Good film, unfairly judged.

Rating: 8/10 (21 January 2015)

Having not read American Sniper the book, I have to take this film at face value and I have found it to be a good film which is being unfairly hounded in the media and even on here on IMDb.
I have seen in many outlets this film is being slated as over-the-top pro American, anti-Muslim and as glorifying the war and depicting all Iraqis as terrorists. I think this is a very harsh judgment. There are elements of that (not nearly as bad as I was lead to believe) but we must remember that we are telling one man's true story here. If these are his experiences and those are his views then it is not unreasonable to depict them.
From the criticism I had heard before seeing this movie, I was half expecting a Die Hard style film where Cooper kills all the bad guys while shouting some bad a** catch phrase and saving the day. Instead it shows a sniper who (to me) seemed to take no glory in killing or his title as America's most lethal sniper. He has a simple pride that he was doing his job well and that every life he took meant saving the life of at least one of his fellow soldiers.
Having not read the book, I can't say if Clint Eastwood was being unfairly selective in what he chose to include in the movie, but if this is how it happened, who are we to judge? You may not agree with the war itself (I don't) but this is not the place for such debate.
The film itself was solid. Bradley Cooper did a great job in becoming Chris Kyle. There were moments of good action, serious drama, and couple of laughs for good measure. There was a good balance between "action" in Iraq and life at home showing the family drama and personal struggle while trying to settle back in to normal life.
This might not get my vote for the best picture Oscar but it is a good movie that does not deserve all the negative press it is getting. Ultimately I think people will have to make up their own minds on this one, just don't be swayed by anything you might hear before seeing it.