‘Every show sold out!’: Look at these lines to see ‘American Sniper’ [pics]

Jesse Ventura must be seeing dollar signs.

another vet #1. My first thought was the same about Jesse the Weasel

Ventura sued Chris Kyle for defamation of character, stating that the story of the encounter between Kyle and himself was a total fabrication; that he’d never even met the man, let alone said the things he was was accused of saying. The jury found in Ventura’s favor, awarding him over $1.8 million in damages. I’m not sure how much trouble people would be having with that, were it not for Kyle’s untimely death.

@Greg:

Ventura sued Chris Kyle for defamation of character,

That’s funny, Gullible Greggie. To think that Chris Kyle could do any damage to the character of a man who used steroids to gain body mass so he could enter the wrestling ring and who is a radical 9-11 Truffer is simply absurd. Ventura promotes more conspiracy theories than a dog has fleas.

And how small a person do you have to be to sue a widow for comments made by her husband? You really think that did anything to improve the reputation of James Janos? So you, as a liberal, seem to support blood liable.

Now the slug is suing the publishing house that published Chris Kyle’s book, although Vulture Ventura is never mentioned in the book. Ventura destroyed his own reputation long before Chris Kyle, a real hero, ever mentioned him.

@retire05, #7:

The original lawsuit was initiated before Kyle’s death. I believe the recent lawsuit is against the publisher, not Kyle’s widow. I’m no fan of Ventura. He’s always seemed like a jackass. Even a jackass is entitled to defend himself in court against damaging public accusations, however, even though won’t be doing his own reputation any good by doing so.

My thoughts about Chris Kyle are more complicated. It’s unsettling that a highly proficient sniper would be so idolized. That’s more a criticism of our violent culture than of Chris Kyle. Violence has become a mainstay of our entertainment industry. I haven’t seen American Sniper yet, but I thought Enemy at the Gate was a compelling movie; the sniper in Saving Private Ryan—Private Jackson—is a character that has stuck in my mind also, so I’m not holding myself above that criticism. Jackson was interesting because he expressed the moral dilemma of the profession perfectly. In Enemy at the Gate, the topic of that moral dilemma was pretty much ignored. There probably wasn’t much question in Vassili Zaitsev’s mind that he was doing what had to be done for the survival of his nation. At least that’s what the movie tells us.

It’s unfortunate that real people often get lost in the telling of their stories. Many of us seem to have trouble distinguishing between Hollywood movies and reality. The movie industry is partly to blame. Hollywood generally prefers unambiguous heroes and villains to the complexities of real people. It makes for simpler story telling.

@retire05, #10:

You really want everything to be good/evil, right/left, either/or, don’t you? You want everyone to be classified as either with you or against you.

The world is a lot more complicated than that.