By SAM CROCKER
Managing Editor
On Monday, Clint Eastwood’s “American Sniper” was shown in Saint Joseph’s Auditorium as part of the regular Student Association Movie Night series. As one of 2014’s highest grossing movies, it was not a surprise to many that the story of Chris Kyle was being shown. Bradley Cooper was widely praised for his role as America’s deadliest military sniper, and military personnel strongly supported the film.
However, there are many who believe the movie portrays Iraqis and Muslims in a negative light that creates stereotypes and unhealthy divisions in society.
There were reports of people posting threatening anti-Islamic comments on social media after seeing the movie in theaters, and a number of celebrities spoke out about their reservations that it portrayed the Iraq war in a biased way. RPI cancelled their showing of “American Sniper” after a petition from their Muslim Student Association before later rearranging the showing for a later date.
So what is it about this movie that is causing such outrage? Well, first of all it takes Hollywood’s demonization of Islam to a new level.
“American Sniper” undoubtedly attempts to show the human problems behind an American war hero, but fails to empathize with Iraqi citizens at all. Muslim men, women and children are depicted as bloodthirsty and evil, with Eastwood making no attempt to depict the millions of civilians who were also caught in the war, and at times killed by American soldiers.
This stereotypes and divides populations, but also damages the multinational effort to aid Iraq. If the people of Iraq do not have the public’s empathy, then the media and the government will not support the effort to help the country repair from more than a decade of conflict.
More worryingly, Eastwood presents Islam as a threat. There are many occasions in the film where he directly makes a connection between Islam and evil. One of the most obvious examples is the opening scene. Before an image is even on screen, the Islamic call to prayer begins to play and the film immediately cuts to Chris Kyle staring down the sights of his gun. The person he ends up killing in this first scene is a woman who is hiding a grenade beneath her chador, a type of Islamic dress.
This is an ethical issue because the constant and symbolic connections between violence and Islamic symbols like Islamic dress sends a worrying message to the audience that Muslims are violent and cannot be trusted. The message being sent is that Islam is terrorism.
It is movies like “American Sniper” that have made Islamophobia so commonplace in America today, and showing it on educational campuses where the leaders of tomorrow’s society are learning morals for the future is unwise and irresponsible.
