Flawed But Riveting And Complex Portrait of A Modern Warrior

Rating: 7/10 (2 June 2015)

A great many reviews of this movie claim that the movie lacks any "self-examination" of Chris Kyle's actions and the actions of the U.S. military in Iraq, or claim that the movie is a fawning, biased look at Kyle's character and record in Iraq and elsewhere. Many other reviews claim that this movie is simply a sharply illustrated depiction of a heroic, patriotic American acting out of purely altruistic motivations to save the lives of his fellow soldiers and guard the nation against terrorism. Neither of these perspectives is accurate.
First, there are many scenes in the film that do not show Kyle's actions, and the actions of the U.S. military, in a flattering light. For example, Kyle more than once refers to the Iraqi people as savages, without clearly differentiating between religious extremists and the population as a whole. Kyle also appears in more than one scene to have a callous attitude toward the effects of the U.S. operations upon the Iraqi towns and the Iraqi people. Second, the house to house searches and interrogations depicted show clearly the terror of the Iraqi civilians. It is clearly shown in the movie that the U.S. fighting men are often terrified while they are on ops, with reason to suspect every civilian of an intention to harm them or inform on their whereabouts to people who intend to harm them. It is equally clear in several scenes that the military operations by the U.S. forces bring great destruction, disruption, and death into the lives of ordinary Iraqis.
However, Kyle is depicted as having a conscience - he is greatly shaken by the circumstances of his first "kills" in action, and he is shown hesitating with great internal conflict at the prospect of shooting a child later in the movie. He is clearly relieved when the child's actions eventually make it unnecessary to do so. So, it is not accurate to say that the movie is simply an adulatory, one-sided portrayal of a great hero with no flaws - Kyle is anything but that in this movie.
Witness also the depiction of Kyle's actions toward his family and friends. The movie clearly shows that he put his family through a lot of agony when he signed up for continuing deployments he didn't have to make. The movie is fair in showing that Kyle was influenced in part by his patriotism and sense of duty to his fellow Seals and other U.S. forces in Iraq, but it is also fair in showing that he might have also been influenced in these decisions by more unpleasant aspects of his personality, or by the effects on his personality from his early deployments and indoctrination in the military culture. This is brought home by the letter written by a fellow Seal before he dies in action - the letter is very bitter and reflects disillusionment with the ideology behind the continuing U.S. involvement in the war. Kyle responds to the letter by saying that the letter killed his friend - he doesn't blame the enemy.
I also think that although the final scenes from real video of Kyle's funeral and memorials were a powerful testament to the emotional effect Kyle's life had on the people who knew him and had heard of him, those scenes contributed to an impression that the film focused too much on Kyle's patriotism and good deeds, and not enough on the contradictions and unpleasant aspects of his thoughts and actions in his work and in his personal life.
For example, when his fellow Seal mentions that he has never seen Kyle actually read the little Bible he carries with him everywhere in Iraq, I thought that it would have been interesting for the movie to flesh out one implication of that scene - that Kyle is motivated more by big ideas he has heard from his father, or his Church, than by a wider ranging motivation to seek out his own value system and guiding principles for his life through independent judgment and introspection. The conflicts between his value system and the resulting actions he took, and the world in which he lived and worked, could have been shown more starkly and perhaps provided a more balanced view of his life.
Bradley Cooper did an excellent job transforming himself into a man resembling Kyle, and also showing both the good and harmful the effects of combat and his decisions he made in his life. Sienna Miller was also very convincing as Kyle's wife. Unfortunately, the depictions of the fighters opposing the U.S. forces, and the super-sniper Kyle hunted down with great purpose, were not as multi-dimensional. The movie would be more interesting if the lives of these people had been portrayed in a little greater detail.
In all, this was a powerful look at a flawed modern warrior who was the very best at performing a very ugly job that in many cases has to be done. The effects of his chosen profession on himself, on those he loved and cared about most deeply, and on the Iraqi people are shown in stark reality - the good with the bad, in a realistic way.
Viewers who put aside their biases and look at the full spectrum of details provided by Clint Eastwood and the other filmmakers will derive the most rich and thought-provoking experience from this movie and will also come away with a more accurate and detailed view of Chris Kyle as a human being.