American Sniper” is a popular movie, but it contains a dark message. It’s definitely not your grandfather’s war movie.
The film tells the story of SEAL sniper Chris Kyle, who is considered the deadliest sniper in U.S. history. The Pentagon officially credited Kyle with 160 kills during four tours in Iraq between 2003 and 2009. By his own count, Kyle killed 255 people.
“American Sniper” is based on Kyle’s best-selling autobiography of the same name. Since its release in December 2014, it’s become the highest-grossing war movie in history, bringing in $535 million at the box office worldwide.
Not surprisingly, it wasn’t a hit in Baghdad. The Iraqi government objected to the portrayal of Iraqis in “American Sniper,” and it was pulled after just a few showings at Baghdad’s only movie theater, according to The Washington Post. Iraqis also objected to the movie’s main character calling them “savages.”
I haven’t read Kyle’s autobiography, whose claims have been the subject of controversy and at least one lawsuit. But I have read that the movie fictionalizes many of the events of his life. That’s no surprise. Real life doesn’t unfold in a three-act structure the way movies do.
Besides, people who learn their history from movies are doomed to learn little about history.
Among the discrepancies: The enemy sniper in the film is fictional, as is Kyle’s last battle in Iraq. And Kyle never had a conversation with his brother in Iraq during which his sibling said he was sick of the war.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the movie does include a detail that the Department of Defense ordered Kyle to leave out of his book: The first two people he shot in Iraq were a boy and woman who tried to throw a grenade at U.S. troops.
For all that, “American Sniper” is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a long time.
Bradley Cooper earned a Best Actor Academy Award nomination for playing Kyle. Cooper, who reportedly added 40 pounds of muscle for the movie, inhabits the role, right down the SEAL’s native Texas twang.
Cooper also shows the seeming contradiction at the core of Kyle’s life. The man who was so deadly on the battlefield was also a loving husband and father.
Director Clint Eastwood delivers a war movie that’s far different from many of the war movies he starred in during his acting days. Yes, there’s plenty of action, but “American Sniper” also illustrates the physical and psychological toll of combat.
Eastwood ratchets up the tension during the scenes of urban warfare in Iraq. He portrays the near-impossibility of fighting an enemy that doesn’t wear uniforms, so U.S. troops are often not sure who’s friend or foe. The paranoia Kyle feels even when he returns to the United States is understandable.
The New Yorker’s David Denby called the film “both a devastating war movie and a devastating anti-war movie, a subdued celebration of a warrior’s skill and a sorrowful lament over his alienation and misery.”
The real-life Kyle embodied the Marine motto of no better friend, no worse enemy. His fellow SEALs called him “the Legend.” His enemies called him “the Devil.”
Kyle later said that he had no regrets about the enemies he killed in Iraq. But he did feel guilty about the U.S. troops he wasn’t able to save.
Kyle was a hero on the battlefield. His medals for gallantry under fire included two Silver Stars and five Bronze Stars for Valor.
He survived six bombing attacks, three gunshot wounds and two helicopter crashes. He also suffered psychological wounds. Nobody except a sociopath can kill without feeling remorse. From all accounts, Kyle wasn’t a sociopath.
Kyle admitted that he had a difficult time adjusting to civilian life after leaving the Navy in 2009. One of the ways he coped was by working with other veterans who suffered from physical and psychological wounds. On Feb. 2, 2013, a troubled veteran Kyle was trying to help gunned down Kyle and a friend at a shooting range near Chalk Mountain, Texas.
The man, Eddie Ray Routh, was convicted of murder in February. Routh was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The soldiers we send out to defend — and kill for — our country pay a price for what they do in combat. They keep on paying that price when they return home.
That’s the true message of “American Sniper.”
• Contact Charles Corder at 581-7241 or ccorder@gwcommonwealth.com.
