This is a disgrace of a film

Rating: 1/10 (13 January 2015)

First, let me say that Eastwood's direction, Cooper's acting and the screenplay are all competent. Were this film a wholly fictional account of a warrior with special skills put in the service of his comrades it would be quite serviceable, though no more than that.
However, here was an opportunity to show the complexities of a man hailed as an American hero; and by complexities, I mean the thoroughly odious aspects of Chris Kyle's character. The man enjoyed killing people, regarding his targets as savages, and he bragged about killing looters in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina - even if he didn't, because we don't know for certain, what kind of man declares proudly his murderous inclinations? In short, he was far from a good man. Dismally, you would never know this from the simple-minded depiction of him as an all American Hero in Eastwood's film.
Likewise, there is not a shred of awareness in the film that the US involvement in Iraq might have been illegal and was certainly catastrophic for the Iraqis. The film's approach is to display every Iraqi man, woman and even child as intent on murdering "good" American troops and therefore deserving of their fate, both at the end of Kyle's rifle and under the boot of American troops generally.
I don't know what Eastwood was thinking when he made this film. Perhaps he saw an easy way to make money by appealing to the misplaced patriotism of some Americans. What I do know is that this is a disgusting film.