CODEPINK LA Confronts Clint Eastwood on War-Mongering and Anti-Arab Racism in American Sniper

CODEPINK Press Release

Contact: Sophia Armen, CODEPINK LA Campaigner

CODEPINK LA asks Clint Eastwood Why He celebrates War and Anti-Arab Racism in His Film American Sniper

Where: DGA Theatre 2 7920 Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, CA

When: Monday, February 2, 2015 at 6:30pm

Los Angeles, CA-- Activists from CODEPINK LA will gather in front of DGA Theatre 2 on Sunset Blvd. at 6:30 PM on Monday, February 2nd to protest outside the DGA screening of American Sniper featuring director Clint Eastwood and lead actor Bradley Cooper to say “There is Nothing Heroic About American Sniper.”

American Sniper, a film based on the life of sharpshooter Chris Kyle, celebrates and glorifies war and racism. Chris Kyle himself in an interview stated “the enemy are savages and despicably evil,” and his “only regret is that I didn’t kill more,” along with finding his record killings “fun.” CODEPINK will stand up to say enough is enough, Hollywood cannot be glorifying Kyle as a “hero” and whitewashing the horrific history of the Iraq war. 

Never mentioned in the film are the truths of the War on Terror: the Bush Administration’s use of 9/11 to go to war against domestic and international law, Saddam Hussein, Al-Malaki, oil corporations, veteran’s experience with PTSD and abandonment once home, domestic surveillance of Muslim and Arab Americans, the creation of ISIS, Abu Ghraib or other US detention camps. These absences absolve the United States of its many war crimes in Iraq and perpetuate the American war-mongering narrative we are all too familiar in the still-ongoing “War on Terror” era.

 The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee has reported a drastic increase in hate speech and anti-Arab/anti-Muslim threats since the film’s release. CODEPINK condemns the films distortion of American engagement in Iraq, absolution of the American government from war crimes on the ground, the glorification of Kyle as hero, and the films ahistorical and racist depictions of Iraqis who serves as mere backdrops in the films 

The way in which American Sniper was told, "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," said Zack Beauchamp in an article for VOX.  

"Clint Eastwood's claim that this is an 'anti-war' film is ridiculous and sickly comedic. From beginning to end, the film distorts the narrative of our invasion of Iraq, and serves as yet another example of Eastwood's legacy of war propaganda and unapologetically misleading and blindly patriotic films."  -Kristin Delfs of CODEPINK LA

"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," says Janet Weil of CODEPINK.