfiction - Best Sellers - The New York Times". The New York Times. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
3.Jump up ^ "Jesse Ventura's $1.8M award in defamation trial ruled reasonable". St. Paul Pioneer Press. 8 August 2014. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
4.Jump up ^ "Jury awards Jesse Ventura $1.8 million in 'American Sniper' lawsuit". Dallas Morning News. 29 July 2014. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
5.Jump up ^ "Chris Kyle trial: Jesse Ventura wins $1.8 million in defamation case". Oregon Live. Associated Press. 2014-07-29. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
6.Jump up ^ "'American Sniper' widow to appeal Ventura defamation verdict". 23 December 2014. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
7.Jump up ^ "Jesse Ventura v. Taya Kyle". 23 December 2014. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
8.Jump up ^ Holley, Peter (2014-12-16). "Jesse Ventura sues HarperCollins over Chris Kyle’s ‘American Sniper’". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2015-01-14.
9.Jump up ^ Jilani, Zaid (24 January 2015). "7 heinous lies “American Sniper” is telling America". Salon. Alternet. Retrieved 26 January 2015.
10.Jump up ^ Delgado, A. J. (30 July 2013). "Justice for Jesse: Ventura Was Right in His Lawsuit". National Review Online. Retrieved 26 January 2015.
11.Jump up ^ "Warner Bros. Dates 'American Sniper'; Moves 'Point Break', 'an From U.N.C.L.E'". deadline.com. August 12, 2014. Retrieved August 13, 2014.
12.Jump up ^ Ray Subers (January 15, 2015). "Lowest-Grossing Best Picture Nominees Since Category Expansion". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved January 17, 2015.
13.Jump up ^ Ray Subers (January 15, 2015). "Forecast: 'Sniper' Sets Sights on January Record". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved January 17, 2015.
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American Sniper
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
For the film adaptation, see American Sniper (film)
American Sniper
American Sniper book.jpg
Paperback cover

Author
Chris Kyle
 Scott McEwen
 Jim DeFelice
Country
United States
Language
English
Subject
Personal memoirs
Publisher
William Morrow and Company, an imprint of HarperCollins

Publication date
 January 2, 2012
Media type
Hardcover
Audiobook
Paperback
Pages
400
ISBN
978-0062082350
American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History is a memoir by American United States Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, written with Scott McEwen and Jim DeFelice. With 255 kills, 160 of them officially confirmed by the Pentagon, Kyle is the deadliest marksman in U.S. military history. The book was published by William Morrow and Company on January 2, 2012,[1] and appeared on The New York Times Best Seller list for 37 weeks.[2] Its film adaptation directed by Clint Eastwood was released in 2014.


Contents  [hide]
1 Post-publication retraction 1.1 Other controversies
2 Film adaptation
3 References

Post-publication retraction[edit]
In July 2014, the sub-chapter "Punching Out Scruff Face" was removed from later editions of the book after a three-week trial in U.S. Federal Court where the jury found that the author, Chris Kyle, had unjustly enriched himself by defaming plaintiff Jesse Ventura. In the book, Kyle described blackening the eye of "Scruff Face," whom he later identified in media interviews as Jesse Ventura.[3] The jury awarded $500,000 for defamation and $1,345,477.25 for unjust enrichment.[4][5] The lawsuit, Ventura v. Kyle, is being appealed by the defendant's estate to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.[6][7]
In December 2014, attorneys for Ventura filed a separate lawsuit against HarperCollins, the parent company of the publisher, for failing to check the accuracy of the story it used in publicity. The suit alleges that the false account used in publicity had “increased sales” and generated “millions of dollars for HarperCollins.”[8]
Other controversies[edit]
Chris Kyle’s family claimed he donated his book proceeds to Veterans’ Charity, but reports surfaced that he had kept most of the profit for himself.[9] National Review rebutted the claim that all proceeds of his book went to veterans’ charities. According to reports, around 2 percent – $52,000 – went to the charities while the Kyle's family took $3 million.[10]
Film adaptation[edit]
A film adaptation of the book was released by Warner Bros. and had its world premiere on November 11, 2014, at the American Film Institute Festival, followed by a limited theatrical release in the United States on December 25, 2014. It received a wide release January 16, 2015.[11][12][13]
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ "A Wave of Military Memoirs With You-Are-There Appeal". The New York Times. Retrieved 24 September 2014.
2.Jump up ^ "Nonfiction - Best Sellers - The New York Times". The New York Times. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
3.Jump up ^ "Jesse Ventura's $1.8M award in defamation trial ruled reasonable". St. Paul Pioneer Press. 8 August 2014. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
4.Jump up ^ "Jury awards Jesse Ventura $1.8 million in 'American Sniper' lawsuit". Dallas Morning News. 29 July 2014. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
5.Jump up ^ "Chris Kyle trial: Jesse Ventura wins $1.8 million in defamation case". Oregon Live. Associated Press. 2014-07-29. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
6.Jump up ^ "'American Sniper' widow to appeal Ventura defamation verdict". 23 December 2014. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
7.Jump up ^ "Jesse Ventura v. Taya Kyle". 23 December 2014. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
8.Jump up ^ Holley, Peter (2014-12-16). "Jesse Ventura sues HarperCollins over Chris Kyle’s ‘American Sniper’". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2015-01-14.
9.Jump up ^ Jilani, Zaid (24 January 2015). "7 heinous lies “American Sniper” is telling America". Salon. Alternet. Retrieved 26 January 2015.
10.Jump up ^ Delgado, A. J. (30 July 2013). "Justice for Jesse: Ventura Was Right in His Lawsuit". National Review Online. Retrieved 26 January 2015.
11.Jump up ^ "Warner Bros. Dates 'American Sniper'; Moves 'Point Break', 'an From U.N.C.L.E'". deadline.com. August 12, 2014. Retrieved August 13, 2014.
12.Jump up ^ Ray Subers (January 15, 2015). "Lowest-Grossing Best Picture Nominees Since Category Expansion". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved January 17, 2015.
13.Jump up ^ Ray Subers (January 15, 2015). "Forecast: 'Sniper' Sets Sights on January Record". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved January 17, 2015.
Stub icon This article about a book is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.




  


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American Sniper (film) controversies
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The 2014 film American Sniper, directed by Clint Eastwood, has been criticized by ex-soldiers, film directors, actors and critics, academics, investigative journalists, authors, media figures, political figures, and watchdog groups for its alleged inaccuracies and misleading portrayal of US Navy Seal Chris Kyle.
The controversies involve political, historical, social, cultural, philosophical, moral, religious, racial/ethnic and other aspects of society.


Contents  [hide]
1 Criticism of political, historical, social, cultural, philosophical, moral, religious, and racial aspects of the film
2 Allegations of objectifying Iraqis, and presenting children as legitimate targets
3 Allegations of overly simplistic portrayal of Iraq
4 Allegations of misuse of Christian values
5 Allegations of the film serving as war propaganda
6 Criticism of media coverage of the film
7 Popular/cultural evaluation
8 Eastwood's response
9 References

Criticism of political, historical, social, cultural, philosophical, moral, religious, and racial aspects of the film[edit]
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee said that the release of the movie coincided with increased threats against Arabs and Muslims.[1] It has also accused Eastwood of dishonestly linking the September 11 attacks with Iraq.[2]
Michael Moore tweeted, in response to American Sniper, "My uncle [was] killed by sniper in WW2. We were taught snipers were cowards. Will shoot you in the back. Snipers aren't heroes. And invaders are worse." [sic][3]
Noam Chomsky criticized "what the worship of a movie about a cold-blooded killer says about the American people."[4]
Lindy West of The Guardian wrote: "In his memoir, Kyle reportedly described killing as “fun”, something he “loved”; he was unwavering in his belief that everyone he shot was a “bad guy”. “I hate the damn savages,” he wrote. “I couldn’t give a flying fuck about the Iraqis.”" and: "If he (Eastwood), intentionally or not, makes a hero out of Kyle – who, bare minimum, was a racist who took pleasure in dehumanising and killing brown people – is he responsible for validating racism, murder, and dehumanisation? Is he a propagandist if people use his work as propaganda?"[5]
Zack Beauchamp of Vox felt that the film's greatest sin was condescending "to Americans and American troops by acting as if we could not possibly handle moral ambiguity about America's mission in Iraq. But it did, and that is a disservice not just to film's viewers, but to the millions of Americans who were affected by the war and deserve to have that story told honestly."[6]
John Wight, writing for Russia Today, strongly criticized the film and its reception to date. He said, "The moral depravity into which the US is sinking is shown by American Sniper glorifying the exploits of a racist killer receiving six Oscar nominations, whereas 'Selma' depicting Martin Luther King's struggle against racism has been largely ignored."[7]
Matt Taibbi wrote that "Sniper is a movie whose politics are so ludicrous and idiotic that under normal circumstances it would be beneath criticism" and that "Eastwood plays for cheap applause and goes super-dumb even by Hollywood standards."[8]
Chris Hedges, in an article titled "Killing Ragheads for Jesus", wrote that "American Sniper lionizes the most despicable aspects of U.S. society—the gun culture, the blind adoration of the military, the belief that we have an innate right as a 'Christian' nation to exterminate the 'lesser breeds' of the earth, a grotesque hypermasculinity that banishes compassion and pity, a denial of inconvenient facts and historical truth, and a belittling of critical thinking and artistic expression. Many Americans, especially white Americans trapped in a stagnant economy and a dysfunctional political system, yearn for the supposed moral renewal and rigid, militarized control the movie venerates."[9]
Zaid Jilani of Salon attacked American Sniper '​s inaccuracies, arguing both the film and Kyle's reputation "are all built on a set of half-truths, myths and outright lies."[10]
Max Blumenthal said the film American Sniper is "filled with lies and distortion from start to finish," makes a hero out of "a pathological liar and a mass killer" and promotes falsehoods about Navy SEAL Chris Kyle along with the US invasion and occupation of Iraq. Blumenthal said the film is a "bogus whitewash of the atrocities committed by American troops in Iraq."[11]
Seth Rogen was accused of criticizing the film when he tweeted that the film reminded him of the Nazi sniper propaganda film showing in the third act of Quentin Tarantino's 2009 film Inglourious Basterds. He later stated that he was not criticizing the film but making a comparison.[12][13]
Sophia A. McClennen, a Professor of International Affairs and Comparative Literature at the Pennsylvania State University, said there are "insanities and fantasies at the heart of" American Sniper and that "despite the fact that the film depicts Kyle as a hero and a martyr, the real American sniper was heartless and cruel. Rather than struggle with moral dilemmas as we see in the film, the actual man had no such hesitation and no such conscience. But to focus on American Sniper '​s depiction of Kyle is to miss the larger problems of the film. In addition to sugarcoating Kyle, the film suffers from major myopia — from a complete inability to see the larger picture. And that is why criticism of the film has to look at its director, Clint Eastwood, and the troubling ways he represents a dark, disturbing feature of the GOP mind-set."[14]
Ross Caputi, a former U.S. Marine who participated in the US's second siege of Fallujah, criticized American Sniper, writing that "What American Sniper offers us — more than a heart-wrenching tale about Chris Kyle's struggle to be a soldier, a husband, and a father; more than an action packed story about America's most lethal sniper — is an exposure of the often hidden side of American war culture. The criminality that has characterized American military engagements since the American Indian Wars, and most recently in Iraq and Afghanistan, is hardly noticeable in this film."[15]
Comedian Bill Maher stated "He's a psychopath patriot, and we love him," and "'I hate the damn savages' doesn't seem like a very Christian thing to say," comparing Kyle disfavourably to anti-war general Dwight D. Eisenhower.[16]
Journalist Eamon Murphy wrote on Mondoweiss that "it's hard to know, when watching Eastwood's Iraq War, where doltish film conventions end and rotten politics begins. (Bushism was an awful lot like an idiotic blockbuster in the first place.) The bits of military exposition are outrageously at odds with the facts, but they also sound so hokey it seems almost stupid to object by citing reality."[17]
Peter Maass wrote the film "ignores history" and that the film makes no attempt to provide "anything beyond Kyle’s limited comprehension of what was happening." He added that the movie is "utterly false to the experience of millions of Iraqis and to the historical record. Further, it’s no act of patriotism to celebrate, without context or discussion, a grunt’s view that the people killed in Iraq were animals deserving their six-feet-under fate." Maass also wrote public statements made by Bradley Cooper, the film’s star and co-producer, appear to show Cooper may "fail to understand how war movies operate in popular culture. When a film venerates an American sniper but portrays as sub-human the Iraqis whose country we were occupying—the film has one Iraqi who seems sympathetic but turns out to be hiding a cache of insurgent weapons—it conveys a political message that is flat wrong. Among other things, it ignores and dishonors the scores of thousands of Iraqis who fought alongside American forces and the hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians who were killed or injured in the crossfire." Maass added, "While it is about a certain type of bravery, the film itself is not brave."[18]
Allegations of objectifying Iraqis, and presenting children as legitimate targets[edit]
Janet Weil, a military family member, wrote "And what about the locals? In his brilliant analysis in Reel Bad Arabs, Professor Jack Shaheen gives a sort of taxonomy of Arab male types in popular films — the evil Arab, the silly/horny Arab, the primitive Arab, and the nervous/arrogant Arab. With the exception of the “primitive” type with camels, these stereotypes are on display in “American Sniper,” plus a couple of others I would name “Pitiful Father” and “Kid as Target.” The presentation of children as potential or actual evildoers, and thus “deserving” victims of Kyle’s kill shots, seems to me a sinister new development in American film." ... "The Iraqis that Kyle kills lie flat, literally and metaphorically, like images in a video game, and we hear no one weep for them (with the exception of “The Sheikh,” whose screaming daughter runs to his corpse). One scene briefly shows dogs eating Iraqi corpses. The American dead, by contrast, are pulled at great risk from the battleground, wept over, accompanied in their flag-covered coffins in flights home, and laid to rest in magnificent ceremonies, remembered. The American dead were persons, and they count. The Iraqi dead were objects in a sniper’s scope, and they are counted. That in a nutshell is the message of “American Sniper.”" ... "And the boy in Fallujah with the RPG in his arms? Kyle kills him, and the woman with him. We as audience are asked to ... empathize, not with the boy in the devastated street, but with a “tormented” man becoming a hardened killer, who calls Iraqis “savages” in several scenes." Weil said the movie portrays snipers as protectors, and invaders as "The Good Guys," and that Iraqi children are portrayed as "legitimate targets" ... She further wrote: "I left the movie theater with ... a heavy heart, and the feeling that this is a very dangerous film."[19]
Allegations of overly simplistic portrayal of Iraq[edit]
Janet Weil wrote "The violent battle scenes had, for me, a tedious inevitability that kept me from being pulled in emotionally. What hurt me the most ... was my sense of Iraq being used as backdrop. It’s reduced to a hot, dirty place that “smells like dog shit,” as one Marine says in the opening scene. “This place is evil,” Kyle’s psychologically shattered younger brother, a fellow veteran, tells him as he departs the country. One war-blasted city looks much like another, almost as if a painted stage backdrop representing “Urban War Scene” were just hauled from one scene to the next." ... "Iraq is [portrayed as] battleground and backdrop for American deeds and emotions — nothing more." [20]
Allegations of misuse of Christian values[edit]
Gary Legum wrote that right-wing Christians who think American Sniper embodies Christian values use patriarchal language to defend Chris Kyle in the “clash of civilizations.” Legum further wrote that "... Chris Kyle ... embodied the fanatical, driven purpose of those 10th-century Christians who invaded the Holy Lands and saw slaughtering Muslims by the thousands as their God-given duty. In his autobiography upon which Clint Eastwood’s hit film is based, the self-professed Christian, who had tattooed the Crusader’s red cross on his arm, referred to the Iraqis he was paid to shoot as “savages” and a “savage, despicable evil” who all “deserved to die.” ... Kyle ... or any other militant Christian, can pick and choose whichever passage from the New Testament justifies his own desire to kill for Jesus. Unfortunately it’s us non-believers who still have to live in the world they make."[21]
Allegations of the film serving as war propaganda[edit]
Janet Weil wrote that ""American Sniper" is well acted, slickly produced, and occasionally gripping. It's also war propaganda." She wrote that "Al-Qaeda in Iraq ... is mentioned frequently throughout the film, without one line of dialogue as to how al-Qaeda had penetrated Iraq following the U.S. invasion." ... "How Chris Kyle and hundreds of thousands of other, mostly young Americans came to invade and occupy, wound and be wounded, kill and be killed in Iraq — for what politics, for whose profits — cannot be touched upon in American Sniper. Because to do so would be to move the narrative away from the isolated, tragic white male — that hoary old trope of Western Civ[ilization] — toward something more politically and historically informed, and much less of a money maker." ... "In war propaganda — a huge genre in which American Sniper stands as a well-acted, high-production example — fictional narratives borrow just enough from true-life stories to reinforce already established memes. Cowboy, family man, Navy SEAL, sniper, trainer, author, veteran, celebrity, murderer, and eventually a murder victim of another tormented combat veteran — Chris Kyle was a mystery. American Sniper portrays the life of a flawed “hero” who is also a blank slate on which other Americans can project rage, hatred, and ignorant misconceptions about Iraqis and other Arabs, as well as their — our — many conflicted feelings about war, “the troops,” and veterans." [22]
Criticism of media coverage of the film[edit]
Noam Chomsky criticized American Sniper and the media that he beileves glorifies it. He drew a parallel between Sniper and the US "global assassination campaign, the drone campaign, which officially is aimed at murdering people who are suspected of maybe someday planning to harm us."[23]
Popular/cultural evaluation[edit]
Sheldon Richman commented on the popular/cultural evaluation of Kyle:

Despite what some people think, hero is not a synonym for competent government-hired killer." Richman said if American Sniper launches a frank public conversation about war and heroism, Eastwood will have performed a "badly needed" service. Richman added: "Jeanine Pirro, a Fox News commentator, said, “Chris Kyle was clear as to who the enemy was. They were the ones his government sent him to kill.” Appalling! Kyle was a hero because he eagerly and expertly killed whomever the government told him to kill? Conservatives, supposed advocates of limited government, sure have an odd notion of heroism. Excuse me, but I have trouble seeing an essential difference between what Kyle did in Iraq and what Adam Lanza did at Sandy Hook Elementary School. It certainly was not heroism.



— Sheldon Richman , [24]




Film historian Max Alvarez, in an article titled From Psychopaths to American Hero? A Short History of Sniper Cinema, expressed the view that "It can only be hoped that American Sniper will not set the tone for future Hollywood movies in which “sharpshooters” are portrayed heroically."[25]
Eastwood's response[edit]
Responding to critics that called the film Pro-War on Terror, Pro-Republican and jingoistic, Eastwood said that it is a "stupid analysis" and that the film has nothing to do with political parties. He stated: "I was a child growing up during World War II. That was supposed to be the one to end all wars. And four years later, I was standing at the draft board being drafted during the Korean conflict, and then after that there was Vietnam, and it goes on and on forever ... I just wonder ... does this ever stop? And no, it doesn’t. So each time we get in these conflicts, it deserves a lot of thought before we go wading in or wading out. Going in or coming out. It needs a better thought process, I think."[26] Eastwood called American Sniper "the biggest anti-war statement any film can make," and said that "the fact of what [war] does to the family and the people who have to go back into civilian life like Chris Kyle did" and “what it (war) does to the people left behind." Eastwood further stated: "One of my favorite war movies that I’ve been involved with is Letters from Iwo Jima and that was about family, about being taken away from life, being sent someplace. In World War II, everybody just sort of went home and got over it. Now there is some effort to help people through it."[27]
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/24/american-sniper-anti-muslim-threats_n_6537950.html
2.Jump up ^ http://www.vox.com/2015/1/21/7641189/american-sniper-history
3.Jump up ^ Michael Moore Responds to 'Haters' After 'American Sniper' Uproar (2015-01-25), Rolling Stone. ""Here's the truth they can't or won't report: I'm the one who has supported these troops - much more than the bloviators on Fox News," Moore writes."
4.Jump up ^ "WATCH: Chomsky Blasts 'American Sniper' and the Media that Glorifies It". Alternet.
5.Jump up ^ West, Lindy (6 Jan 2015). "The real American Sniper was a hate-filled killer. Why are simplistic patriots treating him as a hero?". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 Jan 2015.
6.Jump up ^ Beauchamp, Zack (21 Jan 2015). "American Sniper is a dishonest whitewash of the Iraq war". Vox. Retrieved 28 Jan 2015.
7.Jump up ^ Hollywood uses ‘American Sniper’ to destroy history & create myth. John Wight, 23 January 2015. Russia Today Op Edge.
8.Jump up ^ 'American Sniper' is almost too dumb to criticize (2015-01-23), Rolling Stone Magazine
9.Jump up ^ "Killing Ragheads for Jesus", Truthdig
10.Jump up ^ Jilani, Zaid (23 Jan 2015). "7 heinous lies 'American Sniper' is telling America". Salon. Retrieved 25 Jan 2015.
11.Jump up ^ American Sniper: Honoring a Fallen Hero or Whitewashing a Murderous Occupation?, The Real News
12.Jump up ^ Seth Rogen Tweet on 'American Sniper'
13.Jump up ^ American Sniper: anti-Muslim threats skyrocket in wake of film's release. "American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee writes to Bradley Cooper and Clint Eastwood requesting action as threat complaints triple."
14.Jump up ^ “American Sniper’s” biggest lie: Clint Eastwood has a delusional Fox News problem
15.Jump up ^ American Sniper?
16.Jump up ^ Stern, Marlow (24 Jan 2015). "Bill Maher Blasts ‘American Sniper,’ calls Chris Kyle a ‘psychopath patriot’". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 28 Jan 2015.
17.Jump up ^ How a culture remembers its crimes is important: A review of ‘American Sniper’, Mondoweiss
18.Jump up ^ How Clint Eastwood Ignores History in ‘American Sniper’, The Intercept
19.Jump up ^ Gunman As Hero, Children As Targets, Iraq As Backdrop: A Review of ‘American Sniper’, Antiwar.com
20.Jump up ^ Gunman As Hero, Children As Targets, Iraq As Backdrop: A Review of ‘American Sniper’, Antiwar.com
21.Jump up ^ The Right-Wing Christians Who Think 'American Sniper' Embodies Christian Values. "They use patriarchal language to defend the American sniper in the “clash of civilizations.”" Gary Legum, AlterNet
22.Jump up ^ Gunman As Hero, Children As Targets, Iraq As Backdrop: A Review of ‘American Sniper’, Antiwar.com
23.Jump up ^ WATCH: Chomsky Blasts 'American Sniper' and the Media that Glorifies It
24.Jump up ^ Assassin-for-Hire: The American Sniper Was No Hero, CounterPunch
25.Jump up ^ From Psychopaths to American Hero? A Short History of Sniper Cinema, Max Alvarez, CounterPunch
26.Jump up ^ Howell, Peter (January 16, 2015). "Think before you shoot, Clint Eastwood says of war: interview". The Star.
27.Jump up ^ Kilday, Gregg (January 24, 2015). "Clint Eastwood on 'American Sniper's' "Biggest Antiwar Statement"". The Hollywood Reporter.

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American Sniper (film) controversies
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The 2014 film American Sniper, directed by Clint Eastwood, has been criticized by ex-soldiers, film directors, actors and critics, academics, investigative journalists, authors, media figures, political figures, and watchdog groups for its alleged inaccuracies and misleading portrayal of US Navy Seal Chris Kyle.
The controversies involve political, historical, social, cultural, philosophical, moral, religious, racial/ethnic and other aspects of society.


Contents  [hide]
1 Criticism of political, historical, social, cultural, philosophical, moral, religious, and racial aspects of the film
2 Allegations of objectifying Iraqis, and presenting children as legitimate targets
3 Allegations of overly simplistic portrayal of Iraq
4 Allegations of misuse of Christian values
5 Allegations of the film serving as war propaganda
6 Criticism of media coverage of the film
7 Popular/cultural evaluation
8 Eastwood's response
9 References

Criticism of political, historical, social, cultural, philosophical, moral, religious, and racial aspects of the film[edit]
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee said that the release of the movie coincided with increased threats against Arabs and Muslims.[1] It has also accused Eastwood of dishonestly linking the September 11 attacks with Iraq.[2]
Michael Moore tweeted, in response to American Sniper, "My uncle [was] killed by sniper in WW2. We were taught snipers were cowards. Will shoot you in the back. Snipers aren't heroes. And invaders are worse." [sic][3]
Noam Chomsky criticized "what the worship of a movie about a cold-blooded killer says about the American people."[4]
Lindy West of The Guardian wrote: "In his memoir, Kyle reportedly described killing as “fun”, something he “loved”; he was unwavering in his belief that everyone he shot was a “bad guy”. “I hate the damn savages,” he wrote. “I couldn’t give a flying fuck about the Iraqis.”" and: "If he (Eastwood), intentionally or not, makes a hero out of Kyle – who, bare minimum, was a racist who took pleasure in dehumanising and killing brown people – is he responsible for validating racism, murder, and dehumanisation? Is he a propagandist if people use his work as propaganda?"[5]
Zack Beauchamp of Vox felt that the film's greatest sin was condescending "to Americans and American troops by acting as if we could not possibly handle moral ambiguity about America's mission in Iraq. But it did, and that is a disservice not just to film's viewers, but to the millions of Americans who were affected by the war and deserve to have that story told honestly."[6]
John Wight, writing for Russia Today, strongly criticized the film and its reception to date. He said, "The moral depravity into which the US is sinking is shown by American Sniper glorifying the exploits of a racist killer receiving six Oscar nominations, whereas 'Selma' depicting Martin Luther King's struggle against racism has been largely ignored."[7]
Matt Taibbi wrote that "Sniper is a movie whose politics are so ludicrous and idiotic that under normal circumstances it would be beneath criticism" and that "Eastwood plays for cheap applause and goes super-dumb even by Hollywood standards."[8]
Chris Hedges, in an article titled "Killing Ragheads for Jesus", wrote that "American Sniper lionizes the most despicable aspects of U.S. society—the gun culture, the blind adoration of the military, the belief that we have an innate right as a 'Christian' nation to exterminate the 'lesser breeds' of the earth, a grotesque hypermasculinity that banishes compassion and pity, a denial of inconvenient facts and historical truth, and a belittling of critical thinking and artistic expression. Many Americans, especially white Americans trapped in a stagnant economy and a dysfunctional political system, yearn for the supposed moral renewal and rigid, militarized control the movie venerates."[9]
Zaid Jilani of Salon attacked American Sniper '​s inaccuracies, arguing both the film and Kyle's reputation "are all built on a set of half-truths, myths and outright lies."[10]
Max Blumenthal said the film American Sniper is "filled with lies and distortion from start to finish," makes a hero out of "a pathological liar and a mass killer" and promotes falsehoods about Navy SEAL Chris Kyle along with the US invasion and occupation of Iraq. Blumenthal said the film is a "bogus whitewash of the atrocities committed by American troops in Iraq."[11]
Seth Rogen was accused of criticizing the film when he tweeted that the film reminded him of the Nazi sniper propaganda film showing in the third act of Quentin Tarantino's 2009 film Inglourious Basterds. He later stated that he was not criticizing the film but making a comparison.[12][13]
Sophia A. McClennen, a Professor of International Affairs and Comparative Literature at the Pennsylvania State University, said there are "insanities and fantasies at the heart of" American Sniper and that "despite the fact that the film depicts Kyle as a hero and a martyr, the real American sniper was heartless and cruel. Rather than struggle with moral dilemmas as we see in the film, the actual man had no such hesitation and no such conscience. But to focus on American Sniper '​s depiction of Kyle is to miss the larger problems of the film. In addition to sugarcoating Kyle, the film suffers from major myopia — from a complete inability to see the larger picture. And that is why criticism of the film has to look at its director, Clint Eastwood, and the troubling ways he represents a dark, disturbing feature of the GOP mind-set."[14]
Ross Caputi, a former U.S. Marine who participated in the US's second siege of Fallujah, criticized American Sniper, writing that "What American Sniper offers us — more than a heart-wrenching tale about Chris Kyle's struggle to be a soldier, a husband, and a father; more than an action packed story about America's most lethal sniper — is an exposure of the often hidden side of American war culture. The criminality that has characterized American military engagements since the American Indian Wars, and most recently in Iraq and Afghanistan, is hardly noticeable in this film."[15]
Comedian Bill Maher stated "He's a psychopath patriot, and we love him," and "'I hate the damn savages' doesn't seem like a very Christian thing to say," comparing Kyle disfavourably to anti-war general Dwight D. Eisenhower.[16]
Journalist Eamon Murphy wrote on Mondoweiss that "it's hard to know, when watching Eastwood's Iraq War, where doltish film conventions end and rotten politics begins. (Bushism was an awful lot like an idiotic blockbuster in the first place.) The bits of military exposition are outrageously at odds with the facts, but they also sound so hokey it seems almost stupid to object by citing reality."[17]
Peter Maass wrote the film "ignores history" and that the film makes no attempt to provide "anything beyond Kyle’s limited comprehension of what was happening." He added that the movie is "utterly false to the experience of millions of Iraqis and to the historical record. Further, it’s no act of patriotism to celebrate, without context or discussion, a grunt’s view that the people killed in Iraq were animals deserving their six-feet-under fate." Maass also wrote public statements made by Bradley Cooper, the film’s star and co-producer, appear to show Cooper may "fail to understand how war movies operate in popular culture. When a film venerates an American sniper but portrays as sub-human the Iraqis whose country we were occupying—the film has one Iraqi who seems sympathetic but turns out to be hiding a cache of insurgent weapons—it conveys a political message that is flat wrong. Among other things, it ignores and dishonors the scores of thousands of Iraqis who fought alongside American forces and the hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians who were killed or injured in the crossfire." Maass added, "While it is about a certain type of bravery, the film itself is not brave."[18]
Allegations of objectifying Iraqis, and presenting children as legitimate targets[edit]
Janet Weil, a military family member, wrote "And what about the locals? In his brilliant analysis in Reel Bad Arabs, Professor Jack Shaheen gives a sort of taxonomy of Arab male types in popular films — the evil Arab, the silly/horny Arab, the primitive Arab, and the nervous/arrogant Arab. With the exception of the “primitive” type with camels, these stereotypes are on display in “American Sniper,” plus a couple of others I would name “Pitiful Father” and “Kid as Target.” The presentation of children as potential or actual evildoers, and thus “deserving” victims of Kyle’s kill shots, seems to me a sinister new development in American film." ... "The Iraqis that Kyle kills lie flat, literally and metaphorically, like images in a video game, and we hear no one weep for them (with the exception of “The Sheikh,” whose screaming daughter runs to his corpse). One scene briefly shows dogs eating Iraqi corpses. The American dead, by contrast, are pulled at great risk from the battleground, wept over, accompanied in their flag-covered coffins in flights home, and laid to rest in magnificent ceremonies, remembered. The American dead were persons, and they count. The Iraqi dead were objects in a sniper’s scope, and they are counted. That in a nutshell is the message of “American Sniper.”" ... "And the boy in Fallujah with the RPG in his arms? Kyle kills him, and the woman with him. We as audience are asked to ... empathize, not with the boy in the devastated street, but with a “tormented” man becoming a hardened killer, who calls Iraqis “savages” in several scenes." Weil said the movie portrays snipers as protectors, and invaders as "The Good Guys," and that Iraqi children are portrayed as "legitimate targets" ... She further wrote: "I left the movie theater with ... a heavy heart, and the feeling that this is a very dangerous film."[19]
Allegations of overly simplistic portrayal of Iraq[edit]
Janet Weil wrote "The violent battle scenes had, for me, a tedious inevitability that kept me from being pulled in emotionally. What hurt me the most ... was my sense of Iraq being used as backdrop. It’s reduced to a hot, dirty place that “smells like dog shit,” as one Marine says in the opening scene. “This place is evil,” Kyle’s psychologically shattered younger brother, a fellow veteran, tells him as he departs the country. One war-blasted city looks much like another, almost as if a painted stage backdrop representing “Urban War Scene” were just hauled from one scene to the next." ... "Iraq is [portrayed as] battleground and backdrop for American deeds and emotions — nothing more." [20]
Allegations of misuse of Christian values[edit]
Gary Legum wrote that right-wing Christians who think American Sniper embodies Christian values use patriarchal language to defend Chris Kyle in the “clash of civilizations.” Legum further wrote that "... Chris Kyle ... embodied the fanatical, driven purpose of those 10th-century Christians who invaded the Holy Lands and saw slaughtering Muslims by the thousands as their God-given duty. In his autobiography upon which Clint Eastwood’s hit film is based, the self-professed Christian, who had tattooed the Crusader’s red cross on his arm, referred to the Iraqis he was paid to shoot as “savages” and a “savage, despicable evil” who all “deserved to die.” ... Kyle ... or any other militant Christian, can pick and choose whichever passage from the New Testament justifies his own desire to kill for Jesus. Unfortunately it’s us non-believers who still have to live in the world they make."[21]
Allegations of the film serving as war propaganda[edit]
Janet Weil wrote that ""American Sniper" is well acted, slickly produced, and occasionally gripping. It's also war propaganda." She wrote that "Al-Qaeda in Iraq ... is mentioned frequently throughout the film, without one line of dialogue as to how al-Qaeda had penetrated Iraq following the U.S. invasion." ... "How Chris Kyle and hundreds of thousands of other, mostly young Americans came to invade and occupy, wound and be wounded, kill and be killed in Iraq — for what politics, for whose profits — cannot be touched upon in American Sniper. Because to do so would be to move the narrative away from the isolated, tragic white male — that hoary old trope of Western Civ[ilization] — toward something more politically and historically informed, and much less of a money maker." ... "In war propaganda — a huge genre in which American Sniper stands as a well-acted, high-production example — fictional narratives borrow just enough from true-life stories to reinforce already established memes. Cowboy, family man, Navy SEAL, sniper, trainer, author, veteran, celebrity, murderer, and eventually a murder victim of another tormented combat veteran — Chris Kyle was a mystery. American Sniper portrays the life of a flawed “hero” who is also a blank slate on which other Americans can project rage, hatred, and ignorant misconceptions about Iraqis and other Arabs, as well as their — our — many conflicted feelings about war, “the troops,” and veterans." [22]
Criticism of media coverage of the film[edit]
Noam Chomsky criticized American Sniper and the media that he beileves glorifies it. He drew a parallel between Sniper and the US "global assassination campaign, the drone campaign, which officially is aimed at murdering people who are suspected of maybe someday planning to harm us."[23]
Popular/cultural evaluation[edit]
Sheldon Richman commented on the popular/cultural evaluation of Kyle:

Despite what some people think, hero is not a synonym for competent government-hired killer." Richman said if American Sniper launches a frank public conversation about war and heroism, Eastwood will have performed a "badly needed" service. Richman added: "Jeanine Pirro, a Fox News commentator, said, “Chris Kyle was clear as to who the enemy was. They were the ones his government sent him to kill.” Appalling! Kyle was a hero because he eagerly and expertly killed whomever the government told him to kill? Conservatives, supposed advocates of limited government, sure have an odd notion of heroism. Excuse me, but I have trouble seeing an essential difference between what Kyle did in Iraq and what Adam Lanza did at Sandy Hook Elementary School. It certainly was not heroism.



— Sheldon Richman , [24]




Film historian Max Alvarez, in an article titled From Psychopaths to American Hero? A Short History of Sniper Cinema, expressed the view that "It can only be hoped that American Sniper will not set the tone for future Hollywood movies in which “sharpshooters” are portrayed heroically."[25]
Eastwood's response[edit]
Responding to critics that called the film Pro-War on Terror, Pro-Republican and jingoistic, Eastwood said that it is a "stupid analysis" and that the film has nothing to do with political parties. He stated: "I was a child growing up during World War II. That was supposed to be the one to end all wars. And four years later, I was standing at the draft board being drafted during the Korean conflict, and then after that there was Vietnam, and it goes on and on forever ... I just wonder ... does this ever stop? And no, it doesn’t. So each time we get in these conflicts, it deserves a lot of thought before we go wading in or wading out. Going in or coming out. It needs a better thought process, I think."[26] Eastwood called American Sniper "the biggest anti-war statement any film can make," and said that "the fact of what [war] does to the family and the people who have to go back into civilian life like Chris Kyle did" and “what it (war) does to the people left behind." Eastwood further stated: "One of my favorite war movies that I’ve been involved with is Letters from Iwo Jima and that was about family, about being taken away from life, being sent someplace. In World War II, everybody just sort of went home and got over it. Now there is some effort to help people through it."[27]
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/24/american-sniper-anti-muslim-threats_n_6537950.html
2.Jump up ^ http://www.vox.com/2015/1/21/7641189/american-sniper-history
3.Jump up ^ Michael Moore Responds to 'Haters' After 'American Sniper' Uproar (2015-01-25), Rolling Stone. ""Here's the truth they can't or won't report: I'm the one who has supported these troops - much more than the bloviators on Fox News," Moore writes."
4.Jump up ^ "WATCH: Chomsky Blasts 'American Sniper' and the Media that Glorifies It". Alternet.
5.Jump up ^ West, Lindy (6 Jan 2015). "The real American Sniper was a hate-filled killer. Why are simplistic patriots treating him as a hero?". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 Jan 2015.
6.Jump up ^ Beauchamp, Zack (21 Jan 2015). "American Sniper is a dishonest whitewash of the Iraq war". Vox. Retrieved 28 Jan 2015.
7.Jump up ^ Hollywood uses ‘American Sniper’ to destroy history & create myth. John Wight, 23 January 2015. Russia Today Op Edge.
8.Jump up ^ 'American Sniper' is almost too dumb to criticize (2015-01-23), Rolling Stone Magazine
9.Jump up ^ "Killing Ragheads for Jesus", Truthdig
10.Jump up ^ Jilani, Zaid (23 Jan 2015). "7 heinous lies 'American Sniper' is telling America". Salon. Retrieved 25 Jan 2015.
11.Jump up ^ American Sniper: Honoring a Fallen Hero or Whitewashing a Murderous Occupation?, The Real News
12.Jump up ^ Seth Rogen Tweet on 'American Sniper'
13.Jump up ^ American Sniper: anti-Muslim threats skyrocket in wake of film's release. "American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee writes to Bradley Cooper and Clint Eastwood requesting action as threat complaints triple."
14.Jump up ^ “American Sniper’s” biggest lie: Clint Eastwood has a delusional Fox News problem
15.Jump up ^ American Sniper?
16.Jump up ^ Stern, Marlow (24 Jan 2015). "Bill Maher Blasts ‘American Sniper,’ calls Chris Kyle a ‘psychopath patriot’". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 28 Jan 2015.
17.Jump up ^ How a culture remembers its crimes is important: A review of ‘American Sniper’, Mondoweiss
18.Jump up ^ How Clint Eastwood Ignores History in ‘American Sniper’, The Intercept
19.Jump up ^ Gunman As Hero, Children As Targets, Iraq As Backdrop: A Review of ‘American Sniper’, Antiwar.com
20.Jump up ^ Gunman As Hero, Children As Targets, Iraq As Backdrop: A Review of ‘American Sniper’, Antiwar.com
21.Jump up ^ The Right-Wing Christians Who Think 'American Sniper' Embodies Christian Values. "They use patriarchal language to defend the American sniper in the “clash of civilizations.”" Gary Legum, AlterNet
22.Jump up ^ Gunman As Hero, Children As Targets, Iraq As Backdrop: A Review of ‘American Sniper’, Antiwar.com
23.Jump up ^ WATCH: Chomsky Blasts 'American Sniper' and the Media that Glorifies It
24.Jump up ^ Assassin-for-Hire: The American Sniper Was No Hero, CounterPunch
25.Jump up ^ From Psychopaths to American Hero? A Short History of Sniper Cinema, Max Alvarez, CounterPunch
26.Jump up ^ Howell, Peter (January 16, 2015). "Think before you shoot, Clint Eastwood says of war: interview". The Star.
27.Jump up ^ Kilday, Gregg (January 24, 2015). "Clint Eastwood on 'American Sniper's' "Biggest Antiwar Statement"". The Hollywood Reporter.

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American Sniper (film)
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American Sniper
Chris Kyle is wearing desert fatigues army outfit, his wife Taya embraces him. They are standing in front of a tattered US flag.
Theatrical release poster

Directed by
Clint Eastwood
Produced by
Clint Eastwood
Robert Lorenz
Andrew Lazar
Bradley Cooper
Peter Morgan

Written by
Jason Hall
Based on
American Sniper
 by Chris Kyle
 Scott McEwen
 Jim DeFelice
Starring
Bradley Cooper
Sienna Miller

Cinematography
Tom Stern
Edited by
Joel Cox
Gary D. Roach


Production
 company

Village Roadshow Pictures
Mad Chance Productions
22nd & Indiana Pictures
Malpaso Productions

Distributed by
Warner Bros. Pictures

Release dates

November 11, 2014 (AFI Fest)
December 25, 2014 (limited release)
January 16, 2015 (worldwide release)


Running time
 133 minutes[1][2]
Country
United States
Language
English
Budget
$58.8 million[3][4][5]
Box office
$316.2 million[3]
American Sniper is a 2014 American biographical war drama film[6] directed by Clint Eastwood and written by Jason Hall. It is based on the book American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History by Chris Kyle, with Scott McEwen and Jim DeFelice. With 255 kills, 160 of which were officially confirmed by the Department of Defense, Kyle is the deadliest marksman in U.S. military history. The film stars Bradley Cooper as Kyle and Sienna Miller as his wife Taya, with Luke Grimes, Kyle Gallner, Sam Jaeger, Jake McDorman and Cory Hardrict in supporting roles.
The world premiere was on November 11, 2014, at the American Film Institute Festival, followed by a limited theatrical release in the United States on December 25, 2014 and a wide release on January 16, 2015. The film was a huge financial success at the box office setting numerous box office records. It is currently the highest-grossing war film in North America, the sixth highest-grossing film of 2014 in North America and the 30th highest-grossing film of 2014 worldwide as well as Eastwood's most successful film to date.
The film received positive reviews from critics, but has faced criticism from other writers for its controversial portrayal of Kyle. At the 87th Academy Awards, American Sniper received six nominations, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Actor for Cooper.


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production 3.1 Casting
3.2 Filming
3.3 Music
4 Reception 4.1 Box office 4.1.1 Premiere and limited release
4.1.2 Wide release
4.1.3 Other territories
4.2 Critical response
4.3 Controversies
5 Accolades
6 See also
7 References
8 External links

Plot[edit]
Growing up in Texas, Chris Kyle's father teaches him how to hunt deer and shoot a rifle. Years later, Kyle is a rodeo cowboy when he sees news coverage of the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings and decides to enlist in the U.S. Navy, where he is eventually accepted for SEAL training, becoming a U.S. Navy SEAL sniper.
Kyle meets Taya Renae at a bar, they marry, and he is sent to Iraq after the September 11 attacks of 2001. His first kills are of a woman and boy who attack U.S. Marines with a grenade. Kyle is visibly upset by the experience, but earns the nickname "Legend" for his many kills. He is assigned to hunt for the al-Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. During house-to-house searches in evacuated areas, Kyle interrogates a family and for $100,000 the father offers to lead the SEALs to "The Butcher", second-in-command to al-Zarqawi, and whose favorite torture device is a drill. The plan goes awry when The Butcher captures the father and son and they are both killed while Kyle is pinned down by a sniper using an SVD. Meanwhile, the insurgents issue a bounty on Kyle.
Kyle returns home to his wife and the birth of his son. He is distracted by memories of his war experiences, and argues with Taya over bootleg footage of U.S. Marines shot dead by enemy sniper "savages". Taya expresses her concern for them as a couple and wishes Kyle would focus on his home and family.
Kyle leaves for a second tour, promoted to Chief Petty Officer. He is involved in a shoot out with The Butcher who is located operating out of a ground floor restaurant.
Kyle returns home from his second tour to a newborn daughter, and he is increasingly distant from his family. On his third tour, a unit member is seriously injured by the Dragunov sniper and the unit is evacuated back to base. The unit decides to return to the field and continue the mission. Another SEAL is killed by gunfire, compelling Kyle with guilt and duty to undertake a fourth tour. Taya does not understand his decision, tells him she needs him, and for a moment, implies that they should stay apart.
On tour four, the SVD-using expert insurgent sniper is identified as "Mustafa", and Kyle is assigned to take him out. Mustafa has been sniping U.S. Army combat engineers building a barricade. Kyle's sniper team is placed on a rooftop inside enemy territory. Kyle spots Mustafa, takes him out with a risky long distance shot at 2100 yards (the 8th longest sniper kill ever recorded), and exposes his team position to a large number of armed insurgents. In the midst of the firefight and low on ammunition, Kyle calls Taya and tells her he is ready to come home. A sandstorm provides cover for their chaotic escape in which Kyle is injured and almost left behind.
Kyle returns home, on edge and unable to adjust fully to civilian life. He tells a Veterans Affairs psychiatrist he is "haunted by all the guys he couldn't save". The psychiatrist encourages him to help wounded veterans in the VA hospital. Kyle meets veterans who suffered severe injuries, coaches them at a shooting range in the woods, and gradually begins to adjust to home life.
Years later, on February 2, 2013, Kyle, playful and happy, says goodbye to his wife and family as he leaves to spend time with a veteran at a shooting range. On-screen subtitles reveal: "Kyle was killed that day by a veteran he was trying to help," followed by stock footage of thousands of people standing in line along the highway for his funeral procession. Thousands more are shown attending Cowboys Stadium for his memorial service.
Cast[edit]
Bradley Cooper as Chris Kyle[7]
Sienna Miller as Taya Renae Kyle[8]
Max Charles as Colton Kyle[9]
Luke Grimes as Marc Lee[10]
Kyle Gallner as Goat-Winston[11]
Sam Jaeger as Captain Martens[12]
Jake McDorman as Ryan "Biggles" Job[13]
Cory Hardrict as 'D' / Dandridge[14]
Navid Negahban as Sheikh Al-Obodi[15]
Eric Close as DIA Agent Snead[15]
Eric Ladin as Squirrel[15]
Rey Gallegos as Tony[15]
Kevin Lacz as Dauber[16]
Brian Hallisay as Captain Gillespie
Ben Reed as Wayne Kyle
Elise Robertson as Debby Kyle
Keir O'Donnell as Jeff Kyle
Marnette Patterson as Sarah
Leonard Roberts as Instructor Roll
Sammy Sheik as Mustafa
Mido Hamada as The Butcher
Production[edit]
On May 24, 2012, it was announced that Warner Bros. had acquired the rights to the book with Bradley Cooper set to produce and star in the screen adaptation.[7] Cooper had thought of Chris Pratt to play Kyle but WB agreed to buy it only if Cooper would star.[17] September 2012, David O. Russell stated that he was interested in directing the film.[18] On May 2, 2013, it was announced that Steven Spielberg would direct.[19] Spielberg had read Kyle's book, though he desired to have a more psychological conflict present in the screenplay so an "enemy sniper" character can serve as the insurgent sharpshooter who was trying to track down and kill Kyle. Spielberg's ideas contributed to the development of a lengthy screenplay approaching 160 pages. Due to Warner Bros.' budget constraints, Spielberg felt he could not bring his vision of the story to the screen.[4] On August 5, 2013, Spielberg dropped out of directing.[20] On August 21, 2013, it was reported that Clint Eastwood would instead direct the film.[21]
Casting[edit]
On March 14, 2014, Sienna Miller joined the cast.[8] On March 16, 2014, Kyle Gallner was cast[11] and March 18, 2014, Cory Hardrict was cast in the film.[14] On March 20, 2014, Navid Negahban, Eric Close, Eric Ladin, Rey Gallegos, and Jake McDorman also joined the cast,[13][15] as did Luke Grimes and Sam Jaeger on March 25, 2014.[10][12] Kevin Lacz, a former Navy SEAL, was also cast and served as a technical advisor.[16] Another former Navy SEAL, Joel Lambert, also joined the film, portraying a Delta sniper.[22] On June 3, Max Charles was added to the cast to portray Kyle's son, Colton Kyle.[9]
Filming[edit]
Principal photography began on March 31, 2014 in Los Angeles;[23] it was also partly shot in Morocco.[24] On April 23, the Los Angeles Times reported that ten days of filming set in an Afghan village was set to begin at the Blue Cloud Movie Ranch in the Santa Clarita area.[25] On May 7, shooting of the film was spotted around El Centro; a milk factory was used as the abandoned date factory which insurgents close in on from all directions at the climax of the film.[26][27] Later on May 14, Cooper was spotted filming some scenes in Culver City, California,[28] and then he followed by shooting scenes again in Los Angeles on May 16.[29] On May 30, Cooper and Miller were spotted during the filming of their characters' wedding scenes; they were filming aboard a yacht in Marina del Rey.[30] On June 3, Cooper was spotted in the uniform of a Navy SEAL marksman aiming during the filming of some scenes at a Los Angeles shooting range.[31] The pier and bar scenes were filmed in Seal Beach, California.[32]
Cinematographer Tom Stern shot the film with Arri Alexa XT digital cameras and Panavision C-, E- and G-Series anamorphic lenses.[33] The film is Eastwood's second to be shot digitally, after Jersey Boys.[34]
Music[edit]
There is no "Music by" credit on this film. Composer and music editor Joseph S. DeBeasi is credited as composer of additional music, and Clint Eastwood, who has composed the scores for most of his films since Mystic River (2003), is credited as the composer of "Taya's theme".[35][36]
Reception[edit]
Box office[edit]



"The movie has become a cultural phenomenon...It tore apart the record book and not by a little. By an enormous amount."
Dan Fellman, head of domestic distribution at Warner Bros., commenting on the film's massive box office success.[37]
As of February 2, 2015, American Sniper had grossed $248,942,000 in North America and $67,300,000 in other territories for a worldwide total of $316,242,000, against a budget of $60 million. This is Eastwood's highest-grossing film to date. It is also the highest-grossing war film in North America unadjusted for inflation. However, on an adjusted basis it stands behind Saving Private Ryan ($379 million) and Pearl Harbor ($291 million).[38]
Premiere and limited release[edit]
American Sniper premiered at the AFI Fest on November 11, 2014, just after a screening of Selma at Grauman's Egyptian Theatre in Los Angeles.[39] In North America, the film opened to a limited release on December 25, 2014, playing at four theaters — two in New York, one in Los Angeles, and one in Dallas — and earned $610,000 in its opening weekend ($850,000 including Christmas Day) at an average of $152,500 per venue debuting at #22.[40][41] The following week the film earned $676,909 playing at the same number of locations at an average of $169,277 per theater, which is the second-biggest weekend average ever for a live-action movie (previously held by 2001's Moulin Rouge!).[42] American Sniper holds the record for the most entries in the top 20 Top Weekend Theater Averages with 3 entries. It earned a total of $3.4 million from limited release in three weekends.[43]
Wide release[edit]
Fandango reported that the film accounted for more than 70% of their pre-ticket sales. The film was also outselling 2013's Lone Survivor, a similar war drama based film.[44] Preliminary reports indicated that the film could open to $45 million to $50 million over the four-day Martin Luther King weekend.[45][5] Following the announcement that the film was nominated for six Oscars at the 87th Academy Awards (including Best Picture and Best actor for Cooper), critics raised their projection to a $55—$61 million three day opening and a $70+ million four day opening.[46][47][48]
The film began its wide debut across North American theaters on January 16, 2015 (Thursday night showings began at 7:00 pm).[49] It set an all-time highest Thursday night opening record for a R-rated drama with $5.3 million (previously held by Lone Survivor with $1.9 million).[50][51][52] The film topped the box office on its opening day grossing $30.5 million (including Thursday previews) from 3,555 theaters setting January records for both biggest debut opening (previously held by Cloverfield) and single-day gross (previously held by Avatar).[53][54][55] In its traditional three-day opening the film earned $89.2 million which was double than expected and broke the record for the largest January opening (previously held by Ride Along with $41.5 million)[56] and the largest winter opening,[57] which is also Eastwood's top opening as a director surpassing Gran Torino '​s $29.5 million opening.[58] The three-day opening is also the biggest opening weekend for a drama film (previously held by The Passion of the Christ with $83 million),[59] the second biggest debut for a Best Picture Oscar nominee (behind Toy Story 3 with $109 million),[60] the second biggest debut for an R-rated film (behind The Matrix: Reloaded with $91.8 million), and the second biggest for a non-comic book, non-fantasy/sci-fi film (behind Fast and Furious 6 with $97.3 million).[61][60] It also set an IMAX opening record with $9.5 million ($11.5 million from Friday to Monday) beating Fox's Prometheus, which made $9 million in 2012.[62] It earned $107.2 million during its four-day Martin Luther King weekend setting a record for the biggest R-rated four day gross.[63]
In its second weekend, the film expanded to 3,705 theaters making it the widest launch for an R-rated movie.[64][65] It grossed an estimated $64.6 million in its second weekend, declining only by 28%—and set the record for the second-best hold ever for a movie opening to more than $85 million and also set the record for the eight largest second-weekend gross.[66][67] In just 10 days of release, the film surpassed Pearl Harbor ($198.5 million) to became the second highest-grossing war film in North America.[68] By its second weekend, Box Office Mojo had already reported that the film was on poise to become the highest-grossing film of 2014 in North America, a record that is currently held by The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 ($334 million), judging from its gradual decline and strong holdovers.[69] It became the highest-grossing IMAX film of January grossing $18.8 million from 333 IMAX theaters.[70] On Thursday, January 29, 2015 — 35 days after its initial release, the film surpassed Saving Private Ryan ($216.5 million) to become the highest-grossing war film in North America, unadjusted for inflation.[71]
By its third weekend of wide release, the film expanded to 3,885 theaters (180 additional theaters added), breaking its own record of being the widest R-rated film ever released.[72][73] The film topped the box office through its third weekend earning $31.8 million and set the record for highest Super Bowl weekend gross (overtaking Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert '​s $31.1 million gross).[74]
Other territories[edit]
In Italy, the film was released on December 31, 2014 and earned $6.72 million (Dealine reported $7.1 million) in its opening weekend.[75][76][77]
For the weekend of January 16, 2015, the film expanded in to seven new markets and earned an estimated $9.3 million.[78] This includes $3.8 million in United Kingdom, which is Clint Eastwood's biggest debut ever in that region, $1.2 million in South Korea and $291,149 in New Zealand.[77] Australia opened with $4 million ($4.3 million including previews).[79]
For the three day weekend of January 30, 2015, the film added $11.1 million, which brings its total to $67.3 million in other territories till date.[80]
Critical response[edit]
American Sniper received positive response from critics. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a "Certified Fresh" rating of 73%, based on 210 reviews from critics, with an average rating of 6.9/10. The site's consensus states, "Powered by Clint Eastwood's sure-handed direction and a gripping central performance from Bradley Cooper, American Sniper delivers a tense, vivid tribute to its real-life subject."[81] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 72 out of 100, based on reviews from 47 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[82] In CinemaScore polls conducted during the opening weekend, cinema audiences gave American Sniper a rare grade of A+ on an A+ to F scale.[83]
Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter wrote: "A taut, vivid and sad account of the brief life of the most accomplished marksman in American military annals, American Sniper feels very much like a companion piece—in subject, theme and quality—to The Hurt Locker."[84] Justin Chang of Variety gave the film a positive review, saying "Hard-wiring the viewer into Kyle’s battle-scarred psyche thanks to an excellent performance from a bulked-up Bradley Cooper, this harrowing and intimate character study offers fairly blunt insights into the physical and psychological toll exacted on the front lines, yet strikes even its familiar notes with a sobering clarity that finds the 84-year-old filmmaker in very fine form."[85] David Denby of The New Yorker gave the film a positive review, saying "Both a devastating war movie and a devastating antiwar movie, a subdued celebration of a warrior's skill and a sorrowful lament over his alienation and misery."[86] Chris Nashawaty of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a C+, saying "The film's just a repetition of context-free combat missions and one-dimensional targets."[87] Elizabeth Weitzman of New York Daily News gave the film four out of five stars, saying "The best movies are ever-shifting, intelligent and open-hearted enough to expand alongside an audience. American Sniper, Clint Eastwood's harrowing meditation on war, is built on this foundation of uncommon compassion."[88] Amy Nicholson of LA Weekly gave the film a C-, saying "Cautiously, Eastwood has chosen to omit Kyle's self-mythologizing altogether, which is itself a distortion of his character. We're not watching a biopic."[89] Kyle Smith of the New York Post gave the film four out of five stars, saying "After 40 years of Hollywood counterpropaganda telling us war is necessarily corrupting and malign, its ablest practitioners thugs, loons or victims, American Sniper nobly presents the case for the other side."[90]
Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave the film three and a half stars out of four, saying "Bradley Cooper, as Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, and director Eastwood salute Kyle's patriotism best by not denying its toll. Their targets are clearly in sight, and their aim is true."[91] Ignatiy Vishnevetsky of The A.V. Club gave the film a B, saying "American Sniper is imperfect and at times a little corny, but also ambivalent and complicated in ways that are uniquely Eastwoodian."[92] James Berardinelli of ReelViews gave the film three and a half stars out of four, saying "American Sniper lifts director Clint Eastwood out of the doldrums that have plagued his last few films."[93] Rafer Guzman of Newsday gave the film three out of four stars, saying "Cooper nails the role of an American killing machine in Clint Eastwood's clear-eyed look at the Iraq War."[94] Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times gave the film a positive review, saying "Eastwood's impeccably crafted action sequences so catch us up in the chaos of combat we are almost not aware that we're watching a film at all."[95] Claudia Puig of USA Today gave the film three out of four stars, saying "It's clearly Cooper's show. Substantially bulked up and affecting a believable Texas drawl, Cooper embodies Kyle's confidence, intensity and vulnerability."[96] Joshua Rothkopf of Time Out New York gave the film four out of five stars, saying "Just as only Nixon could go to China, only Clint Eastwood could make a movie about an Iraq War veteran and infuse it with doubts, mission anxiety and ruination."[97] Inkoo Kang of The Wrap gave the film a negative review, saying "Director Clint Eastwood‘s focus on Kyle is so tight that no other character, including wife Taya (Sienna Miller), comes through as a person, and the scope so narrow that the film engages only superficially with the many moral issues surrounding the Iraq War."[98]
Controversies[edit]
Main article: American Sniper (film) controversies
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee said that the release of the movie coincided with increased threats against Arabs and Muslims.[99] It and others have also accused Eastwood of dishonestly linking the September 11 attacks with Iraq.[100] Matt Taibbi criticized American Sniper for its portrayal of politics.[101] Chris Hedges criticized the film for lionizing the gun culture and promoting the blind adoration of the military.[102] Zaid Jilani in Salon, quoting Kyle's autobiography, argued that both the film and Kyle's reputation were not credible.[103] Max Blumenthal stated that the film is "filled with lies and distortion from start to finish".[104] Noam Chomsky and Bill Maher criticized Kyle's popularity with film audiences.[105][106] Sarah Pulliam Bailey of The Washington Post criticized the sentiments expressed in quotes taken from Kyle.[107] Zack Beauchamp of Vox wrote that the film's greatest sin was its condescending tone.[108] Several other articles have also been critical about the movie.[109][110][111][112][113][114][115]
Responding to critics that considered the film as excessively violent, as celebrating war, killing, and as jingoistic, Eastwood said that it is a stupid analysis and that the film has nothing to do with political parties. He stated: "I was a child growing up during World War II. That was supposed to be the one to end all wars. And four years later, I was standing at the draft board being drafted during the Korean conflict, and then after that there was Vietnam, and it goes on and on forever ... I just wonder ... does this ever stop? And no, it doesn’t. So each time we get in these conflicts, it deserves a lot of thought before we go wading in or wading out. Going in or coming out. It needs a better thought process, I think."[116] Eastwood called American Sniper "the biggest anti-war statement any film can make," and said that "the fact of what [war] does to the family and the people who have to go back into civilian life like Chris Kyle did" and “what it (war) does to the people left behind.” Eastwood further stated: "One of my favorite war movies that I’ve been involved with is Letters from Iwo Jima and that was about family, about being taken away from life, being sent someplace. In World War II, everybody just sort of went home and got over it. Now there is some effort to help people through it."[117]
First Lady Michelle Obama was quoted on American Sniper: "The number-one movie in America right now is a complex, emotional depiction of a veteran and his family. And while I know there have been critics, I felt that, more often than not, this film touches on many of the emotions and experiences that I've heard firsthand from military families over these past few years. This movie reflects those wrenching stories that I've heard — the complex journeys that our men and women in uniform endure. The complicated moral decisions they are tasked with every day. The stresses of balancing love of family with a love of country. And the challenges of transitioning back home to their next mission in life. And here’s why a movie like this is important: see, the vast majority of Americans will never see these stories. They will never grasp these issues on an emotional level without portrayals like this."[118][119]
Accolades[edit]



List of awards and nomianations

Award / Film festival
Category
Recipients
Result

Academy Awards[120] Best Picture Clint Eastwood, Robert Lorenz, Andrew Lazar, Bradley Cooper, Peter Morgan Pending
Best Actor Bradley Cooper Pending
Best Adapted Screenplay Jason Hall Pending
Best Film Editing Joel Cox and Gary D. Roach Pending
Best Sound Editing Alan Robert Murray and Bub Asman Pending
Best Sound Mixing John T. Reitz, Gregg Rudloff and Walt Martin Pending
Art Directors Guild Awards[121] Excellence in Production Design for a Contemporary Film James J. Murakami, Charisse Cardenas Nominated
ACE Eddie Awards[122] Best Edited Feature Film – Dramatic Joel Cox and Gary D. Roach Nominated
American Film Institute Awards 2014[123] Top Ten Films of the Year  Won
British Academy Film Awards[124] Best Adapted Screenplay Jason Hall Pending
Best Sound Walt Martin, John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff, Alan Robert Murray, Bub Asman Pending
Cinema Audio Society Awards[125] Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing for a Motion Picture – Live Action Walt Martin, Gregg Rudloff, John Reitz, Robert Fernandez, Thomas J. O’Connell, James Ashwell Pending
Critics' Choice Award[126] Best Action Movie American Sniper Nominated
Best Actor in an Action Movie Bradley Cooper Won
Denver Film Critics Society[127][128] Best Picture American Sniper Won
Best Director Clint Eastwood Nominated
Best Actor Bradley Cooper (tied with Ralph Fiennes in The Grand Budapest Hotel) Won
Best Supporting Actress Sienna Miller Nominated
Best Adapted Screenplay Jason Hall Nominated
Best Cinematography Tom Stern Nominated
Directors Guild of America Award[129] Outstanding Directing – Feature Film Clint Eastwood Pending
Iowa Film Critics[130] Best Movie Yet to Open in Iowa American Sniper (tied with A Most Violent Year) Won
MPSE Golden Reel Awards[131] Feature English Language - Effects/Foley Bub Asman, Alan Robert Murray Pending
National Board of Review[132] Top Ten Film  Won
Best Director Clint Eastwood Won
Producers Guild of America Awards[133] Best Theatrical Motion Picture Bradley Cooper, Clint Eastwood, Andrew Lazar, Robert Lorenz, Peter Morgan Nominated
Writers Guild of America Awards[134] Best Adapted Screenplay Jason Hall Pending

See also[edit]
List of films featuring the United States Navy SEALs
References[edit]
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67.Jump up ^ Anthony D'Alessandro (January 26, 2015). "‘American Sniper’ Higher In Actuals With $200.4M, Oscar Fare Surging – Monday Final Box Office". Deadline.com. Retrieved January 27, 2015.
68.Jump up ^ Pamela McClintock (January 25, 2015). "Box Office: 'American Sniper' Hits Stunning $200M; Johnny Depp Fizzles". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved January 16, 2015.
69.Jump up ^ Ray Subers (January 25, 2015). "Weekend Report: 'Sniper' Scores Stunning $64 Million in Second Weekend". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved January 27, 2015.
70.Jump up ^ David Lieberman (January 27, 2015). "IMAX Stock Buoyed By ‘Mission: Impossible’ Switch And Box Office Sales". Deadline.com. Retrieved January 30, 2015.
71.Jump up ^ Linda Ge (January 30, 2015). "‘American Sniper’ Overtakes ‘Saving Private Ryan’ as No. 1 Domestic Grossing War Movie of All Time". The Wrap. Retrieved January 31, 2015.
72.Jump up ^ Dave McNarry (January 28, 2015). "Box Office: ‘American Sniper’ to Dominate Super Bowl Weekend with $35 Million". Variety. Retrieved January 29, 2015.
73.Jump up ^ Anthony D'Alessandro (January 28, 2015). "Super Bowl Won’t Sideline ‘American Sniper': Box Office Preview". Deadline.com. Retrieved January 29, 2015.
74.Jump up ^ Brent Lang (February 1, 2015). "Box Office: ‘American Sniper’ Sets Super Bowl Weekend Record With $31.8 Million". Variety. Retrieved February 1, 2015.
75.Jump up ^ Nancy Tartaglione (January 4, 2015). "‘Hobbit’ Passes $500M; ‘American Sniper’, ‘Taken 3′ Skillful: Intl Box Office Update". Deadline.com. Retrieved January 5, 2015.
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77.^ Jump up to: a b "American Sniper International Box Office". boxofficemojo.com. IMDB. Retrieved January 22, 2015.
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79.Jump up ^ Nancy Tartaglione (January 25, 2015). "‘Hobbit’ Storms China; ‘Sniper’ Takes Out More Records: International Box Office". Deadline.com. Retrieved January 26, 2015.
80.Jump up ^ Subers, Ray. "Around-the-World Roundup: 'Hobbit' Hits $900 Million Worldwide". boxofficemojo.com. IMDB. Retrieved February 2, 2015.
81.Jump up ^ "American Sniper". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved January 30, 2015.
82.Jump up ^ "American Sniper Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved January 29, 2015.
83.Jump up ^ Jenelle Riley (January 8, 2015). "Can Box Office Help ‘American Sniper,’ ‘Unbroken’ Win Over Academy Voters?". Variety. Retrieved January 17, 2015.
84.Jump up ^ Todd McCarthy. "'American Sniper': AFI Fest Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved December 26, 2014.
85.Jump up ^ Justin Chang. "‘American Sniper’ Review: Bradley Cooper Stars in Clint Eastwood’s Powerful War Movie". Variety. Retrieved December 26, 2014.
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94.Jump up ^ Rafer Guzman. "'American Sniper' review: Bradley Cooper nails the role". Newsday.
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96.Jump up ^ Claudia Puig (December 23, 2014). "Bradley Cooper's aim is true in 'American Sniper'". USA Today. Retrieved December 26, 2014.
97.Jump up ^ Joshua Rothkopf. "American Sniper". Time Out New York. Retrieved December 26, 2014.
98.Jump up ^ Inkoo Kang. "'American Sniper' Review: War Plays Out Like a Video Game in Clint Eastwood's Navy SEAL Biopic". TheWrap. Retrieved December 26, 2014.
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103.Jump up ^ Jilani, Zaid (23 Jan 2015). "7 heinous lies 'American Sniper' is telling America". Salon. Retrieved 25 Jan 2015.
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107.Jump up ^ Pulliam Bailey, Sarah (14 Jan 2015). "Here’s the faith in the ‘American Sniper’ you won’t see in the film". The Washington Post. Retrieved 1 Feb 2015.
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109.Jump up ^ Jet, Dennis (13 Jan 2015). "The Real 'American Sniper' Had No Remorse About the Iraqis He Killed". New Republic. Retrieved 31 Jan 2015.
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119.Jump up ^ "First Lady Michelle Obama Offers Praise for ‘American Sniper’". Variety. 30 January 2015. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
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121.Jump up ^ "'Birdman', 'Foxcatcher' Among Art Directors Guild Nominees". Deadline.com. January 5, 2015. Retrieved January 5, 2015.
122.Jump up ^ "‘American Sniper,’ ‘Boyhood,’ ‘Gone Girl’ Among ACE Eddie Award Nominees (FULL LIST)". Variety. January 2, 2015. Retrieved January 2, 2015.
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124.Jump up ^ "BAFTA Nominations: ‘Grand Budapest Hotel’ Leads With 11 – Full List". Deadline.com. January 8, 2015. Retrieved January 9, 2015.
125.Jump up ^ "Cinema Audio Society Nominates 'American Sniper,' 'True Detective' and More". Indiewire. January 13, 2015. Retrieved January 13, 2015.
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128.Jump up ^ "Denver critics name Clint Eastwood's 'American Sniper' the year's best film". Hitfix. January 12, 2015. Retrieved January 12, 2015.
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134.Jump up ^ "Writers Guild Awards Nominations: 'Whiplash', 'Gone Girl', 'Guardians' On Diverse List". Deadline.com. January 7, 2015. Retrieved January 7, 2015.
External links[edit]
Official website
American Sniper at the Internet Movie Database
American Sniper at AllMovie
American Sniper at Box Office Mojo
American Sniper at Metacritic
American Sniper at Rotten Tomatoes


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American Sniper (film)
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American Sniper
Chris Kyle is wearing desert fatigues army outfit, his wife Taya embraces him. They are standing in front of a tattered US flag.
Theatrical release poster

Directed by
Clint Eastwood
Produced by
Clint Eastwood
Robert Lorenz
Andrew Lazar
Bradley Cooper
Peter Morgan

Written by
Jason Hall
Based on
American Sniper
 by Chris Kyle
 Scott McEwen
 Jim DeFelice
Starring
Bradley Cooper
Sienna Miller

Cinematography
Tom Stern
Edited by
Joel Cox
Gary D. Roach


Production
 company

Village Roadshow Pictures
Mad Chance Productions
22nd & Indiana Pictures
Malpaso Productions

Distributed by
Warner Bros. Pictures

Release dates

November 11, 2014 (AFI Fest)
December 25, 2014 (limited release)
January 16, 2015 (worldwide release)


Running time
 133 minutes[1][2]
Country
United States
Language
English
Budget
$58.8 million[3][4][5]
Box office
$316.2 million[3]
American Sniper is a 2014 American biographical war drama film[6] directed by Clint Eastwood and written by Jason Hall. It is based on the book American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History by Chris Kyle, with Scott McEwen and Jim DeFelice. With 255 kills, 160 of which were officially confirmed by the Department of Defense, Kyle is the deadliest marksman in U.S. military history. The film stars Bradley Cooper as Kyle and Sienna Miller as his wife Taya, with Luke Grimes, Kyle Gallner, Sam Jaeger, Jake McDorman and Cory Hardrict in supporting roles.
The world premiere was on November 11, 2014, at the American Film Institute Festival, followed by a limited theatrical release in the United States on December 25, 2014 and a wide release on January 16, 2015. The film was a huge financial success at the box office setting numerous box office records. It is currently the highest-grossing war film in North America, the sixth highest-grossing film of 2014 in North America and the 30th highest-grossing film of 2014 worldwide as well as Eastwood's most successful film to date.
The film received positive reviews from critics, but has faced criticism from other writers for its controversial portrayal of Kyle. At the 87th Academy Awards, American Sniper received six nominations, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Actor for Cooper.


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production 3.1 Casting
3.2 Filming
3.3 Music
4 Reception 4.1 Box office 4.1.1 Premiere and limited release
4.1.2 Wide release
4.1.3 Other territories
4.2 Critical response
4.3 Controversies
5 Accolades
6 See also
7 References
8 External links

Plot[edit]
Growing up in Texas, Chris Kyle's father teaches him how to hunt deer and shoot a rifle. Years later, Kyle is a rodeo cowboy when he sees news coverage of the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings and decides to enlist in the U.S. Navy, where he is eventually accepted for SEAL training, becoming a U.S. Navy SEAL sniper.
Kyle meets Taya Renae at a bar, they marry, and he is sent to Iraq after the September 11 attacks of 2001. His first kills are of a woman and boy who attack U.S. Marines with a grenade. Kyle is visibly upset by the experience, but earns the nickname "Legend" for his many kills. He is assigned to hunt for the al-Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. During house-to-house searches in evacuated areas, Kyle interrogates a family and for $100,000 the father offers to lead the SEALs to "The Butcher", second-in-command to al-Zarqawi, and whose favorite torture device is a drill. The plan goes awry when The Butcher captures the father and son and they are both killed while Kyle is pinned down by a sniper using an SVD. Meanwhile, the insurgents issue a bounty on Kyle.
Kyle returns home to his wife and the birth of his son. He is distracted by memories of his war experiences, and argues with Taya over bootleg footage of U.S. Marines shot dead by enemy sniper "savages". Taya expresses her concern for them as a couple and wishes Kyle would focus on his home and family.
Kyle leaves for a second tour, promoted to Chief Petty Officer. He is involved in a shoot out with The Butcher who is located operating out of a ground floor restaurant.
Kyle returns home from his second tour to a newborn daughter, and he is increasingly distant from his family. On his third tour, a unit member is seriously injured by the Dragunov sniper and the unit is evacuated back to base. The unit decides to return to the field and continue the mission. Another SEAL is killed by gunfire, compelling Kyle with guilt and duty to undertake a fourth tour. Taya does not understand his decision, tells him she needs him, and for a moment, implies that they should stay apart.
On tour four, the SVD-using expert insurgent sniper is identified as "Mustafa", and Kyle is assigned to take him out. Mustafa has been sniping U.S. Army combat engineers building a barricade. Kyle's sniper team is placed on a rooftop inside enemy territory. Kyle spots Mustafa, takes him out with a risky long distance shot at 2100 yards (the 8th longest sniper kill ever recorded), and exposes his team position to a large number of armed insurgents. In the midst of the firefight and low on ammunition, Kyle calls Taya and tells her he is ready to come home. A sandstorm provides cover for their chaotic escape in which Kyle is injured and almost left behind.
Kyle returns home, on edge and unable to adjust fully to civilian life. He tells a Veterans Affairs psychiatrist he is "haunted by all the guys he couldn't save". The psychiatrist encourages him to help wounded veterans in the VA hospital. Kyle meets veterans who suffered severe injuries, coaches them at a shooting range in the woods, and gradually begins to adjust to home life.
Years later, on February 2, 2013, Kyle, playful and happy, says goodbye to his wife and family as he leaves to spend time with a veteran at a shooting range. On-screen subtitles reveal: "Kyle was killed that day by a veteran he was trying to help," followed by stock footage of thousands of people standing in line along the highway for his funeral procession. Thousands more are shown attending Cowboys Stadium for his memorial service.
Cast[edit]
Bradley Cooper as Chris Kyle[7]
Sienna Miller as Taya Renae Kyle[8]
Max Charles as Colton Kyle[9]
Luke Grimes as Marc Lee[10]
Kyle Gallner as Goat-Winston[11]
Sam Jaeger as Captain Martens[12]
Jake McDorman as Ryan "Biggles" Job[13]
Cory Hardrict as 'D' / Dandridge[14]
Navid Negahban as Sheikh Al-Obodi[15]
Eric Close as DIA Agent Snead[15]
Eric Ladin as Squirrel[15]
Rey Gallegos as Tony[15]
Kevin Lacz as Dauber[16]
Brian Hallisay as Captain Gillespie
Ben Reed as Wayne Kyle
Elise Robertson as Debby Kyle
Keir O'Donnell as Jeff Kyle
Marnette Patterson as Sarah
Leonard Roberts as Instructor Roll
Sammy Sheik as Mustafa
Mido Hamada as The Butcher
Production[edit]
On May 24, 2012, it was announced that Warner Bros. had acquired the rights to the book with Bradley Cooper set to produce and star in the screen adaptation.[7] Cooper had thought of Chris Pratt to play Kyle but WB agreed to buy it only if Cooper would star.[17] September 2012, David O. Russell stated that he was interested in directing the film.[18] On May 2, 2013, it was announced that Steven Spielberg would direct.[19] Spielberg had read Kyle's book, though he desired to have a more psychological conflict present in the screenplay so an "enemy sniper" character can serve as the insurgent sharpshooter who was trying to track down and kill Kyle. Spielberg's ideas contributed to the development of a lengthy screenplay approaching 160 pages. Due to Warner Bros.' budget constraints, Spielberg felt he could not bring his vision of the story to the screen.[4] On August 5, 2013, Spielberg dropped out of directing.[20] On August 21, 2013, it was reported that Clint Eastwood would instead direct the film.[21]
Casting[edit]
On March 14, 2014, Sienna Miller joined the cast.[8] On March 16, 2014, Kyle Gallner was cast[11] and March 18, 2014, Cory Hardrict was cast in the film.[14] On March 20, 2014, Navid Negahban, Eric Close, Eric Ladin, Rey Gallegos, and Jake McDorman also joined the cast,[13][15] as did Luke Grimes and Sam Jaeger on March 25, 2014.[10][12] Kevin Lacz, a former Navy SEAL, was also cast and served as a technical advisor.[16] Another former Navy SEAL, Joel Lambert, also joined the film, portraying a Delta sniper.[22] On June 3, Max Charles was added to the cast to portray Kyle's son, Colton Kyle.[9]
Filming[edit]
Principal photography began on March 31, 2014 in Los Angeles;[23] it was also partly shot in Morocco.[24] On April 23, the Los Angeles Times reported that ten days of filming set in an Afghan village was set to begin at the Blue Cloud Movie Ranch in the Santa Clarita area.[25] On May 7, shooting of the film was spotted around El Centro; a milk factory was used as the abandoned date factory which insurgents close in on from all directions at the climax of the film.[26][27] Later on May 14, Cooper was spotted filming some scenes in Culver City, California,[28] and then he followed by shooting scenes again in Los Angeles on May 16.[29] On May 30, Cooper and Miller were spotted during the filming of their characters' wedding scenes; they were filming aboard a yacht in Marina del Rey.[30] On June 3, Cooper was spotted in the uniform of a Navy SEAL marksman aiming during the filming of some scenes at a Los Angeles shooting range.[31] The pier and bar scenes were filmed in Seal Beach, California.[32]
Cinematographer Tom Stern shot the film with Arri Alexa XT digital cameras and Panavision C-, E- and G-Series anamorphic lenses.[33] The film is Eastwood's second to be shot digitally, after Jersey Boys.[34]
Music[edit]
There is no "Music by" credit on this film. Composer and music editor Joseph S. DeBeasi is credited as composer of additional music, and Clint Eastwood, who has composed the scores for most of his films since Mystic River (2003), is credited as the composer of "Taya's theme".[35][36]
Reception[edit]
Box office[edit]



"The movie has become a cultural phenomenon...It tore apart the record book and not by a little. By an enormous amount."
Dan Fellman, head of domestic distribution at Warner Bros., commenting on the film's massive box office success.[37]
As of February 2, 2015, American Sniper had grossed $248,942,000 in North America and $67,300,000 in other territories for a worldwide total of $316,242,000, against a budget of $60 million. This is Eastwood's highest-grossing film to date. It is also the highest-grossing war film in North America unadjusted for inflation. However, on an adjusted basis it stands behind Saving Private Ryan ($379 million) and Pearl Harbor ($291 million).[38]
Premiere and limited release[edit]
American Sniper premiered at the AFI Fest on November 11, 2014, just after a screening of Selma at Grauman's Egyptian Theatre in Los Angeles.[39] In North America, the film opened to a limited release on December 25, 2014, playing at four theaters — two in New York, one in Los Angeles, and one in Dallas — and earned $610,000 in its opening weekend ($850,000 including Christmas Day) at an average of $152,500 per venue debuting at #22.[40][41] The following week the film earned $676,909 playing at the same number of locations at an average of $169,277 per theater, which is the second-biggest weekend average ever for a live-action movie (previously held by 2001's Moulin Rouge!).[42] American Sniper holds the record for the most entries in the top 20 Top Weekend Theater Averages with 3 entries. It earned a total of $3.4 million from limited release in three weekends.[43]
Wide release[edit]
Fandango reported that the film accounted for more than 70% of their pre-ticket sales. The film was also outselling 2013's Lone Survivor, a similar war drama based film.[44] Preliminary reports indicated that the film could open to $45 million to $50 million over the four-day Martin Luther King weekend.[45][5] Following the announcement that the film was nominated for six Oscars at the 87th Academy Awards (including Best Picture and Best actor for Cooper), critics raised their projection to a $55—$61 million three day opening and a $70+ million four day opening.[46][47][48]
The film began its wide debut across North American theaters on January 16, 2015 (Thursday night showings began at 7:00 pm).[49] It set an all-time highest Thursday night opening record for a R-rated drama with $5.3 million (previously held by Lone Survivor with $1.9 million).[50][51][52] The film topped the box office on its opening day grossing $30.5 million (including Thursday previews) from 3,555 theaters setting January records for both biggest debut opening (previously held by Cloverfield) and single-day gross (previously held by Avatar).[53][54][55] In its traditional three-day opening the film earned $89.2 million which was double than expected and broke the record for the largest January opening (previously held by Ride Along with $41.5 million)[56] and the largest winter opening,[57] which is also Eastwood's top opening as a director surpassing Gran Torino '​s $29.5 million opening.[58] The three-day opening is also the biggest opening weekend for a drama film (previously held by The Passion of the Christ with $83 million),[59] the second biggest debut for a Best Picture Oscar nominee (behind Toy Story 3 with $109 million),[60] the second biggest debut for an R-rated film (behind The Matrix: Reloaded with $91.8 million), and the second biggest for a non-comic book, non-fantasy/sci-fi film (behind Fast and Furious 6 with $97.3 million).[61][60] It also set an IMAX opening record with $9.5 million ($11.5 million from Friday to Monday) beating Fox's Prometheus, which made $9 million in 2012.[62] It earned $107.2 million during its four-day Martin Luther King weekend setting a record for the biggest R-rated four day gross.[63]
In its second weekend, the film expanded to 3,705 theaters making it the widest launch for an R-rated movie.[64][65] It grossed an estimated $64.6 million in its second weekend, declining only by 28%—and set the record for the second-best hold ever for a movie opening to more than $85 million and also set the record for the eight largest second-weekend gross.[66][67] In just 10 days of release, the film surpassed Pearl Harbor ($198.5 million) to became the second highest-grossing war film in North America.[68] By its second weekend, Box Office Mojo had already reported that the film was on poise to become the highest-grossing film of 2014 in North America, a record that is currently held by The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 ($334 million), judging from its gradual decline and strong holdovers.[69] It became the highest-grossing IMAX film of January grossing $18.8 million from 333 IMAX theaters.[70] On Thursday, January 29, 2015 — 35 days after its initial release, the film surpassed Saving Private Ryan ($216.5 million) to become the highest-grossing war film in North America, unadjusted for inflation.[71]
By its third weekend of wide release, the film expanded to 3,885 theaters (180 additional theaters added), breaking its own record of being the widest R-rated film ever released.[72][73] The film topped the box office through its third weekend earning $31.8 million and set the record for highest Super Bowl weekend gross (overtaking Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert '​s $31.1 million gross).[74]
Other territories[edit]
In Italy, the film was released on December 31, 2014 and earned $6.72 million (Dealine reported $7.1 million) in its opening weekend.[75][76][77]
For the weekend of January 16, 2015, the film expanded in to seven new markets and earned an estimated $9.3 million.[78] This includes $3.8 million in United Kingdom, which is Clint Eastwood's biggest debut ever in that region, $1.2 million in South Korea and $291,149 in New Zealand.[77] Australia opened with $4 million ($4.3 million including previews).[79]
For the three day weekend of January 30, 2015, the film added $11.1 million, which brings its total to $67.3 million in other territories till date.[80]
Critical response[edit]
American Sniper received positive response from critics. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a "Certified Fresh" rating of 73%, based on 210 reviews from critics, with an average rating of 6.9/10. The site's consensus states, "Powered by Clint Eastwood's sure-handed direction and a gripping central performance from Bradley Cooper, American Sniper delivers a tense, vivid tribute to its real-life subject."[81] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 72 out of 100, based on reviews from 47 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[82] In CinemaScore polls conducted during the opening weekend, cinema audiences gave American Sniper a rare grade of A+ on an A+ to F scale.[83]
Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter wrote: "A taut, vivid and sad account of the brief life of the most accomplished marksman in American military annals, American Sniper feels very much like a companion piece—in subject, theme and quality—to The Hurt Locker."[84] Justin Chang of Variety gave the film a positive review, saying "Hard-wiring the viewer into Kyle’s battle-scarred psyche thanks to an excellent performance from a bulked-up Bradley Cooper, this harrowing and intimate character study offers fairly blunt insights into the physical and psychological toll exacted on the front lines, yet strikes even its familiar notes with a sobering clarity that finds the 84-year-old filmmaker in very fine form."[85] David Denby of The New Yorker gave the film a positive review, saying "Both a devastating war movie and a devastating antiwar movie, a subdued celebration of a warrior's skill and a sorrowful lament over his alienation and misery."[86] Chris Nashawaty of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a C+, saying "The film's just a repetition of context-free combat missions and one-dimensional targets."[87] Elizabeth Weitzman of New York Daily News gave the film four out of five stars, saying "The best movies are ever-shifting, intelligent and open-hearted enough to expand alongside an audience. American Sniper, Clint Eastwood's harrowing meditation on war, is built on this foundation of uncommon compassion."[88] Amy Nicholson of LA Weekly gave the film a C-, saying "Cautiously, Eastwood has chosen to omit Kyle's self-mythologizing altogether, which is itself a distortion of his character. We're not watching a biopic."[89] Kyle Smith of the New York Post gave the film four out of five stars, saying "After 40 years of Hollywood counterpropaganda telling us war is necessarily corrupting and malign, its ablest practitioners thugs, loons or victims, American Sniper nobly presents the case for the other side."[90]
Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave the film three and a half stars out of four, saying "Bradley Cooper, as Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, and director Eastwood salute Kyle's patriotism best by not denying its toll. Their targets are clearly in sight, and their aim is true."[91] Ignatiy Vishnevetsky of The A.V. Club gave the film a B, saying "American Sniper is imperfect and at times a little corny, but also ambivalent and complicated in ways that are uniquely Eastwoodian."[92] James Berardinelli of ReelViews gave the film three and a half stars out of four, saying "American Sniper lifts director Clint Eastwood out of the doldrums that have plagued his last few films."[93] Rafer Guzman of Newsday gave the film three out of four stars, saying "Cooper nails the role of an American killing machine in Clint Eastwood's clear-eyed look at the Iraq War."[94] Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times gave the film a positive review, saying "Eastwood's impeccably crafted action sequences so catch us up in the chaos of combat we are almost not aware that we're watching a film at all."[95] Claudia Puig of USA Today gave the film three out of four stars, saying "It's clearly Cooper's show. Substantially bulked up and affecting a believable Texas drawl, Cooper embodies Kyle's confidence, intensity and vulnerability."[96] Joshua Rothkopf of Time Out New York gave the film four out of five stars, saying "Just as only Nixon could go to China, only Clint Eastwood could make a movie about an Iraq War veteran and infuse it with doubts, mission anxiety and ruination."[97] Inkoo Kang of The Wrap gave the film a negative review, saying "Director Clint Eastwood‘s focus on Kyle is so tight that no other character, including wife Taya (Sienna Miller), comes through as a person, and the scope so narrow that the film engages only superficially with the many moral issues surrounding the Iraq War."[98]
Controversies[edit]
Main article: American Sniper (film) controversies
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee said that the release of the movie coincided with increased threats against Arabs and Muslims.[99] It and others have also accused Eastwood of dishonestly linking the September 11 attacks with Iraq.[100] Matt Taibbi criticized American Sniper for its portrayal of politics.[101] Chris Hedges criticized the film for lionizing the gun culture and promoting the blind adoration of the military.[102] Zaid Jilani in Salon, quoting Kyle's autobiography, argued that both the film and Kyle's reputation were not credible.[103] Max Blumenthal stated that the film is "filled with lies and distortion from start to finish".[104] Noam Chomsky and Bill Maher criticized Kyle's popularity with film audiences.[105][106] Sarah Pulliam Bailey of The Washington Post criticized the sentiments expressed in quotes taken from Kyle.[107] Zack Beauchamp of Vox wrote that the film's greatest sin was its condescending tone.[108] Several other articles have also been critical about the movie.[109][110][111][112][113][114][115]
Responding to critics that considered the film as excessively violent, as celebrating war, killing, and as jingoistic, Eastwood said that it is a stupid analysis and that the film has nothing to do with political parties. He stated: "I was a child growing up during World War II. That was supposed to be the one to end all wars. And four years later, I was standing at the draft board being drafted during the Korean conflict, and then after that there was Vietnam, and it goes on and on forever ... I just wonder ... does this ever stop? And no, it doesn’t. So each time we get in these conflicts, it deserves a lot of thought before we go wading in or wading out. Going in or coming out. It needs a better thought process, I think."[116] Eastwood called American Sniper "the biggest anti-war statement any film can make," and said that "the fact of what [war] does to the family and the people who have to go back into civilian life like Chris Kyle did" and “what it (war) does to the people left behind.” Eastwood further stated: "One of my favorite war movies that I’ve been involved with is Letters from Iwo Jima and that was about family, about being taken away from life, being sent someplace. In World War II, everybody just sort of went home and got over it. Now there is some effort to help people through it."[117]
First Lady Michelle Obama was quoted on American Sniper: "The number-one movie in America right now is a complex, emotional depiction of a veteran and his family. And while I know there have been critics, I felt that, more often than not, this film touches on many of the emotions and experiences that I've heard firsthand from military families over these past few years. This movie reflects those wrenching stories that I've heard — the complex journeys that our men and women in uniform endure. The complicated moral decisions they are tasked with every day. The stresses of balancing love of family with a love of country. And the challenges of transitioning back home to their next mission in life. And here’s why a movie like this is important: see, the vast majority of Americans will never see these stories. They will never grasp these issues on an emotional level without portrayals like this."[118][119]
Accolades[edit]



List of awards and nomianations

Award / Film festival
Category
Recipients
Result

Academy Awards[120] Best Picture Clint Eastwood, Robert Lorenz, Andrew Lazar, Bradley Cooper, Peter Morgan Pending
Best Actor Bradley Cooper Pending
Best Adapted Screenplay Jason Hall Pending
Best Film Editing Joel Cox and Gary D. Roach Pending
Best Sound Editing Alan Robert Murray and Bub Asman Pending
Best Sound Mixing John T. Reitz, Gregg Rudloff and Walt Martin Pending
Art Directors Guild Awards[121] Excellence in Production Design for a Contemporary Film James J. Murakami, Charisse Cardenas Nominated
ACE Eddie Awards[122] Best Edited Feature Film – Dramatic Joel Cox and Gary D. Roach Nominated
American Film Institute Awards 2014[123] Top Ten Films of the Year  Won
British Academy Film Awards[124] Best Adapted Screenplay Jason Hall Pending
Best Sound Walt Martin, John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff, Alan Robert Murray, Bub Asman Pending
Cinema Audio Society Awards[125] Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing for a Motion Picture – Live Action Walt Martin, Gregg Rudloff, John Reitz, Robert Fernandez, Thomas J. O’Connell, James Ashwell Pending
Critics' Choice Award[126] Best Action Movie American Sniper Nominated
Best Actor in an Action Movie Bradley Cooper Won
Denver Film Critics Society[127][128] Best Picture American Sniper Won
Best Director Clint Eastwood Nominated
Best Actor Bradley Cooper (tied with Ralph Fiennes in The Grand Budapest Hotel) Won
Best Supporting Actress Sienna Miller Nominated
Best Adapted Screenplay Jason Hall Nominated
Best Cinematography Tom Stern Nominated
Directors Guild of America Award[129] Outstanding Directing – Feature Film Clint Eastwood Pending
Iowa Film Critics[130] Best Movie Yet to Open in Iowa American Sniper (tied with A Most Violent Year) Won
MPSE Golden Reel Awards[131] Feature English Language - Effects/Foley Bub Asman, Alan Robert Murray Pending
National Board of Review[132] Top Ten Film  Won
Best Director Clint Eastwood Won
Producers Guild of America Awards[133] Best Theatrical Motion Picture Bradley Cooper, Clint Eastwood, Andrew Lazar, Robert Lorenz, Peter Morgan Nominated
Writers Guild of America Awards[134] Best Adapted Screenplay Jason Hall Pending

See also[edit]
List of films featuring the United States Navy SEALs
References[edit]
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98.Jump up ^ Inkoo Kang. "'American Sniper' Review: War Plays Out Like a Video Game in Clint Eastwood's Navy SEAL Biopic". TheWrap. Retrieved December 26, 2014.
99.Jump up ^ "'American Sniper' Triggers Flood Of Anti-Muslim Venom, Civil Rights Group Warns". The Huffington Post.
100.Jump up ^ American Sniper is a dishonest whitewash of the Iraq war, Zack Beauchamp, Vox, January 21, 2015
101.Jump up ^ 'American Sniper' is almost too dumb to criticize (2015-01-23), Rolling Stone Magazine
102.Jump up ^ Chris Hedges (January 25, 2015). Killing Ragheads for Jesus. Truthdig. Retrieved January 26, 2015.
103.Jump up ^ Jilani, Zaid (23 Jan 2015). "7 heinous lies 'American Sniper' is telling America". Salon. Retrieved 25 Jan 2015.
104.Jump up ^ American Sniper: Honoring a Fallen Hero or Whitewashing a Murderous Occupation?. Max Blumenthal, 26 January 2015. The Real News
105.Jump up ^ "WATCH: Chomsky Blasts 'American Sniper' and the Media that Glorifies It". Alternet.
106.Jump up ^ Stern, Marlow (24 Jan 2015). "Bill Maher Blasts ‘American Sniper,’ calls Chris Kyle a ‘psychopath patriot’". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 28 Jan 2015.
107.Jump up ^ Pulliam Bailey, Sarah (14 Jan 2015). "Here’s the faith in the ‘American Sniper’ you won’t see in the film". The Washington Post. Retrieved 1 Feb 2015.
108.Jump up ^ Beauchamp, Zack (21 Jan 2015). "American Sniper is a dishonest whitewash of the Iraq war". Vox. Retrieved 28 Jan 2015.
109.Jump up ^ Jet, Dennis (13 Jan 2015). "The Real 'American Sniper' Had No Remorse About the Iraqis He Killed". New Republic. Retrieved 31 Jan 2015.
110.Jump up ^ Von Tunzelmann, Alex (20 Jan 2015). "Is American Sniper historically accurate?". The Guardian. Retrieved 31 Jan 2015.
111.Jump up ^ Alvarez, Max (30 Jan 2015). "From Psychopaths to American Hero? A Short History of Sniper Cinema". Counterpunch. Retrieved 31 Jan 2015.
112.Jump up ^ Caputi, Ross (10 Jan 2015). "American Sniper?". Telesur. Retrieved 31 Jan 2015.
113.Jump up ^ Weil, Janet (31 Jan 2015). "Gunman as Hero, Children as Targets, Iraq as Backdrop". Antiwar.com. Retrieved 1 Feb 2015.
114.Jump up ^ Masciotra, David (1 Feb 2015). "Civil war at the cineplex: “American Sniper,” “Selma” and the battle over American masculinity". Salon. Retrieved 2 Feb 2015.
115.Jump up ^ Reppenhagen, Garett (1 Feb 2015). "I was an American sniper, and Chris Kyle’s war was not my war". Salon. Retrieved 2 Feb 2015.
116.Jump up ^ Howell, Peter (January 16, 2015). "Think before you shoot, Clint Eastwood says of war: interview". The Star.
117.Jump up ^ Kilday, Gregg (January 24, 2015). "Clint Eastwood on 'American Sniper's' "Biggest Antiwar Statement"". The Hollywood Reporter.
118.Jump up ^ "Remarks by the First Lady at Got Your Six Screenwriters Event - Conversation on the Power of Telling Veterans' Stories". WhiteHouse.gov. 30 January 2015. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
119.Jump up ^ "First Lady Michelle Obama Offers Praise for ‘American Sniper’". Variety. 30 January 2015. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
120.Jump up ^ "Oscar Nominations: 'Grand Budapest Hotel' & 'Birdman' Lead Way With 9 Noms; 'Imitation Game' Scores 8". Deadline.com. January 15, 2015. Retrieved January 15, 2015.
121.Jump up ^ "'Birdman', 'Foxcatcher' Among Art Directors Guild Nominees". Deadline.com. January 5, 2015. Retrieved January 5, 2015.
122.Jump up ^ "‘American Sniper,’ ‘Boyhood,’ ‘Gone Girl’ Among ACE Eddie Award Nominees (FULL LIST)". Variety. January 2, 2015. Retrieved January 2, 2015.
123.Jump up ^ "AFI List of Top Ten Films Expands to Include 11 Movies". The Hollywood Reporter. December 9, 2014. Retrieved December 9, 2014.
124.Jump up ^ "BAFTA Nominations: ‘Grand Budapest Hotel’ Leads With 11 – Full List". Deadline.com. January 8, 2015. Retrieved January 9, 2015.
125.Jump up ^ "Cinema Audio Society Nominates 'American Sniper,' 'True Detective' and More". Indiewire. January 13, 2015. Retrieved January 13, 2015.
126.Jump up ^ Erik Pedersen. "Critics’ Choice Awards Winners 2015 — Full List: ‘Boyhood’, ‘Birdman’ - Deadline". Deadline.
127.Jump up ^ "Denver critics nominate 'American Sniper,' 'Birdman' and 'Inherent Vice'". Hitfix. January 7, 2015. Retrieved January 9, 2014.
128.Jump up ^ "Denver critics name Clint Eastwood's 'American Sniper' the year's best film". Hitfix. January 12, 2015. Retrieved January 12, 2015.
129.Jump up ^ "DGA Awards Film Nominations: Anderson, Eastwood, Inarritu, Linklater, Tyldum". Deadline.com. January 13, 2015. Retrieved January 13, 2015.
130.Jump up ^ "'Boyhood' is Iowa Critics' Best Picture of 2014". Hitfix. January 7, 2015. Retrieved January 9, 2015.
131.Jump up ^ "'Birdman,' 'Apes' Top 2015 Golden Reel Nominations". Deadline.com. January 14, 2015. Retrieved January 14, 2015.
132.Jump up ^ "National Board of Review Announces 2014 Award Winners". National Board of Review. December 2, 2014. Retrieved December 2, 2014.
133.Jump up ^ "'American Sniper,' 'Birdman' & 'Boyhood' Among PGA Awards Nominees". Deadline.com. January 5, 2015. Retrieved January 5, 2015.
134.Jump up ^ "Writers Guild Awards Nominations: 'Whiplash', 'Gone Girl', 'Guardians' On Diverse List". Deadline.com. January 7, 2015. Retrieved January 7, 2015.
External links[edit]
Official website
American Sniper at the Internet Movie Database
American Sniper at AllMovie
American Sniper at Box Office Mojo
American Sniper at Metacritic
American Sniper at Rotten Tomatoes


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The Hurt Locker
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search

"Hurt Locker" redirects here. For the song by American rapper Xzibit, see Hurt Locker (song). For the Glee episode, see The Hurt Locker, Part One and The Hurt Locker, Part Two.

The Hurt Locker
From above a flat and dry desert floor, a person in a green military uniform with heavy padding holds red wires attached to seven pill-shaped bomb canisters scattered around him. At the top of the poster are three critics' favorable opinions: "A near-perfect movie", "A full-tilt action picture", and "Ferociously suspenseful". Below the quotes is the title "THE HURT LOCKER" and the tagline, "You don't have to be a hero to do this job. But it helps."
Theatrical release poster

Directed by
Kathryn Bigelow
Produced by
Kathryn Bigelow
Mark Boal
Nicolas Chartier
 Greg Shapiro
Written by
Mark Boal
Starring
Jeremy Renner
Anthony Mackie
Brian Geraghty
Christian Camargo
Evangeline Lilly
Ralph Fiennes
David Morse
Guy Pearce
Music by
Marco Beltrami
 Buck Sanders
Cinematography
Barry Ackroyd
Edited by
Chris Innis
Bob Murawski

Production
 company

Voltage Pictures
Grosvenor Park Media
 Film Capital Europe Funds
 First Light Production
 Kingsgate Films
Summit Entertainment

Distributed by
Warner Bros. (Italy)
Summit Entertainment/
Universal Studios (USA)
Lionsgate/
Optimum Releasing (UK)

Release dates

September 4, 2008 (Venice)
June 26, 2009 (United States)


Running time
 131 minutes
Country
United States
Language
English
Budget
$15 million[1]
Box office
$49.2 million[1]
The Hurt Locker is a 2008 American war film about a three-man Explosive Ordnance Disposal (bomb disposal) team during the Iraq War. The film was produced and directed by Kathryn Bigelow and the screenplay was written by Mark Boal, a freelance writer who was embedded as a journalist in 2004 with a U.S. Army EOD team in Iraq. It stars Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, and Brian Geraghty. It won six Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director for Bigelow.
The Hurt Locker premiered at the Venice Film Festival in Italy during 2008. After being shown at the Toronto International Film Festival, it was picked up for distribution in the United States by Summit Entertainment. In May 2009, it was the Closing Night selection for Maryland Film Festival. The film was released in the United States on June 26, 2009 but received a more widespread theatrical release on July 24, 2009.
Because the film was not released in the United States until 2009, it was eligible for the 82nd Academy Awards, where it was nominated for nine Academy Awards. Although the film had not covered its budget by the time of the ceremony,[2] it won six Oscars, including Best Director for Bigelow, the first woman to win this award, and Best Picture. Boal won for Best Original Screenplay. The Hurt Locker earned numerous awards and honors from critics' organizations, festivals and groups, including six BAFTA Awards. However, it received criticism by some in the military for various inaccuracies. The Hurt Locker is identified as the "lowest-grossing movie to ever win Best Picture" in Academy Award, as of 2010.[3]


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production 3.1 Writing
3.2 Casting
3.3 Filming
3.4 Cinematography
3.5 Editing
4 Reception 4.1 Critical response
4.2 Response among veterans
5 Lawsuits 5.1 Sarver lawsuit
5.2 Copyright infringement lawsuit
6 Release 6.1 Festival screenings
6.2 Theatrical run
6.3 Distribution: Independent film print shortage
6.4 Home media
7 Awards and accolades
8 See also
9 References
10 Bibliography
11 Further reading
12 External links

Plot[edit]
The Hurt Locker opens with a quotation from War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, a best-selling 2002 book by Chris Hedges, a New York Times war correspondent and journalist: "The rush of battle is a potent and often lethal addiction, for war is a drug."[4][5][6]
Sergeant First Class William James (Jeremy Renner), a battle-tested veteran, arrives as a new team leader of a U.S. Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) unit in the Iraq War,[7][8] replacing Staff Sergeant Matthew Thompson (Guy Pearce), who was killed by a radio-controlled 155mm improvised explosive device (IED) in Baghdad. His team includes Sergeant J.T. Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) and Specialist Owen Eldridge (Brian Geraghty).
James' maverick methods and attitude lead Sanborn and Eldridge to consider him reckless, and tensions mount. When they are assigned to destroy some explosives in a remote desert area, James returns to the detonation site to pick up his gloves. Sanborn openly contemplates killing James by "accidentally" triggering the explosion, making Eldridge very uncomfortable, but Sanborn does nothing.
Returning to Camp Victory in their Humvee, the team encounters five armed men in traditional Arab garb standing near the men's Ford Excursion, which has a flat tire. After a tense encounter, the men reveal themselves to be private military contractors and British mercenaries. They have captured two prisoners featured on the most-wanted Iraqi playing cards. The entire group suddenly comes under fire, and when the prisoners attempt to escape in the confusion, the leader of the mercenaries (Ralph Fiennes) remembers the bounty for them is "dead or alive" and shoots them. Enemy snipers kill three of the mercenaries, including the leader. Sanborn and James borrow a Barrett .50 cal to dispatch three attackers, while Eldridge kills a fourth.
During a raid on a warehouse, James discovers the body of a young boy, which has been surgically implanted with an unexploded bomb. James believes it to be "Beckham" (Christopher Sayegh), an Iraqi youth he had previously befriended. During evacuation, Lieutenant Colonel John Cambridge (Christian Camargo), the camp's psychiatrist and a friend of Eldridge's, is killed in an explosion; Eldridge blames himself for the Colonel's death. Later, James leaves the military compound seeking revenge for Beckham and breaks into the house of an Iraqi professor, but his search reveals nothing and he leaves.
Called to a petrol tanker detonation, James decides on his own to hunt for the insurgents responsible, guessing they are still in the immediate area. Sanborn protests, but when James heads out, he and Eldridge reluctantly follow. After they split up, insurgents capture Eldridge. James and Sanborn rescue him, but accidentally shoot him in the leg. The following morning, James is approached by Beckham, who James believed was dead. The young boy tries to play soccer with James and sell him more DVDs, but the soldier walks by without saying a word. Before being airlifted for surgery elsewhere, Eldridge angrily blames James for his injury.
James and Sanborn's unit is called to another mission in their last two days of their rotation. An innocent Iraqi civilian man has had a bomb vest strapped to his chest. James tries to cut off the locks to remove the vest, but there are too many to undo in the time available before the bomb will detonate. He has to abandon the man, who is killed when the bomb explodes. Sanborn is left distraught by the man's death. He confesses to James that he can no longer cope with the pressure, and he wants to return home and have a son.
After Bravo Company's rotation ends, James returns home to his ex wife, Connie and their infant son who both still live with him in his house (Evangeline Lilly). However, he is bored and disconnected from routine civilian life, with its ordinary tasks of shopping at the supermarket and family dinners. One night, James confesses to his son that there is only one thing that he knows he loves. Shortly thereafter, he starts another tour of duty serving with Delta Company, U.S. Army EOD unit as they are starting their 365-day rotation.
Cast[edit]
Jeremy Renner as Sergeant First Class William James
Anthony Mackie as Sergeant J. T. Sanborn
Brian Geraghty as Specialist Owen Eldridge
Guy Pearce as Staff Sergeant Matthew Thompson
Christian Camargo as Lieutenant Colonel John Cambridge
David Morse as Colonel Reed
Ralph Fiennes as the leader of a Private Military Company unit
Evangeline Lilly as Connie James
Christopher Sayegh as Beckham
Production[edit]
Writing[edit]
The Hurt Locker is based on accounts of Mark Boal, a freelance journalist who was embedded with an American bomb squad in the war in Iraq for two weeks in 2004.[9] The director Kathryn Bigelow was familiar with Boal's work before his experiences, having adapted one of his Playboy articles as the short-lived television series The Inside in 2002. When Boal was embedded with the squad, he accompanied its members 10 to 15 times a day to watch their tasks, and kept in touch with Bigelow via email about his experiences.[10] Boal used his experiences as the basis of a fictional drama based on real events. He said of the film's goal, "The idea is that it's the first movie about the Iraq War that purports to show the experience of the soldiers. We wanted to show the kinds of things that soldiers go through that you can't see on CNN, and I don't mean that in a censorship-conspiracy way. I just mean the news doesn't actually put photographers in with units that are this elite."[11] Bigelow was fascinated with exploring "the psychology behind the type of soldier who volunteers for this particular conflict and then, because of his or her aptitude, is chosen and given the opportunity to go into bomb disarmament and goes toward what everybody else is running from."[12]
While working with Boal in 2005 on the script, originally titled The Something Jacket, Bigelow began to do some preliminary, rough storyboards to get an idea of the specific location needed. Bomb disarmament protocol requires a containment area. She wanted to make the film as authentic as possible and "put the audience into the Humvee, into a boots-on-the-ground experience."[12]
Casting[edit]





Jeremy Renner



Anthony Mackie



Brian Geraghty

For the main characters, Bigelow made a point of casting relatively unknown actors: "it underscored the tension because with the lack of familiarity also comes a sense of unpredictability."[12] Renner's character, Sergeant First Class William James, is a composite character, with qualities based on individuals whom screenwriter Boal knew when embedded with the bomb squad.[10] Bigelow cast Renner based on his work in Dahmer, a film about Jeffrey Dahmer, the notorious serial killer whose victims were boys.[13] To prepare for the film, Renner spent a week living and training at Fort Irwin, a U.S. military reservation in the Mojave Desert in California. He was taught to use C4 explosives, learned how to render safe improvised explosive devices, and how to wear a bomb suit.[13]
Mackie plays Sergeant J.T. Sanborn. Describing the experience of filming in Jordan in the summer, he said, "It was so desperately hot, and we were so easily agitated. But that movie was like doing a play. We really looked out for each other, and it was a great experience. It made me believe in film."[14]
Several hundred thousand refugees of Iraq live in Jordan. Bigelow cast refugees who had theatrical backgrounds, such as Suhail Aldabbach. He plays the innocent man used as a suicide bomber at the film's end.[10]
Filming[edit]
The film was shot in Jordan, within miles of the Iraqi border, to achieve Bigelow's goal of authenticity. Iraqi refugees were used for extras and the cast worked in the unmistakable heat of the Middle East. The filmmakers had scouted for locations in Morocco, but director Kathryn Bigelow felt its cities did not resemble Baghdad. In addition, she wanted to get as close to the war zone as possible. Some of the locations were less than three miles from the Iraq border.[15] She had wanted to shoot in Iraq, but the production security team could not guarantee their safety from snipers.[12]
Principal photography began in July 2007 in Jordan and Kuwait. Temperatures averaged 120 °F (49 °C) over the 44 days of shooting.[11][12][13] Often four or more camera crews filmed simultaneously, which resulted in nearly 200 hours of footage.[15][16] The producer Greg Shapiro spoke about security concerns of filming in Jordan, "It was interesting telling people we were going to make the movie in Jordan because the first question everybody asked was about the security situation here."
Her choice to film in the Kingdom met some resistance. In discussion, Bigelow found that her cast and crew shared stereotypes of the region from American culture. “Sadly people in America and Los Angeles have these perceptions,” she said. “But once you get off the plane you realise it's like Manhattan without the trees,” she continued. As Iraq dominates discourse in America and across the world, Bigelow believes filmmakers will continue to explore the conflict, making Jordan the natural place to film.[17]
According to producer Tony Mark, the blood, sweat and heat captured on-camera in the production was mirrored behind the scenes.

"It's a tough, tough movie about a tough, tough subject", Mark said in an interview, "There was a palpable tension throughout on the set. It was just like the onscreen story of three guys who fight with each other, but when the time comes to do the work, they come together to get the job done."[18]
Renner remembered, "I got food bugs. Then I got food poisoning: lost 15 lbs in three days".[13] In addition to the burden of the heat, the bomb suit he had to wear all day weighed 80–100 lb (36–45 kg).[19] In a scene in which his character carries a dead Iraqi boy, Renner fell down some stairs and twisted his ankle, which delayed filming because he could not walk. At that point, "people wanted to quit. All the departments were struggling to get their job done, none of them were communicating".[13] A week later, filming resumed.[13]
The producer Tony Mark recalled the armorer David Fencl's finishing a 12-hour day. He found he had to stay up all night to make proper ammunition for a sniper rifle, as the supplies did not clear Jordanian customs in time for the scheduled shoot.[18] Due to import restrictions on military props, the film's special effects artist Richard Stutsman used Chinese fireworks for gunpowder. One day, he was assembling a prop, and the heat and friction caused the fireworks to blow up in his face. Two days later, he returned to work.[13] The film shoot had few of the normal Hollywood perks; nobody on the set got an air-conditioned trailer or a private bathroom.[18] Renner said that great care was taken to ensure the film's authenticity.[20] According to Renner, shooting the film in the Middle East contributed to this. "There were two-by-fours with nails being dropped from two-story buildings that hit me in the helmet, and they were throwing rocks.... We got shot at a few times while we were filming", Renner said. "When you see it, you're gonna feel like you've been in war."[21]

"You can't fake that amount of heat", Mackie says, adding, "When you are on set and all of the extras are Iraqi refugees, it really informs the movie that you're making. When you start hearing the stories from a true perspective ... of people who were actually there, it gives you a clear viewpoint of where you are as an artist and the story you would like to tell. It was a great experience to be there."[22]
Cinematography[edit]
For the film, Bigelow sought to immerse audiences "into something that was raw, immediate and visceral". Impressed with cinematographer Barry Ackroyd's work on United 93 and The Wind That Shakes the Barley, Bigelow invited him to work on her film. While the film was independently produced and filmed on a low budget, Bigelow used four Super 16 mm cameras to capture multiple perspectives, saying,

"That's how we experience reality, by looking at the microcosm and the macrocosm simultaneously. The eye sees differently than the lens, but with multiple focal lengths and a muscular editorial style, the lens can give you that microcosm/macrocosm perspective, and that contributes to the feeling of total immersion."[23]
In staging the film's action sequences, Bigelow did not want to lose a sense of the geography and used multiple cameras to allow her to "look at any particular set piece from every possible perspective."[12]
Editing[edit]
The Hurt Locker was edited by Chris Innis and Bob Murawski.[24][25] The two editors worked with almost 200 hours of footage from the multiple hand-held cameras in use during the shoot.[25] Adding to the challenge, Boal's screenplay had a non-traditional, asymmetrical, episodic structure. There was no traditional "villain", and tension was derived from the characters' internal conflicts and the suspense from the explosives and snipers.[25]

"This movie is kind of like a horror film where you're unable to see the killer," says Innis. "You know a bomb could go off at any minute, but you never know just when it's going to happen, so the ideas of [Alfred] Hitchcock—about making your audience anxious—were influential for us when we did the editing."[26]
The raw footage was described as a "hodge-podge of disconnected, nausea-inducing motion that was constantly crossing the 180-degree line".[25]
Innis spent the first eight weeks editing the film on location in Jordan, before returning to Los Angeles, where she was joined by Murawski. The process took over eight months to complete.[24][27] The goal was to edit a brutally realistic portrayal of the realities of war, using minimal special effects or technical enhancement.[24][25] Innis stated that they "really wanted the film to retain that 'newsreel' documentary quality... Too many stage-y effects would have been distracting. The editing in this film was all about restraint".[24]
Editing on location led to additional complications in post-production. The production was unwilling to risk sending undeveloped film through high-security airports where the cans could be opened, X-rayed, or damaged. Accordingly, film was hand-carried on a flight by a production assistant from Amman to London. After the Super 16mm film was transferred to DVcam at a lab in London, the video dailies were transported by plane back to the Middle East to be imported into the editing system. The whole journey would take anywhere from three days to a week and was described by Innis as the "modern-day equivalent of shipping via donkey cart".[25] The low production budget and the lack of a developed film infrastructure in the area hampered the process, according to Innis. "We were working with grainy Super 16mm film, editing in standard definition. We tried doing FTP downloads, but at the time the facilities in Jordan simply couldn't handle it."[24][25] The producer Tony Mark later negotiated the use of a local radio station late at night to receive low-grade QuickTime clips over the Internet so the crew would not be shooting blindly.[25]
Innis stresses the importance of sound to the editing process. "So much of the rhythms of our editing were based on sonic elements—the breathing of the soldiers, the sounds of explosions, or even the emptiness of sound just prior to a bomb going off." The two editors worked with production tracks recorded by Ray Beckett, the production sound mixer. Innis credits Beckett's high-quality location sound as the reason they did not need to do much in the way of soundscaping in post-production.[24]
Reception[edit]


Critical response[edit]
 The Hurt Locker was met with nearly universal acclaim. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a "certified fresh" score of 97% based on 225 reviews, with a weighted mean score of 8.4 out of 10.[28] It was the second highest-rated film in 2009 at Rotten Tomatoes, behind Pixar's Up with 98%. Rotten Tomatoes wrote of the critics' consensus, "A well-acted, intensely shot, action filled war epic, Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker is thus far the best reviewed of the recent dramatizations of the Iraq War."[28] Metacritic, which assigns a rating normalized to 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, reported that the film has received an average score of 94/100 based on 35 reviews.[29]
Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun Times rated the film as the best film of 2009 and the second best of the decade,[30] writing, "The Hurt Locker is a great film, an intelligent film, a film shot clearly so that we know exactly who everybody is and where they are and what they're doing and why." He applauded how the suspense was built, calling the film "spellbinding." Ebert considered Renner "a leading contender for Academy Awards," writing, "His performance is not built on complex speeches but on a visceral projection of who this man is and what he feels. He is not a hero in a conventional sense."[31] He eventually ranked it the second-best film of the decade, behind only Synecdoche, New York.[32]
Richard Corliss of Time magazine also spoke highly of Renner's performance, calling it a highlight of the film. Corliss wrote,

"He's ordinary, pudgy-faced, quiet, and at first seems to lack the screen charisma to carry a film. That supposition vanishes in a few minutes, as Renner slowly reveals the strength, confidence and unpredictability of a young Russell Crowe. The merging of actor and character is one of the big things to love about this movie... It's a creepy marvel to watch James in action. He has the cool aplomb, analytical acumen and attention to detail of a great athlete, or a master psychopath, maybe both."
Corliss praised the film's "steely calm" tone, reflective of its main character. Corliss summarized, "The Hurt Locker is a near-perfect movie about men in war, men at work. Through sturdy imagery and violent action, it says that even Hell needs heroes."[33]
A. O. Scott of The New York Times called The Hurt Locker the best American feature film yet made about the war in Iraq:

"You may emerge from The Hurt Locker shaken, exhilarated and drained, but you will also be thinking ... The movie is a viscerally exciting, adrenaline-soaked tour de force of suspense and surprise, full of explosions and hectic scenes of combat, but it blows a hole in the condescending assumption that such effects are just empty spectacle or mindless noise."
Scott noticed that the film reserved criticism of the war but wrote of how the director handled the film's limits, "Ms. Bigelow, practicing a kind of hyperbolic realism, distills the psychological essence and moral complications of modern warfare into a series of brilliant, agonizing set pieces." He also applauded the convergence of the characters in the film, saying that it "focuses on three men whose contrasting temperaments knit this episodic exploration of peril and bravery into a coherent and satisfying story."[34] Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the performances of Renner, Mackie, and Geraghty would raise their profiles considerably, and said their characters reveal their "unlooked-for aspects", such as Renner's character being playful with an Iraqi boy. Turan applauded Boal's "lean and compelling" script and said of Bigelow's direction, "Bigelow and her team bring an awesome ferocity to re-creating the unhinged mania of bomb removal in an alien, culturally unfathomable atmosphere."[35]
Guy Westwell of Sight & Sound wrote that the cinematographer Barry Ackroyd provided "sharp handheld coverage" and that Paul N.J. Ottosson's sound design "uses the barely perceptible ringing of tinnitus to amp up the tension."[36] Westwell praised the director's skill:

"The careful mapping of the subtle differences between each bomb, the play with point of view ... and the attenuation of key action sequences ... lends the film a distinctive quality that can only be attributed to Bigelow's clever, confident direction."[36]
The critic noted the film's different take on the Iraq War, writing that "it confronts the fact that men often take great pleasure in war."[36] He concluded,

"This unapologetic celebration of a testosterone-fuelled lust for war may gall. Yet there is something original and distinctive about the film's willingness to admit that for some men (and many moviegoers) war carries an intrinsic dramatic charge."[36]
Amy Taubin of Film Comment described The Hurt Locker as "a structuralist war movie" and "a totally immersive, off-the-charts high-anxiety experience from beginning to end." Taubin praised Ackroyd's "brilliant" cinematography with multiple viewpoints. She said of the film's editing, "Bob Murawski and Chris Innis's editing is similarly quick and nervous; the rapid changes in POV as they cut from one camera's coverage to another's makes you feel as if you, like the characters, are under threat from all sides."[37]
Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal called it "A first-rate action thriller, a vivid evocation of urban warfare in Iraq, a penetrating study of heroism and a showcase for austere technique, terse writing and a trio of brilliant performances."[38] The Toronto Star critic Peter Howell said, "Just when you think the battle of Iraq war dramas has been fought and lost, along comes one that demands to be seen... If you can sit through The Hurt Locker without your heart nearly pounding through your chest, you must be made of granite."[39] Entertainment Weekly's film critic Lisa Schwarzbaum gave the film the rare "A" rating, calling it, "an intense, action-driven war pic, a muscular, efficient standout that simultaneously conveys the feeling of combat from within as well as what it looks like on the ground. This ain't no war videogame."[40]
Derek Elley of Variety found The Hurt Locker to be "gripping" as a thriller but felt that the film was weakened by, "its fuzzy (and hardly original) psychology." Elley wrote that it was unclear to know where the drama lay: "These guys get by on old-fashioned guts and instinct rather than sissy hardware—but it's not a pure men-under-stress drama either." The critic also felt that the script showed "signs of artificially straining for character depth."[41] Anne Thompson, also writing for Variety, believed The Hurt Locker to be a contender for Best Picture, particularly based on the unique subject matter pursued by a female director and on being an exception to other films about the Iraq War, which had performed poorly.[42]
Tara McKelvey from The American Prospect wrote that the film is pro-U.S. Army propaganda, although it suggests it is anti-war with the opening statement: "War is a drug." She continues,

"You feel empathy for the soldiers when they shoot. And in this way, the full impact of the Iraq war—at least as it was fought in 2004—becomes clear: American soldiers shot at Iraqi civilians even when, for example, they just happened to be holding a cell phone and standing near an IED." She concludes, "For all the graphic violence, bloody explosions and, literally, human butchery that is shown in the film, The Hurt Locker is one of the most effective recruiting vehicles for the U.S. Army that I have seen."[43]
John Pilger, journalist and documentarian, criticized the film in the New Statesman, writing that it "offers a vicarious thrill via yet another standard-issue psychopath high on violence in somebody else's country where the deaths of a million people are consigned to cinematic oblivion."[44]
On June 12, 2014, The Huffington Post listed The Hurt Locker as one of several films on its "8 Movies From The Last 15 Years That Are Super Overated" list. [45]
Response among veterans[edit]
The film was criticized by some Iraq veterans and embedded reporters for inaccurately portraying wartime conditions.[46] Writing for The Huffington Post, Iraq veteran Kate Hoit said that The Hurt Locker is "Hollywood's version of the Iraq war and of the soldiers who fight it, and their version is inaccurate." She described the film as being more accurate than other recently released war films, but expressed concerns that a number of errors—among them wrong uniforms, lack of radio communication or misbehavior of the soldiers—would prevent service members from enjoying the film.[47]
Author Brandon Friedman, also a combat veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, shared a similar view at VetVoice: "The Hurt Locker is a high-tension, well-made, action movie that will certainly keep most viewers on the edges of their seats. But if you know anything about the Army, or about operations or life in Iraq, you'll be so distracted by the nonsensical sequences and plot twists that it will ruin the movie for you. It certainly did for me." Friedman criticized the inaccuracy of the film's representation of combat, saying "in real life, EOD techs don't conduct dangerous missions as autonomous three-man teams without communications gear ... Another thing you'll rarely hear in combat is an EOD E-7 suggesting to two or three of his guys that they leave the scene of an explosion in an Iraqi city by saying: 'C'mon, let's split up. We can cover more ground that way.'"[48]
At the blog Army of Dude, infantryman and Iraq veteran Alex Horton noted that "the way the team goes about their missions is completely absurd." He still generally enjoyed it and called it "the best Iraq movie to date."[49]
Troy Steward, another combat veteran, wrote on the blog Bouhammer that while the film accurately depicted the scale of bomb violence and the relations between Iraqis and troops, "just about everything else wasn't realistic." Steward went on to say: "I was amazed that a movie so bad could get any kind of accolades from anyone."[50]
A review published March 8, 2010 in the Air Force Times[51] cited overall negative reviews from bomb experts in Iraq attached to the 4th Brigade, 1st Armored Division, quoting a bomb disposal team leader who called the film's portrayal of a bomb expert "grossly exaggerated and not appropriate," and describing the lead character as "more of a run and gun cowboy type … exactly the kind of person that we're not looking for." Another bomb disposal team member said that the lead character's "swagger would put a whole team at risk. Our team leaders don't have that kind of invincibility complex, and if they do, they aren't allowed to operate. A team leader's first priority is getting his team home in one piece."
On the embedded side, former correspondent for The Politico and Military Times Christian Lowe (who embedded with U.S. military units each year from 2002 to 2005) explained at DefenseTech: "Some of the scenes are so disconnected with reality to be almost parody."[52]
On the other hand, Henry Engelhardt, an adjutant with the National Explosive Ordnance Disposal Association having 20 years' experience in bomb defusal, complimented the film's atmosphere and depiction of the difficulties of the job, saying, "Of course, no film is realistic in all its details, but the important things were done very well."[53] Screenwriter Mark Boal noted that The Hurt Locker was produced independently, without US Army extras.[54]
Former British bomb disposal officer Guy Marot said, “James makes us look like hot-headed, irrational adrenaline junkies with no self-discipline. It’s immensely disrespectful to the many officers who have lost their lives.” [55]
Lawsuits[edit]
Sarver lawsuit[edit]
In early March 2010, U.S. Army bomb disposal expert Master Sergeant Jeffrey Sarver filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against The Hurt Locker. Sarver's lawsuit claimed he used the term "hurt locker" and the phrase "war is a drug" around Boal, that his likeness was used to create the character William James, and that the portrayal of William James defames Sarver.[56] Sarver said he felt "just a little bit hurt, a little bit felt left out" and cheated out of "financial participation" in the film.[57] Sarver claimed he originated the title of the film; however, the title is a decades-old colloquialism for being injured, as in "they sent him to the hurt locker."[58] It dates back to the Vietnam War where it was one of several phrases meaning "in trouble or at a disadvantage; in bad shape."[59] Boal defended himself to the press, saying "the film is a work of fiction inspired by many people's stories."[57] He said he talked to more than 100 soldiers during his research.[60] Jody Simon, a Los Angeles-based entertainment lawyer, noted that "soldiers don't have privacy", and that when the military embedded Boal they gave him full permission to use his observations as he saw fit. Summit Entertainment, the producers of the film, said in early March that they hoped for a quick resolution to the suit.[57] In the December 8, 2011, issue of The Hollywood Reporter, it was announced that Master Sergeant Sarver's lawsuit was thrown out by the court, and a federal judge ordered him to pay more than $180,000 in attorney fees.[61]
Copyright infringement lawsuit[edit]
On May 12, 2010, Voltage Pictures, the production company behind The Hurt Locker, announced that it would attempt to sue "potentially tens of thousands" of online computer users who downloaded pirated copies of the film using the BitTorrent and P2P networks. It would be the largest lawsuit of its kind.[62][63] On May 28, 2010, it filed a complaint against 5,000 unidentified BitTorrent users in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia; Voltage will demand $1,500 from each defendant to release them from the suit.[64] Several people, however, have refused to settle with the studio.[65] The U.S. Copyright Group (USCG) has since dropped all cases against the alleged Hurt Locker pirates.[66]
On August 29, 2011, the Federal Court of Canada ordered the three Canadian ISPs—Bell Canada, Cogeco, and Vidéotron—to disclose the names and addresses of the subscribers whose IP addresses were suspected to have downloaded a copy of the film. The ISPs were given two weeks to comply with the order.[67]
Release[edit]
Festival screenings[edit]
The Hurt Locker had its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival on September 4, 2008, and the film received a 10-minute standing ovation at the end of its screening.[68] At the festival, the film won the SIGNIS award,[69] the Arca Cinemagiovani Award (Arca Young Cinema Award) for "Best Film Venezia 65" (chosen by an international youth jury); the Human Rights Film Network Award; and the Venezia Cinema Award known as the "Navicella".[70] The film also screened at the 33rd Annual Toronto International Film Festival on September 8,[68] where it generated "keen interest", though distributors were reluctant to buy it since previous films about the Iraq War performed poorly at the box office.[71] Summit Entertainment purchased the film for distribution in the United States in what was perceived as "a skittish climate for pic sales".[72]
In the rest of 2008, The Hurt Locker screened at the 3rd Zurich Film Festival,[73] the 37th Festival du Nouveau Cinéma, the 21st Mar del Plata Film Festival,[74] the 5th Dubai International Film Festival, and the 12th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival.[75] In 2009, The Hurt Locker screened at the Göteborg International Film Festival,[76] the 10th Film Comment Selects festival,[77] and the South by Southwest film festival.[78] It was the closing night film at Maryland Film Festival 2009, with Bigelow presenting. It had a centerpiece screening at the 3rd AFI Dallas International Film Festival, where director Kathryn Bigelow received the Dallas Star Award.[79] Other 2009 festivals included the Human Rights Nights International Film Festival,[80] the Seattle International Film Festival,[81] and the Philadelphia Film Festival.[82]
Theatrical run[edit]
The Hurt Locker was first publicly released in Italy by Warner Bros. on October 10, 2008.[68] Summit Entertainment picked the film up for distribution in the United States after it was shown at the Toronto International Film Festival for $1.5 million.[83] The Hurt Locker was released in the United States on June 26, 2009, with a limited release at four theaters in Los Angeles and New York City.[84] Over its first weekend the film grossed $145,352, averaging $36,338 per theater. The following weekend, beginning July 3, the film grossed $131,202 at nine theaters, averaging $14,578 per theater.[85] It held the highest per-screen average of any film playing theatrically in the United States for the first two weeks of its release,[1] gradually moving into the top 20 chart with much wider-released, bigger budget studio films.[86] It held around number 13 or number 14 on box office charts for an additional four weeks. Summit Entertainment took The Hurt Locker wider to more than 200 screens on July 24, 2009 and more than 500 screens on July 31, 2009.
The film's final gross was $17,017,811 in the United States and Canada, and $32,212,961 in other countries, bringing its worldwide total to $49,230,772 (less than any other Best Picture winner). It was a success against its budget of $15 million.[1]
According to the Los Angeles Times, The Hurt Locker performed better than most recent dramas about Middle East conflict. The film outperformed all other Iraq-war-themed films such as In the Valley of Elah (2007), Stop-Loss (2008) and Afghanistan-themed Lions for Lambs (2007).[83]
In the United States, The Hurt Locker is one of only four Best Picture winners (The English Patient, Amadeus, and The Artist being the other three) to never enter the weekend box office top 5 since top 10 rankings were first recorded in 1982. It is also one of the only two Best Picture winners on record never to have entered the weekend box office top 10 (The Artist being the other).
The Hurt Locker opened in the top ten in the United Kingdom in 103 theaters, scoring the fourth-highest per-screen average of $3,607, ranking between G-Force and G.I. Joe in overall grosses. The film garnered half a million dollars in its opening weekend in the United Kingdom of August 28 through August 30, 2009,[87] and grossed over a million dollars in the UK, Japan, Spain, and France through March.[88]
Distribution: Independent film print shortage[edit]
According to an article in the Springfield, Illinois State Journal-Register, as of August 2009 there was a shortage of film prints of The Hurt Locker, as well as other hit independent films such as Food, Inc.[89] Distributors told theater owners that they would have to wait weeks or months past the initial U.S. release date to get the few available prints that were already in distribution. "Sometimes the distributors goof up," said a film buyer for one theater. "They misjudge how wide they should go."[89] One theory is that the independent films have a hard time competing for screen space during the summer against blockbuster tent-pole films that take up as much as half the screens in any given city, flooding the United States market with thousands of prints. Theater owners have also complained about distributors "bunching too many movies too close together".[89][90] It is also thought that independent film distributors are trying to cut their losses on prints by recycling them. Given the popularity of some of the films that are "hard to come by", this strategy may be leaving box office money on the table.[89][90]
Home media[edit]
 The Hurt Locker was released on DVD and Blu-ray in North America on January 12, 2010. This disc includes an added audio commentary featuring director Kathryn Bigelow, writer Mark Boal, and other members of the production crew; an image gallery of photos from shooting; and a 15-minute EPK featurette highlighting the filming experience in Jordan and the film's production. The UK DVD and Blu-ray has no commentary.
U.S. sales of the DVD topped $30 million by mid-August 2010.[91]
Awards and accolades[edit]


Main article: List of accolades received by The Hurt Locker
Starting with its initial screening at the 2008 Venice International Film Festival, The Hurt Locker has earned many awards and honors. It also ranked on more film critics' top 10 lists than any other film of 2009. It was nominated in nine categories at the 82nd Academy Awards and won in six: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Film Editing. It lost the award for Best Actor to Crazy Heart, Best Original Score to Up, and Best Cinematography to Avatar.[92] Bigelow became the first woman to win an Oscar for Best Director,[93] and The Hurt Locker is to date, the lowest-grossing film to win Best Picture.[94]
Kathryn Bigelow was awarded the 2009 Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Achievement in Feature Film for the film, the first time a female director has ever won.[95] The film won six awards at the BAFTAs held on February 21, 2010, including Best Film and Best Director for Bigelow. The Hurt Locker was nominated for three Golden Globe Awards.[96]
The Washington DC Area Film Critics award for Best Director was given to Kathryn Bigelow, the first time the honor has gone to a woman. The film swept most critics groups awards for best director and best picture including Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Boston, and Las Vegas' film critics associations. The Hurt Locker is one of only five films that have won all three major U.S. critics group prizes (NY, LA and NSFC), together with Goodfellas, Schindler's List, L.A. Confidential and The Social Network.
The five awards from the Boston Society of Film Critics were the most by that organization to a single film in the group's 30-year history.[97]
In February 2010, the film's producer Nicolas Chartier emailed a group of Academy Award voters in an attempt to sway them to vote for The Hurt Locker instead of "a $500M film" (referring to Avatar) for the Best Picture award. He later issued a public apology, saying that it was "out of line and not in the spirit of the celebration of cinema that this acknowledgment is".[98] The Academy banned him from attending the award ceremony, the first time the Academy has ever banned an individual nominee.[99]
See also[edit]

Portal icon Iraq portal
Nine From Aberdeen, a 2012 book by Jeffrey M. Leatherwood on the WWII forerunners of EOD, with an afterword by CSM James H. Clifford, military consultant for The Hurt Locker.
References[edit]
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83.^ Jump up to: a b Horn, John (August 5, 2009). "The Hurt Locker defies the odds". The Los Angeles Times.
84.Jump up ^ McClintock, Pamela (June 23, 2009). "'Transformers' expected to crash B.O.". Variety. Retrieved 2009-08-17.
85.Jump up ^ "The Hurt Locker (2009) – Weekend Box Office Results". Box Office Mojo. Amazon.com. Retrieved 2009-08-17.
86.Jump up ^ "'Harry Potter' franchise shows no sign of slowing". Associated Press. July 20, 2009. Retrieved 2010-04-06.
87.Jump up ^ "United Kingdom Box Office, August 28–30, 2009". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2010-04-07.
88.Jump up ^ "The Hurt Locker (2009) – International Box Office Results". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2009-10-10.
89.^ Jump up to: a b c d Mackey, Brian (August 27, 2009). "Brian Mackey: Declare your love for indie films.". The State Journal-Register.
90.^ Jump up to: a b McClintock, Pamela (March 27, 2009). "Theaters deal with glut of new films: Sequels, Tentpoles Crowd Release Schedule". Variety.
91.Jump up ^ "The Hurt Locker – DVD Sales". The Numbers. Nash Information Services. May 30, 2010. Retrieved 2010-05-30.
92.Jump up ^ "The 82nd Academy Awards (2010) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 2011-11-22.
93.Jump up ^ Carter, Nicole (March 8, 2010). "'The Hurt Locker' is lowest-grossing movie to ever win Best Picture, but it may get post-Oscar bump". NY Daily News. Retrieved 2010-04-06.
94.Jump up ^ Venutolo, Anthony (March 7, 2010). "Academy Awards: Kathryn Bigelow is the first woman to win an Oscar for best director". nj.com. Retrieved 2010-04-06.
95.Jump up ^ Bowles, Scott (February 1, 2010). "Kathryn Bigelow tops directors with 'Hurt Locker'". USA Today.
96.Jump up ^ "Complete List of 2010 Golden Globe Nominations". Eonline. December 15, 2009.
97.Jump up ^ Kimmel, Daniel (December 13, 2009). "'Hurt Locker' tops with Boston critics: Pic takes four other kudos as journos hand out honors". Variety.
98.Jump up ^ Hammond, Pete (2010-02-25). "'Hurt Letter' plot thickens after producer offers mea culpa". Los Angeles Times. Notes on a Season. Archived from the original on February 28, 2010. Retrieved 2010-02-25.
99.Jump up ^ Zeitchik, Steven (March 3, 2010). "'Hurt Locker' producer banned from Oscars". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2010-04-06.
Bibliography[edit]
Thomson, Patricia (July 2009). "Risk and Valor: The Hurt Locker". American Cinematographer 90 (7): 44–50.
Further reading[edit]
Barker, Martin (2011). A 'Toxic Genre': The Iraq War Films. London: Pluto Press. ISBN 978-0745331294.
External links[edit]
 Wikiquote has quotations related to: The Hurt Locker
 Look up hurt locker in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Official website
The Hurt Locker at the Internet Movie Database
The Hurt Locker at Rotten Tomatoes
The Hurt Locker at Metacritic


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The Hurt Locker
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search

"Hurt Locker" redirects here. For the song by American rapper Xzibit, see Hurt Locker (song). For the Glee episode, see The Hurt Locker, Part One and The Hurt Locker, Part Two.

The Hurt Locker
From above a flat and dry desert floor, a person in a green military uniform with heavy padding holds red wires attached to seven pill-shaped bomb canisters scattered around him. At the top of the poster are three critics' favorable opinions: "A near-perfect movie", "A full-tilt action picture", and "Ferociously suspenseful". Below the quotes is the title "THE HURT LOCKER" and the tagline, "You don't have to be a hero to do this job. But it helps."
Theatrical release poster

Directed by
Kathryn Bigelow
Produced by
Kathryn Bigelow
Mark Boal
Nicolas Chartier
 Greg Shapiro
Written by
Mark Boal
Starring
Jeremy Renner
Anthony Mackie
Brian Geraghty
Christian Camargo
Evangeline Lilly
Ralph Fiennes
David Morse
Guy Pearce
Music by
Marco Beltrami
 Buck Sanders
Cinematography
Barry Ackroyd
Edited by
Chris Innis
Bob Murawski

Production
 company

Voltage Pictures
Grosvenor Park Media
 Film Capital Europe Funds
 First Light Production
 Kingsgate Films
Summit Entertainment

Distributed by
Warner Bros. (Italy)
Summit Entertainment/
Universal Studios (USA)
Lionsgate/
Optimum Releasing (UK)

Release dates

September 4, 2008 (Venice)
June 26, 2009 (United States)


Running time
 131 minutes
Country
United States
Language
English
Budget
$15 million[1]
Box office
$49.2 million[1]
The Hurt Locker is a 2008 American war film about a three-man Explosive Ordnance Disposal (bomb disposal) team during the Iraq War. The film was produced and directed by Kathryn Bigelow and the screenplay was written by Mark Boal, a freelance writer who was embedded as a journalist in 2004 with a U.S. Army EOD team in Iraq. It stars Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, and Brian Geraghty. It won six Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director for Bigelow.
The Hurt Locker premiered at the Venice Film Festival in Italy during 2008. After being shown at the Toronto International Film Festival, it was picked up for distribution in the United States by Summit Entertainment. In May 2009, it was the Closing Night selection for Maryland Film Festival. The film was released in the United States on June 26, 2009 but received a more widespread theatrical release on July 24, 2009.
Because the film was not released in the United States until 2009, it was eligible for the 82nd Academy Awards, where it was nominated for nine Academy Awards. Although the film had not covered its budget by the time of the ceremony,[2] it won six Oscars, including Best Director for Bigelow, the first woman to win this award, and Best Picture. Boal won for Best Original Screenplay. The Hurt Locker earned numerous awards and honors from critics' organizations, festivals and groups, including six BAFTA Awards. However, it received criticism by some in the military for various inaccuracies. The Hurt Locker is identified as the "lowest-grossing movie to ever win Best Picture" in Academy Award, as of 2010.[3]


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production 3.1 Writing
3.2 Casting
3.3 Filming
3.4 Cinematography
3.5 Editing
4 Reception 4.1 Critical response
4.2 Response among veterans
5 Lawsuits 5.1 Sarver lawsuit
5.2 Copyright infringement lawsuit
6 Release 6.1 Festival screenings
6.2 Theatrical run
6.3 Distribution: Independent film print shortage
6.4 Home media
7 Awards and accolades
8 See also
9 References
10 Bibliography
11 Further reading
12 External links

Plot[edit]
The Hurt Locker opens with a quotation from War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, a best-selling 2002 book by Chris Hedges, a New York Times war correspondent and journalist: "The rush of battle is a potent and often lethal addiction, for war is a drug."[4][5][6]
Sergeant First Class William James (Jeremy Renner), a battle-tested veteran, arrives as a new team leader of a U.S. Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) unit in the Iraq War,[7][8] replacing Staff Sergeant Matthew Thompson (Guy Pearce), who was killed by a radio-controlled 155mm improvised explosive device (IED) in Baghdad. His team includes Sergeant J.T. Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) and Specialist Owen Eldridge (Brian Geraghty).
James' maverick methods and attitude lead Sanborn and Eldridge to consider him reckless, and tensions mount. When they are assigned to destroy some explosives in a remote desert area, James returns to the detonation site to pick up his gloves. Sanborn openly contemplates killing James by "accidentally" triggering the explosion, making Eldridge very uncomfortable, but Sanborn does nothing.
Returning to Camp Victory in their Humvee, the team encounters five armed men in traditional Arab garb standing near the men's Ford Excursion, which has a flat tire. After a tense encounter, the men reveal themselves to be private military contractors and British mercenaries. They have captured two prisoners featured on the most-wanted Iraqi playing cards. The entire group suddenly comes under fire, and when the prisoners attempt to escape in the confusion, the leader of the mercenaries (Ralph Fiennes) remembers the bounty for them is "dead or alive" and shoots them. Enemy snipers kill three of the mercenaries, including the leader. Sanborn and James borrow a Barrett .50 cal to dispatch three attackers, while Eldridge kills a fourth.
During a raid on a warehouse, James discovers the body of a young boy, which has been surgically implanted with an unexploded bomb. James believes it to be "Beckham" (Christopher Sayegh), an Iraqi youth he had previously befriended. During evacuation, Lieutenant Colonel John Cambridge (Christian Camargo), the camp's psychiatrist and a friend of Eldridge's, is killed in an explosion; Eldridge blames himself for the Colonel's death. Later, James leaves the military compound seeking revenge for Beckham and breaks into the house of an Iraqi professor, but his search reveals nothing and he leaves.
Called to a petrol tanker detonation, James decides on his own to hunt for the insurgents responsible, guessing they are still in the immediate area. Sanborn protests, but when James heads out, he and Eldridge reluctantly follow. After they split up, insurgents capture Eldridge. James and Sanborn rescue him, but accidentally shoot him in the leg. The following morning, James is approached by Beckham, who James believed was dead. The young boy tries to play soccer with James and sell him more DVDs, but the soldier walks by without saying a word. Before being airlifted for surgery elsewhere, Eldridge angrily blames James for his injury.
James and Sanborn's unit is called to another mission in their last two days of their rotation. An innocent Iraqi civilian man has had a bomb vest strapped to his chest. James tries to cut off the locks to remove the vest, but there are too many to undo in the time available before the bomb will detonate. He has to abandon the man, who is killed when the bomb explodes. Sanborn is left distraught by the man's death. He confesses to James that he can no longer cope with the pressure, and he wants to return home and have a son.
After Bravo Company's rotation ends, James returns home to his ex wife, Connie and their infant son who both still live with him in his house (Evangeline Lilly). However, he is bored and disconnected from routine civilian life, with its ordinary tasks of shopping at the supermarket and family dinners. One night, James confesses to his son that there is only one thing that he knows he loves. Shortly thereafter, he starts another tour of duty serving with Delta Company, U.S. Army EOD unit as they are starting their 365-day rotation.
Cast[edit]
Jeremy Renner as Sergeant First Class William James
Anthony Mackie as Sergeant J. T. Sanborn
Brian Geraghty as Specialist Owen Eldridge
Guy Pearce as Staff Sergeant Matthew Thompson
Christian Camargo as Lieutenant Colonel John Cambridge
David Morse as Colonel Reed
Ralph Fiennes as the leader of a Private Military Company unit
Evangeline Lilly as Connie James
Christopher Sayegh as Beckham
Production[edit]
Writing[edit]
The Hurt Locker is based on accounts of Mark Boal, a freelance journalist who was embedded with an American bomb squad in the war in Iraq for two weeks in 2004.[9] The director Kathryn Bigelow was familiar with Boal's work before his experiences, having adapted one of his Playboy articles as the short-lived television series The Inside in 2002. When Boal was embedded with the squad, he accompanied its members 10 to 15 times a day to watch their tasks, and kept in touch with Bigelow via email about his experiences.[10] Boal used his experiences as the basis of a fictional drama based on real events. He said of the film's goal, "The idea is that it's the first movie about the Iraq War that purports to show the experience of the soldiers. We wanted to show the kinds of things that soldiers go through that you can't see on CNN, and I don't mean that in a censorship-conspiracy way. I just mean the news doesn't actually put photographers in with units that are this elite."[11] Bigelow was fascinated with exploring "the psychology behind the type of soldier who volunteers for this particular conflict and then, because of his or her aptitude, is chosen and given the opportunity to go into bomb disarmament and goes toward what everybody else is running from."[12]
While working with Boal in 2005 on the script, originally titled The Something Jacket, Bigelow began to do some preliminary, rough storyboards to get an idea of the specific location needed. Bomb disarmament protocol requires a containment area. She wanted to make the film as authentic as possible and "put the audience into the Humvee, into a boots-on-the-ground experience."[12]
Casting[edit]





Jeremy Renner



Anthony Mackie



Brian Geraghty

For the main characters, Bigelow made a point of casting relatively unknown actors: "it underscored the tension because with the lack of familiarity also comes a sense of unpredictability."[12] Renner's character, Sergeant First Class William James, is a composite character, with qualities based on individuals whom screenwriter Boal knew when embedded with the bomb squad.[10] Bigelow cast Renner based on his work in Dahmer, a film about Jeffrey Dahmer, the notorious serial killer whose victims were boys.[13] To prepare for the film, Renner spent a week living and training at Fort Irwin, a U.S. military reservation in the Mojave Desert in California. He was taught to use C4 explosives, learned how to render safe improvised explosive devices, and how to wear a bomb suit.[13]
Mackie plays Sergeant J.T. Sanborn. Describing the experience of filming in Jordan in the summer, he said, "It was so desperately hot, and we were so easily agitated. But that movie was like doing a play. We really looked out for each other, and it was a great experience. It made me believe in film."[14]
Several hundred thousand refugees of Iraq live in Jordan. Bigelow cast refugees who had theatrical backgrounds, such as Suhail Aldabbach. He plays the innocent man used as a suicide bomber at the film's end.[10]
Filming[edit]
The film was shot in Jordan, within miles of the Iraqi border, to achieve Bigelow's goal of authenticity. Iraqi refugees were used for extras and the cast worked in the unmistakable heat of the Middle East. The filmmakers had scouted for locations in Morocco, but director Kathryn Bigelow felt its cities did not resemble Baghdad. In addition, she wanted to get as close to the war zone as possible. Some of the locations were less than three miles from the Iraq border.[15] She had wanted to shoot in Iraq, but the production security team could not guarantee their safety from snipers.[12]
Principal photography began in July 2007 in Jordan and Kuwait. Temperatures averaged 120 °F (49 °C) over the 44 days of shooting.[11][12][13] Often four or more camera crews filmed simultaneously, which resulted in nearly 200 hours of footage.[15][16] The producer Greg Shapiro spoke about security concerns of filming in Jordan, "It was interesting telling people we were going to make the movie in Jordan because the first question everybody asked was about the security situation here."
Her choice to film in the Kingdom met some resistance. In discussion, Bigelow found that her cast and crew shared stereotypes of the region from American culture. “Sadly people in America and Los Angeles have these perceptions,” she said. “But once you get off the plane you realise it's like Manhattan without the trees,” she continued. As Iraq dominates discourse in America and across the world, Bigelow believes filmmakers will continue to explore the conflict, making Jordan the natural place to film.[17]
According to producer Tony Mark, the blood, sweat and heat captured on-camera in the production was mirrored behind the scenes.

"It's a tough, tough movie about a tough, tough subject", Mark said in an interview, "There was a palpable tension throughout on the set. It was just like the onscreen story of three guys who fight with each other, but when the time comes to do the work, they come together to get the job done."[18]
Renner remembered, "I got food bugs. Then I got food poisoning: lost 15 lbs in three days".[13] In addition to the burden of the heat, the bomb suit he had to wear all day weighed 80–100 lb (36–45 kg).[19] In a scene in which his character carries a dead Iraqi boy, Renner fell down some stairs and twisted his ankle, which delayed filming because he could not walk. At that point, "people wanted to quit. All the departments were struggling to get their job done, none of them were communicating".[13] A week later, filming resumed.[13]
The producer Tony Mark recalled the armorer David Fencl's finishing a 12-hour day. He found he had to stay up all night to make proper ammunition for a sniper rifle, as the supplies did not clear Jordanian customs in time for the scheduled shoot.[18] Due to import restrictions on military props, the film's special effects artist Richard Stutsman used Chinese fireworks for gunpowder. One day, he was assembling a prop, and the heat and friction caused the fireworks to blow up in his face. Two days later, he returned to work.[13] The film shoot had few of the normal Hollywood perks; nobody on the set got an air-conditioned trailer or a private bathroom.[18] Renner said that great care was taken to ensure the film's authenticity.[20] According to Renner, shooting the film in the Middle East contributed to this. "There were two-by-fours with nails being dropped from two-story buildings that hit me in the helmet, and they were throwing rocks.... We got shot at a few times while we were filming", Renner said. "When you see it, you're gonna feel like you've been in war."[21]

"You can't fake that amount of heat", Mackie says, adding, "When you are on set and all of the extras are Iraqi refugees, it really informs the movie that you're making. When you start hearing the stories from a true perspective ... of people who were actually there, it gives you a clear viewpoint of where you are as an artist and the story you would like to tell. It was a great experience to be there."[22]
Cinematography[edit]
For the film, Bigelow sought to immerse audiences "into something that was raw, immediate and visceral". Impressed with cinematographer Barry Ackroyd's work on United 93 and The Wind That Shakes the Barley, Bigelow invited him to work on her film. While the film was independently produced and filmed on a low budget, Bigelow used four Super 16 mm cameras to capture multiple perspectives, saying,

"That's how we experience reality, by looking at the microcosm and the macrocosm simultaneously. The eye sees differently than the lens, but with multiple focal lengths and a muscular editorial style, the lens can give you that microcosm/macrocosm perspective, and that contributes to the feeling of total immersion."[23]
In staging the film's action sequences, Bigelow did not want to lose a sense of the geography and used multiple cameras to allow her to "look at any particular set piece from every possible perspective."[12]
Editing[edit]
The Hurt Locker was edited by Chris Innis and Bob Murawski.[24][25] The two editors worked with almost 200 hours of footage from the multiple hand-held cameras in use during the shoot.[25] Adding to the challenge, Boal's screenplay had a non-traditional, asymmetrical, episodic structure. There was no traditional "villain", and tension was derived from the characters' internal conflicts and the suspense from the explosives and snipers.[25]

"This movie is kind of like a horror film where you're unable to see the killer," says Innis. "You know a bomb could go off at any minute, but you never know just when it's going to happen, so the ideas of [Alfred] Hitchcock—about making your audience anxious—were influential for us when we did the editing."[26]
The raw footage was described as a "hodge-podge of disconnected, nausea-inducing motion that was constantly crossing the 180-degree line".[25]
Innis spent the first eight weeks editing the film on location in Jordan, before returning to Los Angeles, where she was joined by Murawski. The process took over eight months to complete.[24][27] The goal was to edit a brutally realistic portrayal of the realities of war, using minimal special effects or technical enhancement.[24][25] Innis stated that they "really wanted the film to retain that 'newsreel' documentary quality... Too many stage-y effects would have been distracting. The editing in this film was all about restraint".[24]
Editing on location led to additional complications in post-production. The production was unwilling to risk sending undeveloped film through high-security airports where the cans could be opened, X-rayed, or damaged. Accordingly, film was hand-carried on a flight by a production assistant from Amman to London. After the Super 16mm film was transferred to DVcam at a lab in London, the video dailies were transported by plane back to the Middle East to be imported into the editing system. The whole journey would take anywhere from three days to a week and was described by Innis as the "modern-day equivalent of shipping via donkey cart".[25] The low production budget and the lack of a developed film infrastructure in the area hampered the process, according to Innis. "We were working with grainy Super 16mm film, editing in standard definition. We tried doing FTP downloads, but at the time the facilities in Jordan simply couldn't handle it."[24][25] The producer Tony Mark later negotiated the use of a local radio station late at night to receive low-grade QuickTime clips over the Internet so the crew would not be shooting blindly.[25]
Innis stresses the importance of sound to the editing process. "So much of the rhythms of our editing were based on sonic elements—the breathing of the soldiers, the sounds of explosions, or even the emptiness of sound just prior to a bomb going off." The two editors worked with production tracks recorded by Ray Beckett, the production sound mixer. Innis credits Beckett's high-quality location sound as the reason they did not need to do much in the way of soundscaping in post-production.[24]
Reception[edit]


Critical response[edit]
 The Hurt Locker was met with nearly universal acclaim. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a "certified fresh" score of 97% based on 225 reviews, with a weighted mean score of 8.4 out of 10.[28] It was the second highest-rated film in 2009 at Rotten Tomatoes, behind Pixar's Up with 98%. Rotten Tomatoes wrote of the critics' consensus, "A well-acted, intensely shot, action filled war epic, Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker is thus far the best reviewed of the recent dramatizations of the Iraq War."[28] Metacritic, which assigns a rating normalized to 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, reported that the film has received an average score of 94/100 based on 35 reviews.[29]
Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun Times rated the film as the best film of 2009 and the second best of the decade,[30] writing, "The Hurt Locker is a great film, an intelligent film, a film shot clearly so that we know exactly who everybody is and where they are and what they're doing and why." He applauded how the suspense was built, calling the film "spellbinding." Ebert considered Renner "a leading contender for Academy Awards," writing, "His performance is not built on complex speeches but on a visceral projection of who this man is and what he feels. He is not a hero in a conventional sense."[31] He eventually ranked it the second-best film of the decade, behind only Synecdoche, New York.[32]
Richard Corliss of Time magazine also spoke highly of Renner's performance, calling it a highlight of the film. Corliss wrote,

"He's ordinary, pudgy-faced, quiet, and at first seems to lack the screen charisma to carry a film. That supposition vanishes in a few minutes, as Renner slowly reveals the strength, confidence and unpredictability of a young Russell Crowe. The merging of actor and character is one of the big things to love about this movie... It's a creepy marvel to watch James in action. He has the cool aplomb, analytical acumen and attention to detail of a great athlete, or a master psychopath, maybe both."
Corliss praised the film's "steely calm" tone, reflective of its main character. Corliss summarized, "The Hurt Locker is a near-perfect movie about men in war, men at work. Through sturdy imagery and violent action, it says that even Hell needs heroes."[33]
A. O. Scott of The New York Times called The Hurt Locker the best American feature film yet made about the war in Iraq:

"You may emerge from The Hurt Locker shaken, exhilarated and drained, but you will also be thinking ... The movie is a viscerally exciting, adrenaline-soaked tour de force of suspense and surprise, full of explosions and hectic scenes of combat, but it blows a hole in the condescending assumption that such effects are just empty spectacle or mindless noise."
Scott noticed that the film reserved criticism of the war but wrote of how the director handled the film's limits, "Ms. Bigelow, practicing a kind of hyperbolic realism, distills the psychological essence and moral complications of modern warfare into a series of brilliant, agonizing set pieces." He also applauded the convergence of the characters in the film, saying that it "focuses on three men whose contrasting temperaments knit this episodic exploration of peril and bravery into a coherent and satisfying story."[34] Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the performances of Renner, Mackie, and Geraghty would raise their profiles considerably, and said their characters reveal their "unlooked-for aspects", such as Renner's character being playful with an Iraqi boy. Turan applauded Boal's "lean and compelling" script and said of Bigelow's direction, "Bigelow and her team bring an awesome ferocity to re-creating the unhinged mania of bomb removal in an alien, culturally unfathomable atmosphere."[35]
Guy Westwell of Sight & Sound wrote that the cinematographer Barry Ackroyd provided "sharp handheld coverage" and that Paul N.J. Ottosson's sound design "uses the barely perceptible ringing of tinnitus to amp up the tension."[36] Westwell praised the director's skill:

"The careful mapping of the subtle differences between each bomb, the play with point of view ... and the attenuation of key action sequences ... lends the film a distinctive quality that can only be attributed to Bigelow's clever, confident direction."[36]
The critic noted the film's different take on the Iraq War, writing that "it confronts the fact that men often take great pleasure in war."[36] He concluded,

"This unapologetic celebration of a testosterone-fuelled lust for war may gall. Yet there is something original and distinctive about the film's willingness to admit that for some men (and many moviegoers) war carries an intrinsic dramatic charge."[36]
Amy Taubin of Film Comment described The Hurt Locker as "a structuralist war movie" and "a totally immersive, off-the-charts high-anxiety experience from beginning to end." Taubin praised Ackroyd's "brilliant" cinematography with multiple viewpoints. She said of the film's editing, "Bob Murawski and Chris Innis's editing is similarly quick and nervous; the rapid changes in POV as they cut from one camera's coverage to another's makes you feel as if you, like the characters, are under threat from all sides."[37]
Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal called it "A first-rate action thriller, a vivid evocation of urban warfare in Iraq, a penetrating study of heroism and a showcase for austere technique, terse writing and a trio of brilliant performances."[38] The Toronto Star critic Peter Howell said, "Just when you think the battle of Iraq war dramas has been fought and lost, along comes one that demands to be seen... If you can sit through The Hurt Locker without your heart nearly pounding through your chest, you must be made of granite."[39] Entertainment Weekly's film critic Lisa Schwarzbaum gave the film the rare "A" rating, calling it, "an intense, action-driven war pic, a muscular, efficient standout that simultaneously conveys the feeling of combat from within as well as what it looks like on the ground. This ain't no war videogame."[40]
Derek Elley of Variety found The Hurt Locker to be "gripping" as a thriller but felt that the film was weakened by, "its fuzzy (and hardly original) psychology." Elley wrote that it was unclear to know where the drama lay: "These guys get by on old-fashioned guts and instinct rather than sissy hardware—but it's not a pure men-under-stress drama either." The critic also felt that the script showed "signs of artificially straining for character depth."[41] Anne Thompson, also writing for Variety, believed The Hurt Locker to be a contender for Best Picture, particularly based on the unique subject matter pursued by a female director and on being an exception to other films about the Iraq War, which had performed poorly.[42]
Tara McKelvey from The American Prospect wrote that the film is pro-U.S. Army propaganda, although it suggests it is anti-war with the opening statement: "War is a drug." She continues,

"You feel empathy for the soldiers when they shoot. And in this way, the full impact of the Iraq war—at least as it was fought in 2004—becomes clear: American soldiers shot at Iraqi civilians even when, for example, they just happened to be holding a cell phone and standing near an IED." She concludes, "For all the graphic violence, bloody explosions and, literally, human butchery that is shown in the film, The Hurt Locker is one of the most effective recruiting vehicles for the U.S. Army that I have seen."[43]
John Pilger, journalist and documentarian, criticized the film in the New Statesman, writing that it "offers a vicarious thrill via yet another standard-issue psychopath high on violence in somebody else's country where the deaths of a million people are consigned to cinematic oblivion."[44]
On June 12, 2014, The Huffington Post listed The Hurt Locker as one of several films on its "8 Movies From The Last 15 Years That Are Super Overated" list. [45]
Response among veterans[edit]
The film was criticized by some Iraq veterans and embedded reporters for inaccurately portraying wartime conditions.[46] Writing for The Huffington Post, Iraq veteran Kate Hoit said that The Hurt Locker is "Hollywood's version of the Iraq war and of the soldiers who fight it, and their version is inaccurate." She described the film as being more accurate than other recently released war films, but expressed concerns that a number of errors—among them wrong uniforms, lack of radio communication or misbehavior of the soldiers—would prevent service members from enjoying the film.[47]
Author Brandon Friedman, also a combat veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, shared a similar view at VetVoice: "The Hurt Locker is a high-tension, well-made, action movie that will certainly keep most viewers on the edges of their seats. But if you know anything about the Army, or about operations or life in Iraq, you'll be so distracted by the nonsensical sequences and plot twists that it will ruin the movie for you. It certainly did for me." Friedman criticized the inaccuracy of the film's representation of combat, saying "in real life, EOD techs don't conduct dangerous missions as autonomous three-man teams without communications gear ... Another thing you'll rarely hear in combat is an EOD E-7 suggesting to two or three of his guys that they leave the scene of an explosion in an Iraqi city by saying: 'C'mon, let's split up. We can cover more ground that way.'"[48]
At the blog Army of Dude, infantryman and Iraq veteran Alex Horton noted that "the way the team goes about their missions is completely absurd." He still generally enjoyed it and called it "the best Iraq movie to date."[49]
Troy Steward, another combat veteran, wrote on the blog Bouhammer that while the film accurately depicted the scale of bomb violence and the relations between Iraqis and troops, "just about everything else wasn't realistic." Steward went on to say: "I was amazed that a movie so bad could get any kind of accolades from anyone."[50]
A review published March 8, 2010 in the Air Force Times[51] cited overall negative reviews from bomb experts in Iraq attached to the 4th Brigade, 1st Armored Division, quoting a bomb disposal team leader who called the film's portrayal of a bomb expert "grossly exaggerated and not appropriate," and describing the lead character as "more of a run and gun cowboy type … exactly the kind of person that we're not looking for." Another bomb disposal team member said that the lead character's "swagger would put a whole team at risk. Our team leaders don't have that kind of invincibility complex, and if they do, they aren't allowed to operate. A team leader's first priority is getting his team home in one piece."
On the embedded side, former correspondent for The Politico and Military Times Christian Lowe (who embedded with U.S. military units each year from 2002 to 2005) explained at DefenseTech: "Some of the scenes are so disconnected with reality to be almost parody."[52]
On the other hand, Henry Engelhardt, an adjutant with the National Explosive Ordnance Disposal Association having 20 years' experience in bomb defusal, complimented the film's atmosphere and depiction of the difficulties of the job, saying, "Of course, no film is realistic in all its details, but the important things were done very well."[53] Screenwriter Mark Boal noted that The Hurt Locker was produced independently, without US Army extras.[54]
Former British bomb disposal officer Guy Marot said, “James makes us look like hot-headed, irrational adrenaline junkies with no self-discipline. It’s immensely disrespectful to the many officers who have lost their lives.” [55]
Lawsuits[edit]
Sarver lawsuit[edit]
In early March 2010, U.S. Army bomb disposal expert Master Sergeant Jeffrey Sarver filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against The Hurt Locker. Sarver's lawsuit claimed he used the term "hurt locker" and the phrase "war is a drug" around Boal, that his likeness was used to create the character William James, and that the portrayal of William James defames Sarver.[56] Sarver said he felt "just a little bit hurt, a little bit felt left out" and cheated out of "financial participation" in the film.[57] Sarver claimed he originated the title of the film; however, the title is a decades-old colloquialism for being injured, as in "they sent him to the hurt locker."[58] It dates back to the Vietnam War where it was one of several phrases meaning "in trouble or at a disadvantage; in bad shape."[59] Boal defended himself to the press, saying "the film is a work of fiction inspired by many people's stories."[57] He said he talked to more than 100 soldiers during his research.[60] Jody Simon, a Los Angeles-based entertainment lawyer, noted that "soldiers don't have privacy", and that when the military embedded Boal they gave him full permission to use his observations as he saw fit. Summit Entertainment, the producers of the film, said in early March that they hoped for a quick resolution to the suit.[57] In the December 8, 2011, issue of The Hollywood Reporter, it was announced that Master Sergeant Sarver's lawsuit was thrown out by the court, and a federal judge ordered him to pay more than $180,000 in attorney fees.[61]
Copyright infringement lawsuit[edit]
On May 12, 2010, Voltage Pictures, the production company behind The Hurt Locker, announced that it would attempt to sue "potentially tens of thousands" of online computer users who downloaded pirated copies of the film using the BitTorrent and P2P networks. It would be the largest lawsuit of its kind.[62][63] On May 28, 2010, it filed a complaint against 5,000 unidentified BitTorrent users in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia; Voltage will demand $1,500 from each defendant to release them from the suit.[64] Several people, however, have refused to settle with the studio.[65] The U.S. Copyright Group (USCG) has since dropped all cases against the alleged Hurt Locker pirates.[66]
On August 29, 2011, the Federal Court of Canada ordered the three Canadian ISPs—Bell Canada, Cogeco, and Vidéotron—to disclose the names and addresses of the subscribers whose IP addresses were suspected to have downloaded a copy of the film. The ISPs were given two weeks to comply with the order.[67]
Release[edit]
Festival screenings[edit]
The Hurt Locker had its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival on September 4, 2008, and the film received a 10-minute standing ovation at the end of its screening.[68] At the festival, the film won the SIGNIS award,[69] the Arca Cinemagiovani Award (Arca Young Cinema Award) for "Best Film Venezia 65" (chosen by an international youth jury); the Human Rights Film Network Award; and the Venezia Cinema Award known as the "Navicella".[70] The film also screened at the 33rd Annual Toronto International Film Festival on September 8,[68] where it generated "keen interest", though distributors were reluctant to buy it since previous films about the Iraq War performed poorly at the box office.[71] Summit Entertainment purchased the film for distribution in the United States in what was perceived as "a skittish climate for pic sales".[72]
In the rest of 2008, The Hurt Locker screened at the 3rd Zurich Film Festival,[73] the 37th Festival du Nouveau Cinéma, the 21st Mar del Plata Film Festival,[74] the 5th Dubai International Film Festival, and the 12th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival.[75] In 2009, The Hurt Locker screened at the Göteborg International Film Festival,[76] the 10th Film Comment Selects festival,[77] and the South by Southwest film festival.[78] It was the closing night film at Maryland Film Festival 2009, with Bigelow presenting. It had a centerpiece screening at the 3rd AFI Dallas International Film Festival, where director Kathryn Bigelow received the Dallas Star Award.[79] Other 2009 festivals included the Human Rights Nights International Film Festival,[80] the Seattle International Film Festival,[81] and the Philadelphia Film Festival.[82]
Theatrical run[edit]
The Hurt Locker was first publicly released in Italy by Warner Bros. on October 10, 2008.[68] Summit Entertainment picked the film up for distribution in the United States after it was shown at the Toronto International Film Festival for $1.5 million.[83] The Hurt Locker was released in the United States on June 26, 2009, with a limited release at four theaters in Los Angeles and New York City.[84] Over its first weekend the film grossed $145,352, averaging $36,338 per theater. The following weekend, beginning July 3, the film grossed $131,202 at nine theaters, averaging $14,578 per theater.[85] It held the highest per-screen average of any film playing theatrically in the United States for the first two weeks of its release,[1] gradually moving into the top 20 chart with much wider-released, bigger budget studio films.[86] It held around number 13 or number 14 on box office charts for an additional four weeks. Summit Entertainment took The Hurt Locker wider to more than 200 screens on July 24, 2009 and more than 500 screens on July 31, 2009.
The film's final gross was $17,017,811 in the United States and Canada, and $32,212,961 in other countries, bringing its worldwide total to $49,230,772 (less than any other Best Picture winner). It was a success against its budget of $15 million.[1]
According to the Los Angeles Times, The Hurt Locker performed better than most recent dramas about Middle East conflict. The film outperformed all other Iraq-war-themed films such as In the Valley of Elah (2007), Stop-Loss (2008) and Afghanistan-themed Lions for Lambs (2007).[83]
In the United States, The Hurt Locker is one of only four Best Picture winners (The English Patient, Amadeus, and The Artist being the other three) to never enter the weekend box office top 5 since top 10 rankings were first recorded in 1982. It is also one of the only two Best Picture winners on record never to have entered the weekend box office top 10 (The Artist being the other).
The Hurt Locker opened in the top ten in the United Kingdom in 103 theaters, scoring the fourth-highest per-screen average of $3,607, ranking between G-Force and G.I. Joe in overall grosses. The film garnered half a million dollars in its opening weekend in the United Kingdom of August 28 through August 30, 2009,[87] and grossed over a million dollars in the UK, Japan, Spain, and France through March.[88]
Distribution: Independent film print shortage[edit]
According to an article in the Springfield, Illinois State Journal-Register, as of August 2009 there was a shortage of film prints of The Hurt Locker, as well as other hit independent films such as Food, Inc.[89] Distributors told theater owners that they would have to wait weeks or months past the initial U.S. release date to get the few available prints that were already in distribution. "Sometimes the distributors goof up," said a film buyer for one theater. "They misjudge how wide they should go."[89] One theory is that the independent films have a hard time competing for screen space during the summer against blockbuster tent-pole films that take up as much as half the screens in any given city, flooding the United States market with thousands of prints. Theater owners have also complained about distributors "bunching too many movies too close together".[89][90] It is also thought that independent film distributors are trying to cut their losses on prints by recycling them. Given the popularity of some of the films that are "hard to come by", this strategy may be leaving box office money on the table.[89][90]
Home media[edit]
 The Hurt Locker was released on DVD and Blu-ray in North America on January 12, 2010. This disc includes an added audio commentary featuring director Kathryn Bigelow, writer Mark Boal, and other members of the production crew; an image gallery of photos from shooting; and a 15-minute EPK featurette highlighting the filming experience in Jordan and the film's production. The UK DVD and Blu-ray has no commentary.
U.S. sales of the DVD topped $30 million by mid-August 2010.[91]
Awards and accolades[edit]


Main article: List of accolades received by The Hurt Locker
Starting with its initial screening at the 2008 Venice International Film Festival, The Hurt Locker has earned many awards and honors. It also ranked on more film critics' top 10 lists than any other film of 2009. It was nominated in nine categories at the 82nd Academy Awards and won in six: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Film Editing. It lost the award for Best Actor to Crazy Heart, Best Original Score to Up, and Best Cinematography to Avatar.[92] Bigelow became the first woman to win an Oscar for Best Director,[93] and The Hurt Locker is to date, the lowest-grossing film to win Best Picture.[94]
Kathryn Bigelow was awarded the 2009 Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Achievement in Feature Film for the film, the first time a female director has ever won.[95] The film won six awards at the BAFTAs held on February 21, 2010, including Best Film and Best Director for Bigelow. The Hurt Locker was nominated for three Golden Globe Awards.[96]
The Washington DC Area Film Critics award for Best Director was given to Kathryn Bigelow, the first time the honor has gone to a woman. The film swept most critics groups awards for best director and best picture including Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Boston, and Las Vegas' film critics associations. The Hurt Locker is one of only five films that have won all three major U.S. critics group prizes (NY, LA and NSFC), together with Goodfellas, Schindler's List, L.A. Confidential and The Social Network.
The five awards from the Boston Society of Film Critics were the most by that organization to a single film in the group's 30-year history.[97]
In February 2010, the film's producer Nicolas Chartier emailed a group of Academy Award voters in an attempt to sway them to vote for The Hurt Locker instead of "a $500M film" (referring to Avatar) for the Best Picture award. He later issued a public apology, saying that it was "out of line and not in the spirit of the celebration of cinema that this acknowledgment is".[98] The Academy banned him from attending the award ceremony, the first time the Academy has ever banned an individual nominee.[99]
See also[edit]

Portal icon Iraq portal
Nine From Aberdeen, a 2012 book by Jeffrey M. Leatherwood on the WWII forerunners of EOD, with an afterword by CSM James H. Clifford, military consultant for The Hurt Locker.
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Bibliography[edit]
Thomson, Patricia (July 2009). "Risk and Valor: The Hurt Locker". American Cinematographer 90 (7): 44–50.
Further reading[edit]
Barker, Martin (2011). A 'Toxic Genre': The Iraq War Films. London: Pluto Press. ISBN 978-0745331294.
External links[edit]
 Wikiquote has quotations related to: The Hurt Locker
 Look up hurt locker in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Official website
The Hurt Locker at the Internet Movie Database
The Hurt Locker at Rotten Tomatoes
The Hurt Locker at Metacritic


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Categories: 2008 films
English-language films
2000s war films
American independent films
American war films
American action thriller films
Best Picture Academy Award winners
Films that won the Best Sound Editing Academy Award
Films set in 2004
Films set in Iraq
Films shot in British Columbia
Films shot in Jordan
Films directed by Kathryn Bigelow
Films whose director won the Best Director Academy Award
Films whose writer won the Best Original Screenplay Academy Award
Films whose editor won the Best Film Editing Academy Award
Films that won the Best Sound Mixing Academy Award
Iraq War films
Summit Entertainment films
Film scores by Marco Beltrami
Voltage Pictures films








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