Powerful movie with a limited scope

Rating: 7/10 (27 January 2015)

American Sniper is on pace to become the most successful movie of 2014 and the most successful war movie of all time. Director Clint Eastwood's latest movie is a biopic of the life of a soldier, Chris Kyle, a Navy Seal who served four tours in Iraq and became the most successful sniper in American military history with 160 confirmed kills. Critics have generally been favorable, but a small vocal group has sharply criticized it for various reasons, including stereotyping Muslims and for overlooking some of Chris Kyle's personal vices. Regardless of your point of view, Eastwood has clearly struck a cultural nerve here. As a portrayal of American soldiers during the Iraq war, this movie will be hard to top, but its perspective is limited nonetheless.
Bradley Cooper, in an Oscar nominated performance, plays Chris Kyle as a confident go-getter. Kyle becomes a Navy Seal shortly after the al Qaeda bombings of the American embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, but the movie quickly moves to his first tour in Iraq. The character might sound like a giant boy scout, but Cooper plays the part very sincerely.
The film provides little sense of the causes of the Iraqi insurgency. Instead, Eastwood chooses to focus on Chris Kyle's battle experiences and the toll they place on him. (SPOILERS) The film's opening scene perfectly depicts the pressure that snipers are under during urban warfare when a mother and her child walk out of a building and attempt to throw a grenade at American soldiers. Kyle is visibly shaken by the prospect of shooting a woman and a child, but this doesn't stop him from doing his job or quell his pride. Kyle pushes himself to kill every insurgent and he puts himself down if any American is injured or killed. His fellow soldiers give him the nickname "legend" because they feel invincible when Kyle is protecting them.
Eastwood directs the sniper sequences very well, but the film somewhat degenerates into standard action movie fare when a Syrian Olympic sniper champion named Mustafa hunts down Chris Kyle after a bounty is placed on his head. Kyle is determined to kill this sniper because he has killed a few of his buddies. This revenge subplot, while entertaining, feels somewhat artificial in a movie that otherwise feels pretty authentic. Despite the pedestrian subplot, the last battle sequence is an epic shootout in the middle of a sandstorm that is visually amazing and very suspenseful.
Warfare is only half of the story though. Kyle is increasingly withdrawn every time he returns home between tours. His wife, played by Sienna Miller, feels her husband slipping away. While the theme of the soldier who cannot adjust when he comes home may be familiar, American Sniper depicts the conflict between a man's duty as a soldier and his duty to his family better than any movie I have seen. Posttraumatic stress disorder is also portrayed very authentically and respectfully. Eastwood deftly shows that war can nearly destroy a person even when they are not fighting. Ultimately, PTSD proves to be Kyle's downfall, but not in the way you might expect.
Much has been said of this film's blind acceptance of the Iraq war as a noble cause. This is not what I saw. Chris Kyle believes in the cause he is fighting for, and he does not regret killing to protect his soldiers, but this does not mean the movie endorses war. War is painful and clearly has a serious toll on everyone involved. The movie is subtly critical of Kyle's blind faith in the Iraq war in two key scenes where two of his fellow soldiers (including his brother) question the wisdom of the war. I believe that Kyle's refusal to accept these criticisms is how he keeps himself going, and just because the film does not outright condemn Kyle for his beliefs does not mean it supports the war itself.
The most controversial aspect of this movie is the portrayal of the Iraqis. Kyle and the rest of the soldiers repeatedly refer to them as savages, and there is no effort to really develop any of the Iraqi civilians. I understand the concerns about stereotyping, but anyone whose opinion of Muslims declines because of this movie was ignorant to begin with.
Still, I am torn on this portrayal of the Iraqis. A biopic demands that the film be told from Kyle's point of view. The fact is, soldiers see a lot of gruesome things, and Kyle's belief that the Iraqis are savages reflects the fact that there are some savages in Iraq. The ISIS videos should not leave any doubt in your mind about that. To an extent, I respect Eastwood for not kowtowing to politic correctness.
On the other hand, narrowly framing the Iraq War through an American soldier's point of view is indicative of the country's inability to really try to understand Iraqi points of view. The limitations of the biopic format give Eastwood an out, an excuse not to tackle this perspective. To do so might have offended the core audience this movie is geared to: American conservatives. This does not mean the movie has to defend al Qaeda or the insurgency, but a little bit of effort to portray Iraqis as something more than one dimensional stand ins would have gone a long way towards improving the film.
Eastwood has produced a film that will keep us arguing largely because we are still arguing about the Iraq war. I think the movie will stand the test of time for respectfully tackling the pressures faced by American soldiers, but it seems clear to me that a response is called for. We need a movie that tells the Iraqi point of view. If it does come out of Hollywood, I wouldn't expect it for a long time.