Am sniper

wikiAmerican Sniper is a 2014 American <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biographical_film" title="Biographical film" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">biographical</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_film" title="War film" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">war</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drama_film" class="mw-redirect" title="Drama film" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">drama film</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#cite_note-5" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[5]</a> directed by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clint_Eastwood" title="Clint Eastwood" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Clint Eastwood</a> and written by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Hall(screenwriter)" title="Jason Hall (screenwriter)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Jason Hall</a>. It is loosely based on the memoir <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper(book)" title="American Sniper (book)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History</a> (2012) by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Kyle" title="Chris Kyle" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Chris Kyle</a>, with Scott McEwen and Jim DeFelice. The film follows the life of Kyle, who became the deadliest <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sniper" title="Sniper" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">marksman</a> in U.S. military history with 255 kills from four tours in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_War" title="Iraq War" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Iraq War</a>, 160 of which were officially confirmed by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Defense" title="United States Department of Defense" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Department of Defense</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#cite_note-6" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[6]</a>While Kyle was celebrated for his military successes, his tours of duty took a heavy toll on his personal and family life. The film was produced by Eastwood, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Lorenz" title="Robert Lorenz" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Robert Lorenz</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Lazar" title="Andrew Lazar" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Andrew Lazar</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradley_Cooper" title="Bradley Cooper" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Bradley Cooper</a>, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Morgan(producer)" title="Peter Morgan (producer)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Peter Morgan</a>. It stars Cooper as Kyle and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sienna_Miller" title="Sienna Miller" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Sienna Miller</a> as his wife <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taya_Kyle" title="Taya Kyle" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Taya</a>, with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luke_Grimes" title="Luke Grimes" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Luke Grimes</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jake_McDorman" title="Jake McDorman" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Jake McDorman</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cory_Hardrict" title="Cory Hardrict" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Cory Hardrict</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Lacz" title="Kevin Lacz" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Kevin Lacz</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navid_Negahban" title="Navid Negahban" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Navid Negahban</a>, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keir_O%27Donnell" title="Keir O'Donnell" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Keir O'Donnell</a> in supporting roles.The world premiere was on November 11, 2014, at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Film_Institute" title="American Film Institute" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">American Film Institute</a> Festival, followed by a limited theatrical release in the United States on December 25, 2014, and a wide release on January 16, 2015. The film became a major success, with a worldwide gross of over $547 million,<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#cite_note-7" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[7]</a> making it the highest-grossing film of 2014 in the United States ($350 million), the highest-grossing war film of all time unadjusted for inflation, and Eastwood's highest-grossing film to date.The film received mostly positive reviews from critics, with the majority of praise directed towards Cooper's lead performance and Eastwood's direction, though it attracted some controversy over its portrayal of both the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_invasion_of_Iraq" title="2003 invasion of Iraq" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">War in Iraq</a> and of Chris Kyle. At the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/87th_Academy_Awards" title="87th Academy Awards" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">87th Academy Awards</a>, American Sniper received six nominations, including <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_Award_for_Best_Picture" title="Academy Award for Best Picture" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Best Picture</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_Award_for_Best_Adapted_Screenplay" title="Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Best Adapted Screenplay</a>, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_Award_for_Best_Actor" title="Academy Award for Best Actor" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Best Actor</a> for Cooper, ultimately winning one award for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_Award_for_Best_Sound_Editing" title="Academy Award for Best Sound Editing" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Best Sound Editing</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#cite_note-8" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[8]</a>
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</div><ul style="list-style-type: none; margin: 0.3em 0px; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#Plot" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">1Plot</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#Cast" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">2Cast</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-3" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#Production" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">3Production</a><ul style="list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-4" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#Casting" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">3.1Casting</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-5" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#Filming" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">3.2Filming</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-6" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#Music" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">3.3Music</a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-7" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#Reception" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">4Reception</a><ul style="list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-8" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#Box_office" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">4.1Box office</a><ul style="list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-9" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#North_America" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">4.1.1North America</a></li><li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-10" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#Outside_North_America" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">4.1.2Outside North America</a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-11" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#Critical_response" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">4.2Critical response</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-12" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#Accuracy" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">4.3Accuracy</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-13" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#Fake_baby" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">4.4Fake baby</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-14" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#Top_ten_lists" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">4.5Top ten lists</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-15" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#Home_media" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">4.6Home media</a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-16" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#Accolades" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">5Accolades</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-17" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#See_also" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">6See also</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-18" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#References" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">7References</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-19" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#External_links" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">8External links</a></li></ul></div><h2 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); line-height: 1.3;">Plot[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=American_Sniper&action=edit&section=1" title="Edit section: Plot" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">edit</a>]</h2>Growing up in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas" title="Texas" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Texas</a>, Chris Kyle is taught by his father how to shoot a rifle and hunt deer. Years later, Kyle has become a ranch hand and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodeo" title="Rodeo" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">rodeo</a> cowboy, and returns home early, to find his girlfriend in bed with another man. After telling her to leave, he is mulling it over with his brother when he sees news coverage of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998_United_States_embassy_bombings" title="1998 United States embassy bombings" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">1998 U.S. embassy bombings</a> and decides to enlist in the Navy. He qualifies for special training and becomes a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Navy_SEALs" title="United States Navy SEALs" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">U.S. Navy SEALs</a> sniper.Kyle meets Taya Studebaker at a bar, and the two soon marry. He is sent to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_War" title="Iraq War" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Iraq</a> after the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11_attacks" title="September 11 attacks" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">September 11 attacks</a>. His first kills are a woman and boy who attacked <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Marine_Corps" title="United States Marine Corps" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">U.S. Marines</a> with a Russian made <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RKG-3_anti-tank_grenade" title="RKG-3 anti-tank grenade" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">RKG-3 anti-tank grenade</a>. Kyle is visibly upset by the experience but later earns the nickname "Legend" for his many kills. Assigned to hunt for the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Qaeda" title="Al-Qaeda" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">al-Qaeda</a> leader, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Musab_al-Zarqawi" title="Abu Musab al-Zarqawi" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Abu Musab al-Zarqawi</a>, Kyle interrogates a family whose father offers to lead the SEALs to "The Butcher", al-Zarqawi's second-in-command. The plan goes awry when The Butcher captures the father and his son, killing them while Kyle is pinned down by a sniper using a Romanian <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PSL(rifle)" title="PSL (rifle)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">PSL</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sniper_rifle" title="Sniper rifle" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">sniper rifle</a>. This sniper goes by the name Mustafa and is an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_Games" title="Olympic Games" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Olympic Games</a> medalist from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syria" title="Syria" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Syria</a>. Meanwhile, the insurgents issue a bounty on Kyle.Kyle returns home to his wife and the birth of his son. He is distracted by memories of his war experiences and by Taya’s concern for them as a couple – she wishes he would focus on his home and family.Kyle leaves for a second tour and is promoted to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_petty_officer" title="Chief petty officer" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Chief Petty Officer</a>. Involved in a shootout with The Butcher, he helps in killing him. When he returns home to a newborn daughter, Kyle becomes increasingly distant from his family. On Kyle's third tour, Mustafa seriously injures a unit member, Ryan "Biggles" Job, and the unit is evacuated back to base. When they decide to return to the field and continue the mission, another SEAL, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Alan_Lee" title="Marc Alan Lee" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Marc Lee</a>, is killed by gunfire.Guilt compels Kyle to undertake a fourth tour, and Taya tells him that she may not be there when he returns. Back in Iraq, Kyle is assigned to kill Mustafa, who has been sniping U.S. Army combat engineers building a barricade. Kyle's sniper team is placed on a rooftop inside enemy territory. Kyle spots Mustafa and takes him out with a risky long distance shot at 2,100 yards (1,920 m), but this exposes his team's position to numerous armed insurgents. In the midst of the firefight, and low on ammunition, Kyle tearfully calls Taya and tells her he is ready to come home. A sandstorm provides cover for a chaotic escape in which Kyle is injured and almost left behind.After Kyle gets back, on edge and unable to adjust fully to civilian life, he is asked by a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Veterans_Affairs" title="United States Department of Veterans Affairs" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Veterans Affairs</a> psychiatrist if he is haunted by all the things he did in war. When he replies that it is “all the guys [he] couldn't save" that haunt him, the psychiatrist encourages him to help severely wounded veterans in the VA hospital. After that Kyle gradually begins to adjust to home life.Years later, on February 2, 2013, Kyle says goodbye to his wife and family as he leaves in good spirits to spend time with a veteran at a shooting range. An on-screen subtitle reveals: "Chris Kyle was killed that day by a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murders_of_Chris_Kyle_and_Chad_Littlefield#Perpetrator" title="Murders of Chris Kyle and Chad Littlefield" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">veteran he was trying to help</a>", followed by archive footage of crowds standing along the highway for his funeral procession.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#cite_note-9" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[9]</a> More are shown attending his memorial service.<h2 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); line-height: 1.3;">Cast</h2>...<h3 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.6;">Critical response</h3>American Sniper received positive reviews from critics. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotten_Tomatoes" title="Rotten Tomatoes" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Rotten Tomatoes</a> gives the film a "Certified Fresh" rating of 72%, based on 270 reviews from critics, with an average rating of 6.9/10. The website's critical consensus states, "Powered by Clint Eastwood's sure-handed direction and a gripping central performance from Bradley Cooper, American Sniper delivers a tense, vivid tribute to its real-life subject."<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#cite_note-93" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[93]</a> On <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metacritic" title="Metacritic" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Metacritic</a>, the film has a score of 72 out of 100, based on reviews from 48 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#cite_note-94" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[94]</a> In <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CinemaScore" title="CinemaScore" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">CinemaScore</a> polls conducted during the opening weekend, cinema audiences gave American Snipera rare grade of "A+" on an A+ to F scale.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#cite_note-95" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[95]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Todd_McCarthy" title="Todd McCarthy" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Todd McCarthy</a> of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hollywood_Reporter" title="The Hollywood Reporter" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">The Hollywood Reporter</a> wrote: "A taut, vivid and sad account of the brief life of the most accomplished marksman in American military annals."<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#cite_note-96" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[96]</a> Justin Chang of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variety(magazine)" title="Variety (magazine)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Variety</a> gave the film a positive review, saying "...an excellent performance from a bulked-up Bradley Cooper, this harrowing and intimate character study offers fairly blunt insights into the physical and psychological toll exacted on the front lines..."<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#cite_note-variety-chang-97" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[97]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Denby" title="David Denby" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">David Denby</a> of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_Yorker" title="The New Yorker" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">The New Yorker</a> gave the film a positive review, saying "Both a devastating war movie and a devastating antiwar movie, a subdued celebration of a warrior's skill and a sorrowful lament over his alienation and misery."<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#cite_note-98" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[98]</a> Keith Phipps of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dissolve" title="The Dissolve" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">The Dissolve</a> wrote that the film, while well made, missed a chance to explore the toll that such service exacts on soldiers.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#cite_note-Dissolve-99" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[99]</a> Chris Nashawaty of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entertainment_Weekly" title="Entertainment Weekly" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Entertainment Weekly</a> gave the film a C+, saying "The film's just a repetition of context-free combat missions and one-dimensional targets."<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#cite_note-100" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[100]</a> Elizabeth Weitzman of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Daily_News" title="New York Daily News" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">New York Daily News</a> gave the film four out of five stars, saying "The best movies are ever-shifting, intelligent and open-hearted enough to expand alongside an audience. American Sniper [...] is built on this foundation of uncommon compassion."<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#cite_note-101" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[101]</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyle_Smith" title="Kyle Smith" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Kyle Smith</a> of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Post" title="New York Post" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">New York Post</a> gave the film four out of four stars, saying "After 40 years of Hollywood counterpropaganda telling us war is necessarily corrupting and malign, [...] American Sniper nobly presents the case for the other side."<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#cite_note-102" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[102]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Travers" title="Peter Travers" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Peter Travers</a> of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_Stone" title="Rolling Stone" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Rolling Stone</a> gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four, saying "Bradley Cooper, as Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, and director Eastwood salute Kyle's patriotism best by not denying its toll. Their targets are clearly in sight, and their aim is true."<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#cite_note-103" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[103]</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignatiy_Vishnevetsky" title="Ignatiy Vishnevetsky" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Ignatiy Vishnevetsky</a> of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_A.V.Club" title="The A.V. Club" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">The A.V. Club</a> gave the film a B, saying "American Sniper is imperfect and at times a little corny, but also ambivalent and complicated in ways that are uniquely Eastwoodian."<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#cite_note-104" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[104]</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Berardinelli" title="James Berardinelli" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">James Berardinelli</a> of ReelViews gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four, saying "American Sniper lifts director Clint Eastwood out of the doldrums that have plagued his last few films."<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#cite_note-105" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[105]</a> Rafer Guzman of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newsday" title="Newsday" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Newsday</a> gave the film three out of four stars, saying "Cooper nails the role of an American killing machine in Clint Eastwood's clear-eyed look at the Iraq War."<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#cite_note-106" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[106]</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Turan" title="Kenneth Turan" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Kenneth Turan</a> of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_Times" title="Los Angeles Times" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Los Angeles Times</a> gave the film a positive review, saying "Eastwood's impeccably crafted action sequences so catch us up in the chaos of combat we are almost not aware that we're watching a film at all."<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#cite_note-107" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[107]</a> Claudia Puig of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USA_Today" title="USA Today" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">USA Today</a> gave the film three out of four stars, saying "It's clearly Cooper's show. Substantially bulked up and affecting a believable Texas drawl, Cooper embodies Kyle's confidence, intensity and vulnerability."<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#cite_note-108" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[108]</a>Joshua Rothkopf of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Out(magazine)" title="Time Out (magazine)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Time Out New York</a> gave the film four out of five stars, saying "Only Clint Eastwood could make a movie about an Iraq War veteran and infuse it with doubts, mission anxiety and ruination."<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#cite_note-109" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[109]</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_Obeidallah" title="Dean Obeidallah" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Dean Obeidallah</a> praised the film, saying "His focus was not on whom we were fighting, but the unbearably high price Americans pay for waging war regardless of its target. The film is a cautionary tale for Americans about why we must avoid war. It is not a celebration of waging it."<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#cite_note-110" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[110]</a>The film drew some negative reviews. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Taibbi" title="Matt Taibbi" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Matt Taibbi</a>, in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_Stone" title="Rolling Stone" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Rolling Stone</a>, wrote that the movie turned the complicated moral questions and mass-bloodshed of the Iraq war into a black and white fairy tale, without presenting the historical context.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#cite_note-111" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[111]</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_von_Tunzelmann" title="Alex von Tunzelmann" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Alex von Tunzelmann</a> of <span style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">The yyy Guardian argued that the film presented a simplified black and white portrayal of the Iraq war, and that it features the distortion of facts into unreliable myths based upon previous legends.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#cite_note-112" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[112]</a> David Masciotra of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salon(website)" title="Salon (website)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Salon</a> criticized the movie's focus on physical rather than moral courage as the ultimate manly virtue.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#cite_note-113" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[113]</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavalry_scout" title="Cavalry scout" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Cavalry scout</a> sniper Garett Reppenhagen stated that he did not view Iraqi civilians as savages, but as part of a friendly culture for which the movie has furthered ignorance, fear, and bigotry.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#cite_note-114" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[114]</a> Cinematographer <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Edwards(cinematographer)" class="mw-redirect" title="Paul Edwards (cinematographer)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Paul Edwards</a> wrote in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CounterPunch" title="CounterPunch" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">CounterPunch</a> that he believes the film to be dangerous due to mutilating the classic <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero%27s_journey" title="Hero's journey" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">hero's journey</a> into a simplistic, brutal, and sadistic destruction of "evildoers".<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#cite_note-115" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[115]</a> Inkoo Kang of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TheWrap" title="TheWrap" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">TheWrap</a> gave the film a negative review, saying "Director Clint Eastwood‘s focus on Kyle is so tight that no other character, including wife Taya (Sienna Miller), comes through as a person, and the scope so narrow that the film engages only superficially with the many moral issues surrounding the Iraq War."<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#cite_note-116" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[116]</a> Several other articles have also been critical of the movie.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#cite_note-117" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[117]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#cite_note-118" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[118]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#cite_note-119" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[119]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#cite_note-120" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[120]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#cite_note-121" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[121]</a>Responding to critics, Eastwood said that American Sniper shows "what [war] does to the people left behind",<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#cite_note-122" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[122]</a> and that presenting "the fact of what [war] does to the family and the people who have to go back into civilian life like Chris Kyle did" is the "biggest <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-war_films" class="mw-redirect" title="Anti-war films" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">antiwar</a> statement any film" can make.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#cite_note-BiggestAntiwarStatement-123" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[123]</a> He stated: "One of my favorite war movies that I've been involved with is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letters_from_Iwo_Jima" title="Letters from Iwo Jima" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Letters from Iwo Jima</a> and that was about family, about being taken away from life, being sent someplace. In World War II, everybody just sort of went home and got over it. Now there is some effort to help people through it."<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#cite_note-BiggestAntiwarStatement-123" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[123]</a> He also said: "I was a child growing up during <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II" title="World War II" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">World War II</a>. That was supposed to be the one to end all wars. And four years later, I was standing at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft_board" title="Draft board" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">draft board</a> being drafted during the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_War" title="Korean War" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Korean conflict</a>, and then after that there was Vietnam, and it goes on and on forever ... I just wonder ... does this ever stop? And no, it doesn't. So each time we get in these conflicts, it deserves a lot of thought before we go wading in or wading out. Going in or coming out. It needs a better thought process, I think."<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#cite_note-124" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[124]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradley_Cooper" title="Bradley Cooper" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Bradley Cooper</a> stated that much of the criticism ignores that the film was about widespread neglect of returning veterans, and that people who take issue with Kyle should redirect their attention to the leaders who put the troops there in the first place. He said: "We looked at hopefully igniting attention about the lack of care that goes to vets. [Any] discussion that has nothing to do with vets, or what we did or did not do [for them], every conversation in those terms is moving farther and farther from what our soldiers go through, and the fact that 22 veterans commit suicide each day." Cooper said that an increasing number of soldiers are returning from conflict psychologically damaged, only to be more or less discarded.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#cite_note-125" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[125]</a>First Lady <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelle_Obama" title="Michelle Obama" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Michelle Obama</a> and former <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Party(United_States)" title="Republican Party (United States)" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Republican Party</a> vice presidential nominee <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Palin" title="Sarah Palin" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Sarah Palin</a> also spoke out in support of the movie.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#cite_note-126" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[126]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#cite_note-127" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[127]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#cite_note-128" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[128]</a><h3 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.6;">Accuracy[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=American_Sniper&action=edit&section=12" title="Edit section: Accuracy" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">edit</a>]</h3>Several major news sources commented on the accuracy of the film and how it differs from Chris Kyle's written accounts. The enemy sniper Mustafa is a major character in the film but receives only a small mention in the memoir; Kyle noted: "I never saw him, but other snipers later killed an Iraqi sniper we think was him."<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#cite_note-guardian-129" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[129]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#cite_note-slate-130" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[130]</a> According to the memoir, Kyle's 2100-yard shot was taken against an insurgent holding a rocket launcher, not Mustafa.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#cite_note-slate-130" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[130]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#cite_note-wapo-131" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[131]</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time(magazine)" title="Time (magazine)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">TIME</a> notes that according to screenwriter Jason Hall, Kyle said of Mustafa: "He shot my friend. I'm not going to put his name in my book."<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#cite_note-time-132" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[132]</a> The first combat scene in the film has Kyle killing a boy and mother who try to attack U.S. troops with a grenade; the boy was added for the film.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#cite_note-guardian-129" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[129]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#cite_note-slate-130" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[130]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#cite_note-time-132" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[132]</a> The film depicts Ryan "Biggles" Job as dying shortly after he is shot by Mustafa; in reality, Job survived for several years after the incident but died after surgical complications from an operation on his face.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#cite_note-slate-130" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[130]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#cite_note-wapo-131" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[131]</a> The character "the Butcher" was created for the film,<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#cite_note-guardian-129" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[129]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#cite_note-time-132" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[132]</a> although this character may have been based on the real-life <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Deraa" title="Abu Deraa" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Abu Deraa</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sniper#cite_note-guardian-129" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[129]</a>...=Consider the pro-military hype that surrounded this year’s Major League Baseball All-Star Game. Not so very long ago, when I watched such games I would be transported to my childhood and my fantasies of becoming the next Nolan Ryan or Carl Yastrzemski. When I watched this year’s version of the game, however, I didn’t relive my youth; I relived my military career. As a start, the previous night featured a televised home-run derby. Before it even began, about 50 airmen paraded out in camouflage uniforms, setting the stage for everything that would follow. (As they weren’t on duty, I couldn’t help wondering why they found it appropriate to don such outfits.) Part of T-Mobile's "HatsOff4Heroes” <a href="https://www.tmonews.com/2018/05/t-mobile-hats-off-4-heroes-initiative-donate-1-million-team-rubicon/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">campaign</a>, this mini-parade was justified in the name of raising money to support veterans, but T-Mobile could have simply given the money to charity without any of the militarized hoopla that this involved. Highlighting the other pre-game ceremonies the next night was a celebration of Medal of Honor recipients. I have deep respect for such heroes, but what were they doing on a baseball diamond? The ceremony would have been appropriate on, say, Veterans Day in November.Those same pre-game festivities included a militaristic montage narrated by Bradley Cooper (star of "<a href="https://bracingviews.com/2015/01/23/fewer-american-snipers-more-american-workers-and-builders/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none;">American Sniper</a>"), featuring war scenes and war monuments while highlighting the popular catchphrase "freedom isn't free." Martial music accompanied the montage along with a bevy of flag-waving images. It felt like watching a twisted version of the film <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097351/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Field of Dreams</a> reshot so that soldiers, not baseball players, <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=first+scene,+field+of+dreams,+baseball+players+emerge+from+the+corn&client=firefox-b-1&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi95r2VuuXcAhUvnOAKHQFIA9gQ_AUICygC&biw=1760&bih=877#imgrc=XBW6UBA1rPpbiM:" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">emerged</a> early on from those rows of Iowa corn stalks and stepped onto the playing field.What followed was a "surprise" <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPx1wSGiQnI" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">reunion</a> of an airman, Staff Sergeant Cole Condiff, and his wife and family. Such staged reunions have become a regular aspect of major sporting events -- consider this “<a href="https://onmilwaukee.com/sports/articles/brewers-army-dad-talks-family-reunion.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">heart-melting</a>” example from a Milwaukee Brewers game -- and are obviously meant to tug at the heartstrings. They are, as retired Army Colonel Andrew Bacevich wrote at TomDispatchback in 2011, propagandistic versions of "<a href="https://www.tomdispatch.com/archive/175423/andrew_bacevich_ballpark_liturgy" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">cheap grace</a>."ref
https://bracingviews.com/2015/01/23/fewer-american-snipers-more-american-workers-and-builders/
AstoreFormer Army Ranger Rory Fanning has a <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175942/tomgram%3A_rory_fanning%2C_unpacking_the_war_on_terror/" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">thoughtful article</a> at TomDispatch.com on why young men should not join the Army to fight the war on terror in distant lands.Here’s an excerpt:<blockquote style="box-sizing: inherit; border-left: 3px solid rgb(0, 116, 217); line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 24px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 24px; quotes: ">Believe me, it [the Afghan War] was ugly. We were often enough targeting innocent people based on bad intelligence and in some cases even seizing Afghans who had actually pledged allegiance to the U.S. mission… I know now that if our country’s leadership had truly had peace on its mind, it could have all been over in Afghanistan <a href="http://us.macmillan.com/nogoodmenamongtheliving/anandgopal" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">in early 2002</a>.If you are shipped off to Iraq for our latest war there, remember that the Sunni population you will be targeting is reacting to a U.S.-backed Shia regime in Baghdad that’s done them dirty for years. ISIS exists to a significant degree because the largely secular members of Saddam Hussein’s Ba’ath party were labeled the enemy as they tried to surrender after the U.S. invasion of 2003 … Given the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/in-baghdad-middle-class-sunnis-say-they-prefer-militants-to-maliki/2014/07/11/fa0b66a7-1b09-409a-a5ed-ab580bc93a4a_story.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">reign of terror</a> that followed, it’s hardly surprising to find former Baathist army officers in <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/11/-sp-isis-the-inside-story" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">key positions</a> in ISIS and the Sunnis choosing that grim outfit as the lesser of the two evils in its world.  Again, the enemy you are being shipped off to fight is, at least in part, a <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175888/tomgram%3A_engelhardt,the_escalation_follies/" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">product</a> of your chain-of-command’s meddling in a sovereign country. And remember that, whatever its grim acts, this enemy presents no existential threat to American security, at least so <a href="http://thehill.com/policy/international/219659-biden-terrorism-no-existential-threat-to-us" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">says</a> Vice President Joe Biden. Let that sink in for a while and then ask yourself whether you really can take your marching orders seriously.</blockquote>Fanning makes persuasive points here: How the U.S. military bungled its wars of choice in Iraq and Afghanistan; how often Iraqi and Afghan innocents were killed due to bad intelligence and the usual deadly mistakes associated with war; how the wars fed, and continue to feed, a cycle of violence that is perpetuated by new U.S. troop deployments and weapons sales (with respect to weapons sales, see this <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175943/tomgram%3A_peter_van_buren%2C_the_military-industrial_complex_in_iraq/" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">excellent article</a> by Peter Van Buren, which details how the U.S. is hawking M1 Abrams main battle tanks to the Iraqis).Yet persuading young American men against joining the military, let alone convincing them not to strive to be elite Rangers, is not, sadly, an exercise in logic.  In American society today, young men, especially from the working classes, seek an identity and a status that affirms masculinity.  They want to earn the respect of their peers, parents, and prospective dates (and mates).  American society provides few options for such men, especially if they’re living in straitened circumstances in dead-end jobs.  Consider that many physical jobs, such as working in a warehouse, pay only slightly better than minimum wage, with weekly hours curtailed so that employers don’t have to provide health care.Military service, which exudes masculinity while conveying societal respect (and free health care, among other benefits), is in many ways the most viable option for working-class men (and more than a few women, obviously).  Like it or not, young men often aspire to being “the biggest and baddest,” or at least serving with a unit of such men.  They seek community and a sense of belonging within unapologetically masculine settings.  They may also have dreams of being heroes, or at least of proving themselves as capable within a community of likeminded tough guys.American society bombards such impressionable young men with images of soldiers, often deified in movies like “Act of Valor” or “Lone Survivor.”  Consider the popular success of “American Sniper,” with its depiction of the resolute sniper as avenger and punisher.  Movies like this are powerful in persuading impressionable youth to sign on the dotted line as volunteers for military service.Military service, which conveys personal dignity, adds a dash of grandeur.  By joining the military, you become part of something much larger than yourself.  A sense of masculine challenge, especially in elite units like the Army Rangers or Navy SEALs, combined with societal respectability prove alluring to young men.  Sadly, no amount of logic about the lack of wisdom and efficacy of America’s war on terror will convince them otherwise.Some will say there’s nothing wrong with this.  Why not encourage young men to join the military and to fight in foreign lands?  Yet if those fights serve fallacious causes that amount to strategic folly, our troops’ sacrifices amount to little.One thing we can do: American society should provide more jobs for young men that convey respect within masculine codes but which don’t require donning a uniform and killing an enemy overseas.For nearly a decade, I taught working-class students, mostly young men, in rural Pennsylvania.  My students came to class wearing camo fatigues.  Many looked like they had just climbed down from a tree stand in the woods (a big holiday for my students was the first day of rifle deer season).  They drove pickup trucks, listened to country music, dipped Skoal or smoked Marlboros.  They’re not guys who aspire to be metrosexuals sipping lattes at Starbucks.  They’re looking for a job that screams “man,” and sometimes they find it: in welding, as a heavy equipment operator, in residential construction, and so on.But for those who can’t find such “masculine” vocations that provide decent pay and benefits, military service is powerfully alluring, and almost impossible to resist, especially when there are so few alternatives.In September 2008, I called for <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174980/william_astore_rebuilding_america_remaking_ourselves" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">a revival of</a> the Civilian Conservation Corps, national service that is dedicated to rebuilding America.  We need to instill an ethic of national service that goes beyond war and killing.  An ethic that inspires young men with patriotic pride and that conveys societal identities that appeal to them as men.What we need, in short, are fewer “American snipers” and more American workers and builders.=<a href="http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/killing_ragheads_for_jesus_20150125">http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/killing_ragheads_for_jesus_20150125</a><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2179136/?ref=nv_sr_1" target="blank" style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; line-height: 17.29px; background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249);">“American Sniper”</a> lionizes the most despicable aspects of U.S. society—the gun culture, the blind adoration of the military, the belief that we have an innate right as a “Christian” nation to exterminate the “lesser breeds” of the earth, a grotesque hypermasculinity that banishes compassion and pity, a denial of inconvenient facts and historical truth, and a belittling of critical thinking and artistic expression. Many Americans, especially white Americans trapped in a stagnant economy and a dysfunctional political system, yearn for the supposed moral renewal and rigid, militarized control the movie venerates. These passions, if realized, will extinguish what is left of our now-anemic open society....There is no shortage of simpletons whose minds are warped by this belief system. We elected one of them, George W. Bush, as president. They populate the armed forces and the Christian right. They watch Fox News and believe it. They have little understanding or curiosity about the world outside their insular communities. They are proud of their ignorance and anti-intellectualism. They prefer drinking beer and watching football to reading a book. And when they get into power—they already control the Congress, the corporate world, most of the media and the war machine—their binary vision of good and evil and their myopic self-adulation cause severe trouble for their country. “American Sniper,” like the big-budget feature films pumped out in Germany during the Nazi era to exalt deformed values of militarism, racial self-glorification and state violence, is a piece of propaganda, a tawdry commercial for the crimes of empire. That it made a <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2015/01/18/what-box-office-records-did-american-sniper-break/21964161/" target="blank" style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">record-breaking</a> $105.3 million over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday long weekend is a symptom of the United States’ dark malaise.“The movie never asks the seminal question as to why the people of Iraq are fighting back against us in the very first place,” said Mikey Weinstein, whom I reached by phone in New Mexico. Weinstein, who worked in the Reagan White House and is a former Air Force officer, is the head of the <a href="http://www.militaryreligiousfreedom.org/about/" target="blank" style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">Military Religious Freedom Foundation</a>, which challenges the growing Christian fundamentalism within the U.S. military. “It made me physically ill with its twisted, totally one-sided distortions of wartime combat ethics and justice woven into the fabric of Chris Kyle’s personal and primal justification mantra of ‘God-Country-Family.’ It is nothing less than an odious homage, indeed a literal horrific hagiography to wholesale slaughter.”Weinstein noted that the embrace of extreme right-wing Christian chauvinism, or Dominionism, which calls for the creation of a theocratic “Christian” America, is especially acute among elite units such as the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Navy_SEALs" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">SEALs</a> and the Army Special Forces.The evildoers don’t take long to make an appearance in the film. This happens when television—the only way the movie’s characters get news—announces the <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/06/world/africa/africa-embassy-bombings-fast-facts/" target="blank" style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">1998 truck bombings</a> of the American embassies in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi in which hundreds of people were killed. Chris, now grown, and his brother, aspiring rodeo riders, watch the news reports with outrage. Ted Koppel talks on the screen about a “war” against the United States....ecil sniper olymp[ic)Kyle’s first kill is a boy who is handed an anti-tank grenade by a young woman in a black chador. The woman, who expresses no emotion over the boy’s death, picks up the grenade after the boy is shot and moves toward U.S. Marines on patrol. Kyle kills her too. And here we have the template for the film and Kyle’s best-selling autobiography, “American Sniper.” Mothers and sisters in Iraq don’t love their sons or their brothers. Iraqi women breed to make little suicide bombers. Children are miniature Osama bin Ladens. Not one of the Muslim evildoers can be trusted—man, woman or child. They are beasts. They are shown in the film identifying U.S. positions to insurgents on their cellphones, hiding weapons under trapdoors in their floors, planting improvised explosive devices in roads or strapping explosives onto themselves in order to be suicide bombers. They are devoid of human qualities.“There was a kid who barely had any hair on his balls,” Kyle says nonchalantly after shooting the child and the woman. He is resting on his cot with a big Texas flag behind him on the wall. “Mother gives him a grenade, sends him out there to kill Marines.”Enter The Butcher—a fictional Iraqi character created for the film. Here we get the most evil of the evildoers. He is dressed in a long black leather jacket and dispatches his victims with an electric drill. He mutilates children—we see a child’s arm he amputated. A local sheik offers to betray The Butcher for $100,000. The Butcher kills the sheik. He murders the sheik’s small son in front of his mother with his electric drill. The Butcher shouts: “You talk to them, you die with them.”Kyle moves on to Tour Two after time at home with Taya, whose chief role in the film is to complain through tears and expletives about her husband being away. Kyle says before he leaves: “They’re savages. Babe, they’re fuckin’ savages.”He and his fellow platoon members spray-paint the white skull of the Punisher from Marvel Comics on their vehicles, body armor, weapons and helmets. The motto they paint in a circle around the skull reads: “Despite what your momma told you … violence does solve problems.”“And we spray-painted it on every building and walls we could,” Kyle wrote in his memoir, “American Sniper.” “We wanted people to know, we’re here and we want to fuck with you. …You see us? We’re the people kicking your ass. Fear us because we will kill you, motherfucker.”The book is even more disturbing than the film. In the film Kyle is a reluctant warrior, one forced to do his duty. In the book he relishes killing and war. He is consumed by hatred of all Iraqis. He is intoxicated by violence. He is credited with 160 confirmed kills, but he notes that to be confirmed a kill had to be witnessed, “so if I shot someone in the stomach and he managed to crawl around where we couldn’t see him before he bled out he didn’t count.”...He was investigated by the Army for killing an unarmed civilian. According to his memoir, Kyle, who viewed all Iraqis as the enemy, told an Army colonel: “I don’t shoot people with Korans. I’d like to, but I don’t.” The investigation went nowhere.Kyle was given the nickname “Legend.” He got a tattoo of a Crusader cross on his arm. “I wanted everyone to know I was a Christian. I had it put in red, for blood. I hated the damn savages I’d been fighting,” he wrote. “I always will.” Following a day of sniping, after killing perhaps as many as six people, he would go back to his barracks to spent his time smoking Cuban Romeo y Julieta No. 3 cigars and “playing video games, watching porn and working out.” On leave, something omitted in the movie, he was frequently arrested for drunken bar fights. He dismissed politicians, hated the press and disdained superior officers, exalting only the comradeship of warriors. His memoir glorifies white, “Christian” supremacy and war. It is an angry tirade directed against anyone who questions the military’s elite, professional killers.“For some reason, a lot of people back home—not all people—didn’t accept that we were at war,” he wrote. “They didn’t accept that war means death, violent death, most times. A lot of people, not just politicians, wanted to impose ridiculous fantasies on us, hold us to some standard of behavior that no human being could maintain.”The enemy sniper Mustafa, portrayed in the film as if he was a serial killer, fatally wounds Kyle’s comrade Ryan “Biggles” Job.  In the movie Kyle returns to Iraq—his fourth tour—to extract revenge for Biggles’ death. This final tour, at least in the film, centered on the killing of The Butcher and the enemy sniper, also a fictional character. As it focuses on the dramatic duel between hero Kyle and villain Mustafa the movie becomes ridiculously cartoonish....e real-life Kyle, as the film was in production, was shot dead at a shooting range near Dallas on Feb. 2, 2013, along with a friend, Chad Littlefield. A former Marine, Eddie Ray Routh, who had been suffering from PTSD and severe psychological episodes, allegedly killed the two men and then stole Kyle’s pickup truck. Routh will <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2015/01/22/the-trial-of-eddie-routh-the-man-who-killed-chris-kyle-will-be-american-snipers-darkest-chapter/" target="blank" style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">go on trial next month</a>. The film ends with scenes of Kyle’s funeral procession—thousands lined the roads waving flags—and the memorial service at the Dallas Cowboys’ home stadium. It shows fellow SEALs pounding their tridents into the top of his coffin, a custom for fallen comrades. Kyle was shot in the back and the back of his head.  Like so many people he dispatched, he never saw his killer when the fatal shots were fired.The culture of war banishes the capacity for pity. It glorifies self-sacrifice and death. It sees pain, ritual humiliation and violence as part of an initiation into manhood. Brutal hazing, as Kyle noted in his book, was an integral part of becoming a Navy SEAL. New SEALs would be held down and choked by senior members of the platoon until they passed out. The culture of war idealizes only the warrior. It belittles those who do not exhibit the warrior’s “manly” virtues. It places a premium on obedience and loyalty. It punishes those who engage in independent thought and demands total conformity. It elevates cruelty and killing to a virtue. This culture, once it infects wider society, destroys all that makes the heights of human civilization and democracy possible. The capacity for empathy, the cultivation of wisdom and understanding, the tolerance and respect for difference and even love are ruthlessly crushed. The innate barbarity that war and violence breed is justified by a saccharine sentimentality about the nation, the flag and a perverted Christianity that blesses its armed crusaders. This sentimentality, as Baldwin wrote, masks a terrifying numbness. It fosters an unchecked narcissism. Facts and historical truths, when they do not fit into the mythic vision of the nation and the tribe, are discarded. Dissent becomes treason. All opponents are godless and subhuman. “American Sniper” caters to a deep sickness rippling through our society. It holds up the dangerous belief that we can recover our equilibrium and our lost glory by embracing an American fascism.==<div>
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