Read An Honest Review Here For Once.

Rating: 8/10 (15 February 2015)

I'm both a screenwriter and I've served my country, and yet I can take a step back and examine the movie from an unbiased perspective.
First of all, I've read plenty of reviews here about how the US should not have been in Iraq and Afghanistan in the first place, and why did Eastwood choose to 'support' the war effort. Those reviews were followed by a 1-3 rating. My response to those people, I don't care what your opinion is on the US's involvement overseas. Rate the story being told and get your head out of your ###.
Second of all, I've read reviews that trash the movie for glorifying war. Really? Do you lack the insight to see the story being told? Was Chris Kyle glorified? Sure, by his peers, and supporters of the war... but look at the other story being told. He was alone. He couldn't relate to home life. His marriage and relationship with his children were nearly destroyed. He was a personal wreck.
Thirdly, the film is criticized for perhaps not showing Chris Kyle as he actually was. No film has the capacity to illustrate 'all that is' the character. You focus on a theme and a spine of your story, and you hi- light the traits and 'through line' to support that story/theme. If the writer had brought in other tidbits of information or news worthy events, the film would've been an overall mess. This is a story and it was told this particular way, and it was told extremely well. You have to respect that, but you don't have to respect the main character.
Fourthly, why would they choose to glorify a cowardly sniper. Really? Every infantryman will take cover and fire upon the enemy, only the sniper does it better. The sniper is alone, or works with a partner, concealed yet exposed, and often has little support. You take hold of a sniper rifle and creep into enemy territory by yourself and setup your position and tell me how cowardly you are once you've done so. So if you feel they are cowards, perhaps we should eliminate the airforce - afterall, pilots are cowards for firing upon the enemy from 10kms away? Let's just have a bloody face-to-face one-on-one battle like the good ole Civil War Days and really crank that body count up. These people save lives.
The film is being used as an excellent example in character, plot structure, and theme in film classes. The movie was overall, excellent. The story was told in such a way that the viewer can see both perspectives. Perhaps a lone wolf fighting for his country while holding together his home life by threads appealed to you. Perhaps you are strongly against war, and this story speaks to, that maybe America has become Chris Kyle. In the first ten minutes, young Kyle's father speaks: "There are three types of people in this world. There are sheep and sheep dogs. While we are not sheep, lord help you if you are the wolf". Chris thought of himself as the sheepdog, but some may say he transformed into the wolf. Has America transformed into the wolf? So, I don't understand why people against the war would hate on this movie, because the message and debate it presents is clear.
For a pure war movie, "Saving Private Ryan" retains top honors. I think people can support that movie because there was a terrible evil that was going to take over the world unless stopped. But, I don't think the fact that there is debate over which conflict the US should 'stick its nose into' should prevent us from telling those stories as well.
This is an excellent movie.