This War Movie is Both Straightforward and Ambiguous, Like Its Protagonist, Who Emerges as a Bit of An Unknown Soldier.

Rating: 8/10 (9 April 2015)

At least in the post-Vietnam era, arguably, good war movies should make poor military recruitment videos. In other words, they should make you want to stay as far the hell away from the hell of war as possible. By this standard, director Clint Eastwood's "American Sniper" (hereafter "AS") is at least partially a good movie. Even though its protagonist, Chris Kyle (Bradley Cooper), appears to be a decent, good-old-boy, patriotic Texan eager to enlist in the U.S. Navy and become a Navy SEAL after hearing of U.S. embassy bombings, his Iraqi Gulf War military experiences, I don't think, would make most people want to visit Iraq and kill terrorists. Nevertheless, "AS" also seems to retain some of the gung-ho spirit of straightforward pre-Vietnam movies to make the case that this is a "worthwhile" war in the sense that it was necessary to protect American security. Perhaps AS is both straightforward and ambiguous, both in its depiction of wartime heroics and atrocities, and its depiction of a soldier that revels in, and is damaged by, his role as a sniper.
Through the obligatory, practically-cliché montage of boot camp training and bellowing, obscene drill instructors, Chris manages to distinguish himself as a SEAL and particularly a sniper (perhaps the modern-day equivalent of a quick-draw gunslinger). Before shipping out to Iraq, post-9/11, he clumsily but earnestly woos Taya Renae (Sienna Miller) in a bar and eventually weds her. In "AS", Taya serves as the back-home, civilization counterpoint to the war, and the gauge of Chris's personality changes. Even though some may see sniping as a safe, unmanly way to fight a war, "AS" convinces us that that is not so. From strategic rooftops Kyle essentially provides a kind of reconnaissance for the other American troops by correctly identifying and picking off potential guerrillas and hidden assassins. It is intense, nerve-wracking work not only because he has to nail the killers before they blow up the troops, but also because he has only a split-second to determine IF they are killers, and not innocent bystanders. It is possible that a mother and son can be a deadly threat.
Chris proves adept at killing the "right" people and earns the name "Legend" from his grateful squad for his numerous hits. But perhaps to hedge his bets about proving Chris's bravery, Eastwood also has Chris fighting in the streets alongside his fellow soldiers and helping them hunt for the al-Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi; during house-to-house searches in abandoned areas. After Chris's and an interpreter's intense, heated interrogation, an Iraqi father and son offer to lead Chris to al-Zarqawi. The search is thwarted by al-Zarqawi's sadistic lieutenant, "The Butcher" (Mido Hamada) who literally likes drilling soldiers and civilians alike. Chris fails to save the father and son from the "Butcher", which haunts him after he returns home from his first tour. Although, grimly and humorously, if improbably, Chris keeps in touch with Taya by cellphone during lulls in the action, including learning of his wife's impending pregnancy, he finds it hard to settle into civilian life.
After that, "AS" settles into alternating, occasionally tedious, warzone/homefront scenes as subsequent three tours makes it increasingly more difficult for Chris to adjust back to home life. Guilt at being unable to save all fellow soldier lives, Post-Traumatic-Strees Disorder, and his vengeful desire to kill not only the "savage Butcher" but a rival, equally-skilled, Olympic- level Iraqi sniper Mustafa (Sammy Sheik) compel Chris to go back to the warzone . Of course this frays his relationship with Taya. Chris generally succeeds in carrying out his vengeance, and through a blinding sandstorm, returns home to stay. It's still a struggle to get acclimated to home, as encounters with a nurse and an overactive hound saw, but Chris, especially with help by a VA hospital, finds peace counseling fellow wounded, maladjusted veterans. But in that healing, counseling process, Chris ironically and tragically meets "friendly fire".
"AS" is a quite more-than-adequate "War is Crazy Hell But Sometimes Necessary" movie that also manages to advance the old adage of "Hate the war but love the soldier." Despite his alienation from his family and his sometimes racist regard for the Iraqi's, Bradley Cooper manages to depict Chris as a fundamentally solid, good man who may have been warped by his war experiences. Whether that assessment is true for the real, departed Chris Kyle will always be open to spirited debate (hero or barbarian?), because in spite of "AS" the movie and the autobiographical novel which inspired it, he will always be something of an unknown soldier, even to his grieving, loved ones, personal and public.