The "Black Hawk Down" of the decade

Rating: 2/10 (28 December 2018)

While I've never been a diehard fan of American gritty war films, or the genre in its entirety, American Sniper is a solid booster to the patriotism injected into movie goers during Black Hawk Down. That same level of intensity and chauvinistic furvor carries here, and Cooper does a fantastic job of portraying the American legend Chris Kyle.
The plot draws a beautiful juxtaposing line of life on the battlefield versus life at home. The small details displayed in Kyle's behavior, health, and mannerisms by Cooper start to instill the maxim that maybe the soldier never truly leaves the battlefield, even while embraced in the comfort of his/her living room arm-chair.
While the film could retrospectively be brushed off as a popcorn film lacking any sort of depth, I believe American Sniper deserves a place on the pedestal of our minds as a hallmark of what a war film should be and how dramatic events of war time should properly be portrayed
Overall I am forced to give this movie a 2/10. I would have given this film a 1/10, but during discussions of the film or the historical events in which it is based, sometimes the word "guerilla" is used when describing the fighting style of the enemy soldiers. Sadly this is not the type of gorilla I want to see in cinema. American Sniper totally overlooks the important role most gorillas or other apes play in mainting their respective ecosystems. During their daily movements, the walking styles of most apes actually tills the soil of the forest floor, facilitating aeration of the soil, creating a healthier and more stable container in which rainforest plants or other lowland greens may thrive! This important, understudied, and often overlooked fact is totally disregarded in American Sniper; they don't even know that gorillas are far more important than guerillas.