The Flaws Are In Clint's Vision, Not Chris Kyle's Life

Rating: 7/10 (19 February 2015)

Most of the positive reviews of this film boil down to "I love America . . . so I love this movie!" Most of the negative ones come down to "America is evil and stupid. Just like this movie!" As a Desert Storm era Marine veteran who considers himself a liberal, I would like to evaluate this movie in a different way, comparing its strengths and weaknesses to a very similar picture, LONE SURVIVOR, starring Mark Wahlberg and directed by Peter Berg.
SNIPER is an effective war movie. It has panoramic scope, epic action sequences, moments of true tension and white-knuckle suspense, and it successfully packs Chris Kyle's four tours in Iraq into one coherent and compelling narrative.
The problem is, SNIPER is a Clint Eastwood movie, and the depiction of Chris Kyle is limited by Clint's narrow world view. For Clint Eastwood, being a hero (in fact simply being a man,) is always a matter of going it alone. Every movie he makes is a restatement of this theme, and SNIPER is basically HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER goes to Iraq. There's a town full of no-goods, and a lone stranger rides in to deal with them. Then he leaves. That's not all there is to the movie, of course, but that's the only part Clint Eastwood really likes or understands. Whenever Chris Kyle is bonding with his buddies, or trying to deal with his wife and children, the movie goes flat. Not because the real Chris Kyle didn't care about those things, but because Clint Eastwood doesn't.
The vision of lone-wolf courage in SNIPER is very different from the vision of brotherhood and sacrifice in LONE SURVIVOR. Clint Eastwood celebrates "aggression," as if that's all courage comes down to. But you don't have to be a liberal to see how shallow that is. After all, Sonny Corleone in THE GODFATHER had plenty of aggression.
The Navy SEALS in LONE SURVIVOR have aggression, but they also have discipline and teamwork. And they have each other. Clint Eastwood totally does not get that. The sidekicks he gives Chris Kyle are mere cardboard cutouts. (Like his wife and their rubber baby.) They're only there for Chris Kyle to save. But the SEALS in LONE SURVIOVR are true equals, a band of brothers. When they're joking around they come across more like the Beatles in A HARD DAY'S NIGHT than like lone wolves filled with aggression. What they are called upon to endure is truly the ultimate "hard day's night." The story's tragedy is that they can't save each other from death. But the everlasting triumph of the story is that they do something more important. They save each other from making the wrong choices, from being dehumanized by war.
When you watch LONE SURVIVOR, the enduring image of courage is Lieutenant Mike Murphy (played by Taylor Kitsch) climbing to the top of the hill to call for help for his wounded men. He's willing to die because he loves them more than himself. Notice that he's not fighting at this moment. He's not even armed. He's making a sacrifice. That's what courage is, not "aggression." You don't need weapons to be a hero. All you need is love.
Again, let me be clear. I know that the real Chris Kyle would understand this, and would have behaved the same under the same circumstances. But that's not the story Clint Eastwood wants to tell. He doesn't want a band of brothers, a team of men who laugh and cry and are ready to die *for each other*. He wants Dirty Harry. He wants a lone wolf who feels nothing but contempt for the "sheep" he protects.
There were some liberals who chose to hate on LONE SURVIVOR, but on the whole I think it was a movie that was easier for us to respect and understand. Because the themes of love and brotherhood and sacrifice far outweigh the killing. American SNIPER paints the opposite picture. For Clint the guns and the violence are glorious in themselves. And he doesn't see how self-destructive that really is, not even when Chris Kyle is going to the gun range for the final time.
Clint Eastwood thinks he's glorifying Chris Kyle by making guns the center of his life. He doesn't understand that he's actually oversimplifying the character, and retelling a story the Beatles already told. It's not a story of brotherhood, like LONE SURVIVOR or A HARD DAY'S NIGHT. It's the story of Rocky Raccoon!