Michael Moore Called Chris Kyle a Coward – Fiction!

Michael Moore Called Chris Kyle a Coward-Fiction!

Summary of eRumor: 

Filmmaker and social commentator Michael Moore tweeted that Chris Kyle, the Navy SEAL who inspired the movie “American Sniper,” was a coward. 

The Truth:

It’s true that Michael Moore said he’d been taught that all snipers are cowards, but Moore didn’t directly call Chris Kyle a coward.

The claim went viral in January of 2015 after Moore tweeted about the role of snipers on the eve of Martin Luther King Jr. Day:

“My uncle was killed by sniper in WW2. We were taught snipers were cowards. Will shoot u in the back. Snipers aren’t heroes. And invaders are worse.”

January 18, 2015

“But if you’re on the roof of your home defending it from invaders who’ve come 7K miles, you are not a sniper, u are brave, u are a neighbor.”

-January 18, 2015

Moore’s comments quickly went viral. News outlets like the Hollywood Reporter and Deadline Hollywood reported that the comments were directed toward “American Sniper,” the biopic that details the life Navy SEAL Chris Kyle. According to Deadline Hollywood:

The Palme d’Or-winning director of the highest-grossing documentary ever doesn’t seem to like the Clint Eastwood-helmed Oscar nominee nor its subject, Navy SEAL Chris Kyle. In a tweet today, Fahrenheit 9/11 and former AMPAS Governor Michael Moore apparently lashed out at American Sniper and Kyle, who has been credited as the deadliest sniper in U.S. military history.

Moore replied via Facebook that he had made the comments on the eve of Martin Luther King Jr. Day because the civil rights activist had been killed by a sniper. Moore also noted that he made no mention of the movie starring Bradley Cooper as Chris Kyle:

Lots of talk about snipers this weekend (the holiday weekend of a great man, killed by a sniper), so I thought I’d weigh in with what I was raised to believe about snipers. My dad was in the First Marine Division in the South Pacific in World War II. His brother, my uncle, Lawrence Moore, was an Army paratrooper and was killed by a Japanese sniper 70 years ago next month. My dad always said, “Snipers are cowards. They don’t believe in a fair fight. Like someone coming up from behind you and coldcocking you. Just isn’t right. It’s cowardly to shoot a person in the back. Only a coward will shoot someone who can’t shoot back.”

But Deadline Hollywood and the Hollywood Reporter turned that into stories about how I don’t like Clint Eastwood’s new film, “American Sniper.” I didn’t say a word about “American Sniper” in my tweet.

The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline Hollywood both issued corrections to clarify that Moore’s original tweets were not directed toward “American Sniper.”

Moore was, however, critical of Eastwood’s portrayal of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in the film after the eRumor went viral in a Facebook post:

If they wanted to know my opinion of “American Sniper” (and I have one), why not ask me?

So here’s what I think about “American Sniper”:

Awesome performance from Bradley Cooper. One of the best of the year. Great editing. Costumes, hair, makeup superb!

Oh… and too bad Clint gets Vietnam and Iraq confused in his storytelling. And that he has his characters calling Iraqis “savages” throughout the film. But there is also anti-war sentiment expressed in the movie. And there’s a touching ending as the main character is remembered after being gunned down by a fellow American vet with PTSD who was given a gun at a gun range back home in Texas — and then used it to kill the man who called himself the ‘America Sniper.’

Moore’s comments about snipers were made directly after “American Sniper” set box office records with more than $100 million in ticket sales on opening weekend. Given that, it would defy logic for Moore to think that general comments about snipers wouldn’t be viewed in light of the wildly popular film, or the life of Chris Kyle. Still, only Moore knows the purpose of his comments, and he didn’t directly call Chris Kyle a coward, as the eRumor claims.