Voted 10+ by Americans for being American, <6 by anyone else

Rating: 6/10 (9 January 2015)

I'm just not sure what to think about this. I don't get why films have to have "American" in their name, other than for nationalism-peddling studio marketing scams. I don't get why they didn't just call it "Sniper", and it'd be interesting to see whether the same people voting this 9+ would give an equally good film the same score if it was called "Islamic Sniper". Propaganda is propaganda is propaganda is propaganda - whether it's produced in California, East Berlin, or in Pyongyang. I also don't get why Clint Eastwood chose this route, as his direction has been abjectly gorgeous again and again: the subtlety and elegant build up is always masterful. Nevertheless, i wanted to be open-minded, and not cynically write the piece off in the reactionary spin of labeling it American exceptionalism.
It does seem very badly-timed and insensitive in a period of public battle fatigue, and it has clearly been extremely divisive. As one commenter pointed out, "when America makes a film about a war with a country that can fight back, i'll watch it." All i could think about was the very old WWI quote that war is old men talking, and young men dying. War is horrific: everyone who's never been in one is in favor. Listen to any veteran's stories from the Middle East (burning bodies etc) and you instantly sense the ambiguity and nightmare-ish disillusionment. 1M+ civilians have died in Iraq, and now we have the phoenix of ISIL.
The terrifying statistic is that veteran suicides are now classed as an epidemic: 6.500 former personnel killed themselves in 2012 (22 per day over the last decade), and at least 20% suffer with PTSD (Shell Shock) - 50% of whom never seek treatment. More die from suicide than from enemy bullets, 22M receive some form of benefit, and 1M+ claims are hopelessly backlogged.
There is clearly something to say about the US military with spending more than the next 25 countries combined: it's training, tactics, post-battle care, and its invasive ideology. There is no apparent community "hearts and minds" strategy (e.g. the British manipulative rule book), just bomb and burn. The fact the US has had 20+ wars in its 200 years - most of dubious success - and it's the most sensitive patriotic tender-spot for the US public despite being the most neglected, implies there is some real material here to be explored.
And thankfully, the film slowly gets into gear to try to do that - to some extent. The first 30mins are fairly nauseating nationalism, but as time wears on, so does Kyle's disconnection with his ordinary self. The trouble is: one read of his book shows that the film character is a fabrication, or a pastiche caricature. He admittedly felt nothing of taking 200 lives, and was somewhat of an unquestioning military automaton: whether that should be celebrated as "heroic" is a matter of debate; "skillful" perhaps, maybe even virtuous at a stretch.
Soldiers can always be elevated for their bravery, and causes can be celebrated in the case of their validation of the Just War doctrine. But this did clearly not pass the Just War test; nor was the nobility of the troops' conduct evidenced in the sympathies of the local population; and the site of women and children resisting foreign troops is abhorrent, no matter how vicious TheTerrorists (TM) are portrayed. No matter how unjust or unsympathetic either side is, we can all understand brotherhood/camaraderie, loyalty, skillfully disciplining oneself to the task, suffering the personal consequences, our basic humanity, and so on. Heroism is differentiated from duty by the fact it is an exceptional act, and this worship is beginning to feel like narcissism.
I'm not sure what Eastwood's motivations were when parsing the script, but it sadly feels like dispassionate, sanctimonious back-patting. And if 6,500 men and women who offered to put themselves in harm's way have killed themselves and not even seen the counter-productive rise of the Islamic Caliphate they fought against for Halliburton, it's a gross disservice to ignore their testimonies in favor of an attempt at a serious version of Team America.