American Sniper — Blue Fairy Film Blog

Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures, Village Roadshow Pictures, Mad Chance Productions, 22nd and Indiana Productions, and Malpaso Productions

This film has raised more controversy than any Oscar nominated film since “Zero Dark Thirty,” for very similar reasons. There’s a lot of backstory, heresy, and outrage connected to this film, and unless you understand everything, you don’t understand anything. I went into this film virtually blind to the controversy surrounding it, and came out confused about what I had seen, and what I didn’t know about American hero Chris Kyle. In short there are many debates raging currently, but all of them are far from the general message that director Clint Eastwood envisioned for the film. He wanted us to look at the state of our veterans and see that they need more care and more attention, and less ambivalence.

The story follows Chris Kyle, an older recruit to the NAVY seals, who became the most decorated sniper in history, with 160 confirmed kills. The film follows his four tours of duty in Iraq, as well as his time at home with his wife and two children. Many critics have found the film to be an intense, but realistic view of how veterans cope with their time away from the battlefield. While the intermittent times he is home demonstrate his issues with real life, they don’t go anywhere. He is troubled, but not depressed; only wanting to get back to his friends, who are being picked off by a rogue Iraqi sniper, who is killed in the film. (This is a fabricated event, as Kyle never killed him. This is one example of many fabrications throughout the film.) While the inner cuts do justice to a veteran with PTSD, it is undercut by Kyle not coming to grips with the many people he has killed. He feels proud, even patriotic of his accomplishments in the field. His woes are ended when he starts working with veterans, or “his guys.” Like switching on a light switch, Kyle’s personality shifts quickly and without much explanation.

There are some seriously heartwarming moments between Kyle and his family, and some really dark ones as well. This is an important film about someone going through an intense inner struggle as they move through domesticity after being in the field. While Eastwood vehemently denies that this is a film about the Iraqi War, and instead one about our veterans needs here at home, it is demonstrative of a film about war. Kyle is deemed a “legend” for his kills, and he views his actions as the only option when trying to protect other soldiers. Recently Kyle has been accused of having a quick trigger finger, and being too boasting of his kills, instead of being repentant.

What many people have seen in Chris Kyle’s story is a flicker of hope, that we are the good guys, that the men we send overseas are not only better people, but people stuck in horrific circumstances trying their best. Many people have said that it’s a straightforward look at war, but that’s not true. Though ribald in its depictions of torture and war, it also glorifies battle, bloodshed, and the American ideal. Chris Kyle is a hero, a legend, a man who will be put up with other wartime heroes in the pantheon of conquerors. There’s no complexity, and no room for doubt in this film, which is really too bad, seeing as how this is the benchmark that other wartime dramas will have to be put against in the future.