Are you ready for a reality change in military war?

Rating: 10/10 (6 February 2015)

Once again Clint Eastwood proves his mastery of the art of filmmaking with American sniper. In an entertaining way you are provoked to transcend your preconceived mindset and the conventional wisdom. While the movie has reignited American public debates about the virtue and value of the conflict in the Middle East, it is the internal moral conflict confronting the American sniper that captivated me the most. As you weigh the decisions, your mindset is revealed and your heart is challenged. For me this reality change is what a great film is all about. I love its great camera work and atmosphere but it is the emotional power and depth of the story which makes it a classic.
This film closely captures the mood, so you really felt present during the latest Iraq conflict and the everyday rebellion and insurgency combat in the streets. Only the US soldiers wear uniforms, they can be surprised and attacked from any quarter and by any man, woman and child. The action is close and personal so that it hits the heart of the viewer. The term non-military age man, seems to mean a child of 6 or 7 years, who proved unable to hold an anti-tank rocket launcher and fire it at a US vehicle 20 meters away. Chris, a crack American sniper watches every second through his gun sights, deliberating whether he should wait a little longer, or to fire now. When US troops use force in house to house searches, they are confronted face to face with Iraq's families at home. Children, babies, women and military age men are terrorized by American soldiers in their search for one Muslim terrorist. As a Muslim sniper starts shooting US soldiers, it seems that he is acting in the same way as the American snipers. The films shows how both sides are brought closely together. Could it be that they are becoming almost indistinguishable?
The moral conflict in Chris's mind and heart threatened to tear him to pieces and also his family on his return to the USA. Yet he declared to his psychologist that his 160 kills was well justified in his efforts to serve his country and save his brothers in arms. In his thirst to kill, Chris has lost his moral war without realizing it. Eastwood carefully sequences the scenes of heroism and of moral corruptions to provoke viewers to evaluate the true meaning of heroism and war. The 'just war' waged by the US has turned the very people, the ordinary citizens of Iraqi, it is trying to rescue (from terrorism) into its enemies. The US may have captured the land, but it lost the hearts and minds of the people in the land.
For the perceptive one, this film dramatically also shows that those involved in military war are presented with the moral conflict more intensely than in nearly any other situation.
I watched the movie in California with two American Vietnam veterans on each side of me. The film ended and there was an intense and heavy silence in the whole cinema. If the goal was that to shock the audience to a deeper reflection, then this film is masterful. Could this film have unveiled the reality of "just" military wars? One of the veterans told me, what he had probably hid for years, that this was also his experience of Vietnam. The other reeling emotionally, said "I can't talk about it, I have to get home quickly. It brought too many memories back."
The war in Vietnam finally ended as the American public rebelled, when confronted with the terrible realities on TV in the comfort of their homes. Personally I think that #Clint Eastwood will prove to be the real hero who has reignited the public debate on the moral of the modern American wars with this film.
The next day working at Playford Games, I felt a change inside. I design the Moral Conflict games to encourage players, to weigh their hearts and their actions. My illustrator in Germany and I have been mulling over our latest title picture, where we portray the agony of the 1945 moral conflict within the soldiers, children and women in the streets of Berlin. After seeing Clint Eastwood's work, I am inspired to make this picture count and reach the hearts and minds of as many as possible.