“American Sniper” Was An Awesome Movie, But This Fake Baby Prop Almost Ruined It
I recently saw “American Sniper” for the first time. I love war movies and I love Clint Eastwood, so the chances of me liking the movie ranged somewhere between 99 and 100 percent.
I watched it the same way all normal college kids see movies. I went to some sketchy Chinese website, closed out of the MacKeeper popup, cleared my cookies, and hit play.
For the most part, I found the movie to be a stunningly brilliant character study on the deadliest sniper in U.S. history. Some scenes are emotionally stirring, like when a veteran approaches Chris Kyle (played by Bradley Cooper) at a car service station and continuously thanks Kyle for saving his life. Kyle reacts as awkwardly as I do when old neighbors talk to me about college at the neighborhood Christmas party.
And yet, of all the mind-blowing war scenes in “American Sniper,” the one I couldn’t get out of my head as the credits rolled was this one:
Look how fake that damn baby is. Eastwood had a $60 million budget for this film and he apparently thought the best course of action was to run to the local Los Angeles Toys “R” Us and pick up a plastic baby doll.
Watch as its motionless, artificial body get coddled by Cooper. Its arms can’t move. That looks like the deadest of all dead babies. Cooper tries to conceal the awkwardness of fathering a stiff children’s toy by squeezing it as close to his chest as he can before leaning over to set it down so nobody will see the lifeless doll corpse collapse into the crib. It doesn’t work. We know it’s a doll.
Sixty million dollars should get you one regular human child. Babies don’t have any lines, so by union rules that I assume exist and am not making up, you probably wouldn’t even have to pay them as much.
Suspension of disbelief is ruined here and you remember that the guy holding the baby is the same dude who let a naked Asian man out of his trunk in “The Hangover.” This important and slightly grim scene is forever hilarious because of that prop doll.
I still recommend seeing the movie. Just go to the bathroom during this scene..
Image via YouTube
They also didn’t murder anyone just for this movie to be made, which is why they call it “acting.”
10 years ago at 3:53 pmwaaaah
10 years ago at 3:56 pmSteve youre doing one hell of a job to entice homeland security to ask you for your papers. Get out of my country.
10 years ago at 3:57 pmThe movie was great and captured the amazing character of Chris Kyle. But it was absolutely nothing like the book. Almost every war scene in the Movie was never mentioned in the book and some were just plain, obviously false. This disappointed me because Chris Kyle’s story is more than amazing enough to not have to be changed by Hollywood. Show him respect
10 years ago at 4:05 pmLighten up Francis. They had to make changes because no one has time for an 18 hour long movie. His widow even said she loved the job they did. I think shes just ever so slightly higher of an authority than you when it comes to determining whether or not they showed him respect.
10 years ago at 5:08 pmI know this. And I have no credit to the film industry but I think it’s kind of disappointing when in the book Chris Kyle says “I wasn’t going to kill a kid, innocent or not” and the fist scene of the movie is him killing a kid… Which never happened it doesn’t sit well with me. Also they literally made half of the events up and they never happened. But hey if she’s happy who am I to argue
10 years ago at 10:39 pmWish we had the forums for this, but what did people who read the book think of the movie? I walked away a bit disappointed to be honest, was expecting more. His is such an incredible story, I think a miniseries would’ve been a better medium
10 years ago at 4:18 pmThere’s a ton of content for the size of the book because of all the short stories. It would take a Band of Brothers length series to capture it all. That being said, I think the movie captured the big picture of the book incredibly well.
10 years ago at 6:17 pmFuck you. Of all things to write about, this is what you can come up with? Eat a dick. You’re shit and everything you write is shit. Have some fun respect and stop pirating movies, especially this one.
10 years ago at 4:28 pm*fucking respect. Laps taken.
10 years ago at 4:29 pmThought the title said baby poop. Sadly disappointed, honestly
10 years ago at 4:33 pmThat scene is straight up awkward lol
10 years ago at 4:48 pmIt takes you like a month to churn out one of your crap “articles”… How is it that they keep getting worse and worse?
10 years ago at 5:04 pmTry less
10 years ago at 5:08 pm