WHEN the troops return, the myth-making begins. It took four years after the Vietnam war ended for “The Deer Hunter” and “Apocalypse Now” to paint it as futile and degrading. Since then the cycle has sped up. The Iraq war already has one Oscar-winning film, “The Hurt Locker”. The success of another Iraq film, “American Sniper”, which was released on January 16th, suggests that views of that war are yet to settle. Many critics panned the film, which is more John Wayne than Wilfred Owen. Despite or, rather, because of this, it has been a hit: if early ticket sales are any guide, it will be one of the most successful war films ever made (see chart).
Because of the attention it has received, “American Sniper” has been fed into the partisan threshing machine. It is not enough to have a view on the movie itself; everyone is debating the politics behind it. Writing in...
from The Economist: United States http://ift.tt/1BzH6lD
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