So-so war film.

Rating: 6/10 (24 May 2015)

Much love and bile has been directed at this film. The debate says more about the viewers than it does about Chris Kyle. In this post-Vietnam/Iraq world many desire their war films to be more Platoon or Thin Red Line than The Longest Day. Others want the exact opposite.
This film is more along the lines of the traditional depiction of war with some modern touches. Whilst not as simplistic of a depiction of a soldier protagonist as in John Wayne films American Sniper lacks the moral complexity of films like Full Metal Jacket.It's a passable depiction of war. It certainly is no classic along the lines of Blackhawk Down or Saving Private Ryan.
American Sniper ultimately will be known more for the furor that it caused than it's contents. The debate is between two groups of people passing judgment or giving out praise to a life they don't much understand.Americans more than ever are ignorant of war and what it means at a philosophical level and for the people directly involved in it.
Some say this film is propaganda, but that is not a legitimate argument. Oscar Wilde once said that "Truth is rarely pure and never simple." It's the arrogance of people today that leads them to think they know the truth when all they know is what others have told them. Reading articles or viewing documentaries doesn't mean you know what went on. All it means is that you read or viewed someone else's view of what occurred. The real truth is known only by those who were there.Every other person's opinion stands is wholly dependent on the information given to them(and thus susceptible to manipulation.) It is a fool who thinks that only the government lies and deceives about war.
Movies are points of view. As a result they are all biased. To label American Sniper that went all movies are intrinsically biased is ludicrous. Frankly, those who accuse it of that are simply angry that the movies does not depict their point-of-view about the events at hand.
There is another issue I have to tackle that is with hypocrisy. Much has been made about the depiction of Iraqis in this film. It's been called racist and simplistic. That allegation made me shake my head. This film depicts Iraqis as every non-German World War Two film depicts the Germans in the Second World War: Simplistic one-dimensional characters. I have yet to see Michael Moore or any leftist complain about the unfair depiction of Germans in films.
What it boils down to is that this film isn't anti-war and thus is being torn to pieces by those who are stridently anti-Iraq War. Conversely, those who openly support the war in Iraq love this film because it seemingly confirms what they believed. Ideological bias has impacted how this film has been received and the critiques of it have to be viewed with that understanding.
American Sniper is a middling kind of movie that Eastwood every so often produces. For every Letters from Iwo Jima(brilliant) there is a Flags of Our Fathers(meh). Sniper is decidedly in the latter category.