Early on in American Sniper, Chris Kyle (played by Bradley Cooper in an amazing performance) walks in on one of his fellow soldiers, Biggles (Jake McDorman), reading a Punisher comic book and talks about Kyle's first two kills as a sniper: a young boy and his mother attempting to throw a grenade at an oncoming convoy of soldiers. The two men discuss the evils amongst them are unlike anything they've seen. Evil. That word that comes up a few times in this film. Many have taken to twitter calling Muslims evil or expressing hatred towards them as a result of American Sniper.
I do not believe Mr. Eastwood's film makes out the people of the Muslim faith to be evil and anyone having that impression certainly misinterpreted what they saw on screen. The true tragedy of the war and of Kyle's four tours of duty was the onset of post-traumatic stress disorder. One scene finds him sitting at home reading a magazine and is alarmed at the sound of a lawn mower somewhere on his street starting up. At an auto shop, an auto technician's equipment causes him to flinch. Combat in the Middle East caused Kyle to be lost for a number of years, not truly returning to a stable state of mind until after he began to work with other Veterans suffering from PTSD.
Eastwood did not give us a film about heroism, patriotism, or defending our country. American Sniper is about a war that makes no sense and the media motivating blind anger that drives a man to continue serving in the military until in the face of impending death, decides he's had enough. Ironically, Chris Kyle was killed not on the battlefield or by enemy fire, but by a fellow Veteran at a shooting range. Why he would take someone with severe post-traumatic stress to a shooting range is beyond me, but the man lost his life trying to help others in his situation.
The opening of the film shows us a good ol' boy interested in serving in the military, picking the Navy Seals after seeing coverage of the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings. Again, the media pushes him to take his hatred out through serving in the military. Later in the movie, images of 9/11 precede his return to action. The war in Iraq has absolutely nothing to do with the terrorist attacks on New York City in 2001, so this leads me to believe that Kyle's misplaced anger was purposefully done to show how misleading what we see on television can be. At least I hope so. Clint Eastwood is not a stupid man and has been challenging himself and his audiences the last few years with some great directorial material.
Another element that I initially took issues with was that the film is very black and white in terms of the portrayal of the enemy. Again, another creative decision? I can't imagine what experiencing combat is like, but in the film, the enemies and very black and white. There is good, there is bad. Not too much in between. To those who have been those situations, I have been told that it is kill or be killed. I really really want to believe that Clint Eastwood took this into consideration when portraying the enemy combatants as one sided. My greatest critical issue with the film comes at this point. A friend of mine has said that when Steven Spielberg was initially attached to direct, he was met with resistance from the producers when he wanted to alter the story to include segments showing Mustafa's humanity and home life.
Is American Sniper propaganda? I personally think the film's right wing elements are packed on thick (Eastwood is a republican), causing the right to think the film is pro-war. But how can it be pro-war when Chris Kyle repeatedly picks serving in the military over his wife? Terrorism destroyed lives on both the USA and Iraqi fronts, but to say that this film disregards one over the other is preposterous. If American Sniper tells us anything it is that PTSD took Chris Kyle from his family for years, mentally, for years, blinded his thinking, and then ultimately, another Vet suffering far more severely than he did killed him.
I am not criticizing Chris Kyle, his beliefs, or his family, but the twisted notions having been taken on by the public about Clint Eastwood's film. If anything, it tells us that a man in an already very specific good ol' boy Christianized upbringing let's what he sees on TV influence him. If you would like to discuss my thoughts on Kyle, his untimely death, his portrayal on film, get in touch with me on Twitter, Facebook, or any other means on social media (@eduardovictory).
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