Propaganda at its most pandering

Rating: 1/10 (20 April 2015)

While not a fan of Clint Eastwood's directing, it is undeniable that he reaches his full potential with American Sniper, a film based on the autobiographical novel by the late sniper, Chris Kyle, who boasts the most recorded kills of any sniper in U.S. history. That is if Eastwood's goal was to become America's answer to Leni Riefenstahl. As even her most dubious critics will admit, Riefenstahl captured some amazing images that are still remarked on to this day, but it was all done in the service of making Nazi Germany idealized. Similarly, Eastwood captures some fine technical achievements, but wants to fall back on a seriously laughable claim that his film is "not political".
I have actually read Kyle's book and for a film that is "not political" it works overtime to provide Kyle with introspection, personality, insights and philosophies that are no where to be found in his novel. Eastwood has the Kyle of the film raised with a nonsense philosophy of the world being comprised of sheep, wolves and shepherds (ostensibly Kyle) all imbued by his stern Christian Texas dad. This black and white mantra apparently allows him to rise to greatness as a sniper mowing down Iraqis. Kyle is depicted as being single-minded, yet regretful of having to pull the trigger. The Kyle of the novel was anything but regretful. There is no such philosophy provided by his father in the novel. Kyle, in his own words, was absolutely thrilled to be at war and gunning people down. There was no introspection or regret involved. He comes off badly as a clichéd white Texas, Christian gun fanatic, who was beside himself to find an outlet that allowed him to take out real people "legally". He informs us that had he not had a family that society expected him to return to, he would have been happy continuing on as a sniper. A long way from the outlook of the WW2 soldiers, who did their patriotic duty, but who looked forward only to returning home to their loved ones and peace at last.
Kyle also claims to have killed two men in Texas and murdered at least 30 U.S. citizens in the wake of Hurricane Katrina from atop a post on the Superdome. If true, then he is a violent psychotic who used a conflict to disguise and promote his true inner self. If false, he is a habitual liar whose word on anything should be considered dubious. The latter is certainly backed up by a court case with Jesse Ventura where a jury rules against Kyle and he was forced to pay up.
Even worse, Eastwood uses his film to blur history and try to gloss over the Bush administration's lawlessness in the Iraq debacle. Through clever images, he tries to link Iraq with 9/11, which is a long discredited lie. He never mentions the discredited reason for attacking Iraq, the weapons of mass destruction idiocy, because that would clash with the black and white viewpoint of the film and its main character. Instead of getting any kind of nuanced picture of Iraqis invaded and attacked in their own country for trumped up reasons, they are all depicted as crazed savages. All of Kyle's kills are, of course, justified despite split second reaction. The word "hero" is blindly bandied about so much until it ultimately has no meaning whatsoever. The only performance of note is Bradley Cooper's central one, which is solid if not spectacular. Although truthfully, many of the scenes of Cooper being "heroic" rather distressingly resemble the sequences in Inglorious Basterds where Daniel Bruehl's German "hero" sniper sits in a bell tower repeatedly gunning down Allied troops, while the German audience viewing his escapades deliriously applaud over every death.
The film also relies on American viewers being ignorant of the details of the Iraq conflict. Eastwood provides Kyle with an adversary of Bondian villainy - a sniper on the other side - with whom he gets to play a cat and mouse throughout the film. Incredibly, while this larger-than-life villain gets barely a mention in Kyle's book, he is elevated to gargantuan proportions in the film so that we can root for Kyle. The film also has this villain switch back and forth between Suni and Shia for convenience, which is something that would never happen. We are also shown another villain who drills holes in the heads of young boys, which would no doubt raise the outrage in anyone. Except such a sequence never happens in Kyle's book, and the screenwriters unwittingly give the background information on this character and give him a denomination that would have made him an ally to U.S. forces. But why should we care for piddly details when Eastwood and his writers don't.
So in conclusion, we get a huge piece of propaganda that glosses over the origins of the Iraq War, turns its people into violent savages, gives George W. Bush and those responsible a pass and we are supposed to overlook its goal and content because its technical aspects are well done. At its center is Kyle, who repeatedly boasted that he loved killing and was glad to do it. A man who made a number of discredited claims. Most telling, Kyle claimed that the majority of the proceeds of his book would go to veterans charities. However, apparently less than 3% of the millions raked in have gone to said charities while the late Kyle and family kept the bulk. Certainly it is their choice, but propping up a con of massive charity at the expense of other fighting men, reveals a certain lack of honor and character. Is this really the hero we want representing America to the world? If yes, then we have fallen farther than expected. Audie Murphy must be rolling in his grave.