Harbaugh & American Sniper

Submitted by MichiganMAN47 on

There is some controversy on campus about the University showing American Sniper. It was cancelled after some protest, but it has since been rescheduled.  I know that politics aren't supposed to be talked about on the board, but it involves our beloved coach. 


Harbaugh weighed in on the matter via twitter:  

"Michigan Football will watch "American Sniper"! Proud of Chris Kyle & Proud to be an American & if that offends anybody then so be it!"

Apologies for not being sure how to embed twitter posts.

http://www.si.com/college-football/2015/04/08/michigan-football-jim-harbaugh-american-sniper-screening 

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/04/08/after-university-canceled-american-sniper-showing-football-coach-harbaugh-made-this-announcement/

Harbaugh has stirred a bit of controversy on campus with this tweet- a minority of students have complained about this.  

My personal opinion on this is that I like Harbaugh more because of it. He is not afraid to step on people's toes, and voice his opinion. He is unapologetic. That's exactly how a coach should be. 

As far as the film goes, I would prefer the University show it. Although I am not a big fan of Chris Kyle, I can understand why people would be. There are a lot of inspirational things about him, but also some negatives. I think the film addresses the negatives of war adequately, and makes a nuanced argument- Kyle is a controversial figure.  

[ED-Seth: Aaaaand we're locked. Handed out one ban. Leaving because it's news that Harbaugh waded into it. This is why we don't talk about politics. But see Comment 14 for a good example of why I wish we could sometimes.]

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Baloo_Dance

April 9th, 2015 at 6:28 AM ^

To all the people criticizing Kyle. Was he a perfect human? Of course not. How would your own life look to the public though if there was thorough public and main stream media effort to undermine you as a person?



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GoBlueSPH

April 9th, 2015 at 6:29 AM ^

Since when does watching a movie determine how American or patriotic you are? This whole thing is really a non issue... It's a movie for fucks sake. I bet if the same story was told the same way but with a fictional setting and with a fictional lead character, no one would care about it.



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PeteM

April 9th, 2015 at 6:41 AM ^

UMix didn't have to pick American Sniper in the first place, and, probably, in the future they'll stick to choices perceived to be non-controversial.  That said, removing it was bound to create the exact reaction that we've seen given the perception that Universities are not as open as they used to be to controversial opinions. Since they've now reversed the decision and are showing the film I have to imagine that they were surprised by the uproar, which to me just shows a lack of awareness since these controversies always get lots of attention.

Instead, if they had given the opponents of American Sniper a table at the entrance to the venue where they could pass out literature explaining their critique, and/or had a panel discussion afterwards (which may still happen) I think that this would not have been a story.  What they did instead created a predictable firestorm, made the University look bad and could have easily been avoided.

Harbaugh's tweet makes me think of Bo who would speak his mind as a coach much freely than Moeller, Carr, RichRod or Hoke.

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Achilles

April 9th, 2015 at 6:51 AM ^

What is wrong with showing a movie about a true American story? Some people are way too sensitive (and it is obvious which side of the political party was protesting - I will leave it at that).

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mwolverine1

April 9th, 2015 at 6:59 AM ^

It should be noted that the University has reversed its stance on this issue: #AmericanSniper to be shown; decision to cancel not consistent w/high value @umich places on freedom of expression myumi.ch/L3x7J I'll withhold judgment until I see the film, but I do think it is risky for Harbaugh to comment on this. There will be recruits and fans who disagree with him and so it doesn't make sense to alienate them for political reasons.

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mwolverine1

April 9th, 2015 at 7:32 AM ^

There's a difference between having an opinion and unapologetically broadcasting it to the world. Because of the culture surrounding football, I doubt there will be any sort of impact; I just don't think it's the most prudent thing to do.

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State Street

April 9th, 2015 at 7:20 AM ^

The only thing worse than this stupid controversy is the "outrage" that it's caused.  It's a damn movie that got pulled from a weekend recreational program (UMix) that 0.1% of the student population attends.  This made the homepage of the NY tabloids yesterday.  Are you kidding?

This "shame on you" culture is a joke.  Who cares?

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Mr. Yost

April 9th, 2015 at 7:38 AM ^

I don't know anything about topic, and I'm excited to see the movie because I'm an adult and I can separate reality from a movie (just like Selma)...but I didn't understand what all the outrage was about.

At first I thought it was just about some anti-war students protesting, now I guess it's because he lied? Whatever, I'm too ignorant on the topic to have an opinion today.

HOWEVER, what I didn't understand is why this is such a big deal to begin with? No one was forcing students to watch the movie, right? Like it wasn't mandatory?

And who goes to the student theater anyway? On ANY campus? Not enough compared to the entire student body...so why is there such a big deal about no one really does anyway?

If no one is claiming this as fact or making it mandatory, what is really the big deal? Again, I'm ignorant to the whole story, but I do believe that it should be articulated in a manner that doesn't come across as a bunch of college kids with nothing to "riot/be passionate" about in this era trying to find something. My first thought was, did the pull Sound of Music, too?

Ingorious Bastards or Fury...do those get pulled? Remember The Titans isn't true, and truth is, Coach Boone was a DICK. Know that for a fact. Coach Yost was the coach every guy (black or white) loved on that team.

It's one thing to have an opinion on something and stand up for what you believe it...I'm ALL for that. If you don't like the movie or don't like the story. That is certainly on you. But if this isn't forced on anyone, I don't see any difference between it and all of the other movies I mentioned in this post. NONE of them were 100% accurate. Not one. Blockbuster movies are not meant to be 100% biographical, they're for entertainment.

So after this semi-sarcastic rant...what am I missing? If you're telling me people are being forced to watch this and take it as fact. Then I see the issue. Otherwise, it's entertainment for the sake of entertainment. At a school like Michigan you're going to learn about heroric and honorable people of our past and you're going to be exposed to certain folks in history that you will hate - how is this different?

But in the end, I don't know anything about this topic and I should've shut up. I'm sorry.

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UMChick77

April 9th, 2015 at 8:35 AM ^

I agree. The social justice movement is a complete and total joke. "Leave your comment! Blog and repost to show your outrage---you're really showing them!" mindset has caused more stupidity and hate than the original issue you were suppose to be "outraged" about to begin with.

 

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Wee-Bey Brice

April 9th, 2015 at 9:31 AM ^

How is using social media to express yourself any less respectable than radio/tv? You have a potential audience and a platform. Awareness is awareness, no matter where it originated. No need to pretend it doesn't have merit because they put it online. Most people solely get their news from online these days anyway so it's as good a place to share your concern as any, if we're being honest.

You can use the internet for almost anything (buy/sell, market, trade, research damn near whatever you want, hell you can even verbally ATTACK RECRUITS & other strangers for fun, etc...) but tweeting about something that's important to you and possibly your children is using the internet wrong? Try again. 

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lunchboxthegoat

April 9th, 2015 at 7:26 AM ^

anti-chris Kyle sentiment. I'm anti-war but I can't be against soldiers, it's not their choice to be in these conflicts. I don't care if they show it or not...but it is a crappy movie. just poorly written and poorly put together

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stephenrjking

April 9th, 2015 at 10:45 AM ^

Yes they have, and it has occasionally gotten silly, but in fairness politics aren't actually being discussed. They are being identified to illustrate the person's perspective. Little arguing over merits. And the fact is that this blog focuses on football more than anything else and the football coach has made pretty significant waves on this. You can't pretend it didn't happen.

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MGoNOLA

April 9th, 2015 at 10:50 AM ^

This is a political issue. Philosophical if you want to be really generous. Just because the coach weighed in doesn't make it not political. 

I prefer my Michigan sports blog without bad political analysis, soapboxing, and America dick-wagging. 

(This coming from a guy who lives, works, and breathes politics as my full time job and passion) 

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BlueGoM

April 9th, 2015 at 7:36 AM ^

Didn't Hoke bring in some military types to do some kind of leadership or inspirational speech?

Also a million flyovers at the football games, nobody says a word.  Coach mentions a movie and people lose it.  Whatever, haters, don't like the movie? don't see it.  Who are they do determine what others can see and can't see?

 

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maizenbluenc

April 9th, 2015 at 7:44 AM ^

personally I think it really forces you to stop and think about the realities of war and the world we live in. How does a man emotionally deal with having to shoot a young boy who is carrying a grenade (his own mother gave him) toward soldiers? There really are evil people would would torture and kill a child with drill in front of the parents to strike terror and fear into people. And then there is is PTSD: through the film, one can see how PTSD develops. I thought the movie was a little shallow in character and story development, but it has a lot in it for both sides to discuss. Especially in this day and age where there are clearly very bad people at large - particularly in the form of ISIL.

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tbeindit

April 9th, 2015 at 9:24 AM ^

This is exactly what I thought. I thought it was a great film and not because it made me patriotic or because others perceive it as propaganda. I just thought it really gave you a sense of the real struggles he goes through and you don't know whether he's always right or wrong. I know there were a ly of reviews from veterans to the same effect.

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Caesar

April 9th, 2015 at 7:53 AM ^

Football should be politics-free. As the face of Michigan Football, Jim probably has to sacrifice his personal expression. He makes it even worse with a weird opinion,  conflating patriotism with loving American Sniper or its protagonist. 

As for the OP, I wondered where (s)he found out that a minority of students were for or against the film's showing. 

 

 

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