Climbing is increasingly going mainstream and we are force fed weird, and for me, impossible to believe narratives, my favourite at the Ispo show was that of the dirt bag climber, or should I say immaculately clad, multi coloured rainbow, eco warrior, complete with smiling wife and dog, lactose intolerant, bouldering alpinist. I almost pissed myself going past a certain stand from California only to actually piss myself when I noticed a German brand usurping this advertising myth in the booth two stands down, complete with surfboard, clue here there aint much surfing in Germany, or tolerance for dirt bags.
One Mule for Sister Eastwood.
So, Clint Eastwood has produced and directed some ok films, but the film Sniper is certainly not one of them. His portrayal of a country that seems precambrian and barbaric is far from the truth. The only bit that seems true is the hunter worship that is prevalent in America, my own country Malta, and indeed Italy where I worked. I have friends in all these countries who hunt and share this atavistic predator instinct for tracking, pursuing, and killing, they are my friends and will stay my friends. Hunting is more than popular, it is very big business, it is bigger than dirt bag false climbing, it's huge. So was Sniper just an American advertising film for outdoor sport, or was it an advert for plain killing? Or did the USA army, airforce, and ancillary business interests, just need a GPS to find the country, the wrong country incidentally responsible for 9.11. There wasn't much mention of Mr Sniper searching out the mysterious weapons of mass distraction either.
The film Selma is about the walk made by brave people without guns, and not hiding behind camouflaged nets which gave voting freedom to black people. These events forced President Johnson to enact certain legislation that made it possible for black people to vote in 1965, thats right 1965! President Johnson is portrayed in a sympathetic way which is way to kind, but he ultimately comes good. Perhaps this film could have mentioned that by 1968 America was embroiled in a war that no one wanted except business men- Vietnam and the killing of Brown people.
The Pope has publicly said that we are in the middle of World War III, and it's a wonder that we aren't all in our bunkers hiding from the falling bombs, but guess what, contrary to what you might be hearing, the bombs aint falling on America, or the British, or the French, no we are the people who sell bombs, and we are very good at it. And Hollywood is Hollywood. Clint Eastwood was by all accounts a good bloke according to the climbing dirtbags who helped him create the illusion that he could climb, but he has clearly lost the plot, or is now working for the American Riffle Association.
