Before it was yanked from the theater in Baghdad, one Iraqi man named Gaith Mohammed said that it played to, ‘full and enthusiastic crowds.’
From Michael Moore and Howard Dean to Jesse Ventura and Michelle Obama, we have spent a lot of time discussing the reaction in this country to Clint Eastwood’s Oscar-nominated filmAmerican Sniper. But now that the movie has actually been seen by a number of people in Arab world, reports have started to come out this week that reveal their often unexpected reactions.
American Sniper opened at Baghdad’s Mansour Mall theater earlier this month, but after just a week, it was pulled from screens because, as one theater employee told a reporter working for the GlobalPost, “the hero of this film boasts of killing more than 160 Muslims.” Another major movie theater in the city decided not to show the film “for fear of inciting protests and violence.”
But before it was yanked from the theater, one Iraqi man named Gaith Mohammed said that it played to full and enthusiastic crowds. “Some people watching were just concentrating, but others were screaming ‘Fuck, shoot him! He has an IED, don’t wait for permission!!’” he said of one of the film’s many tense scenes.
Read more: Mediaite
