It's really nothing special; good but FAR from great.

Rating: 5/10 (20 January 2015)

Okay, I didn't serve, so I'm not going to pose like I know what Iraq was like and pull the "I was there!" card. I do, however, really like historic films in general. The attention to detail in the film was good, but then again you should expect this from someone the caliber of Clint Eastwood, so it's hardly surprising.
I'm not sure how much of the film was factual, but my issue was how silly a lot of the film was. He sees the bombings of the US Embassies in Africa (before 9/11) and THAT motivates him to give up his cowboy life and enlist as a SEAL? Really?? Can anybody else under The Sun relate to that? It just seemed ridiculous, 9/11 would have made more sense as his impetus.
Right when his wife calls him to say "It's a boy!" an intense battle breaks out? Wow, the insurgents must have know with their psychic powers that his guard was down!
Coincidentally meeting a maimed solider from his platoon in a mechanic shop in Podunk, Texas? Of all the luck!
There was only one line of Arabic subtitled THE ENTIRE FILM and there were many lines that seemed important to the plot point in the scene. This was just laziness on Eastwood's part.
Overall a well-made film with a few things that made me cringe. It does move fast for being just over two hours and covers a long span of time in Chris Kyle's life. I definitely prefer Zero Dark Thirty and The Hurt Locker over this, still.