Absolute Tripe

Rating: 1/10 (15 May 2015)

** SPOILERS INCLUDED ** American Sniper is a true sign of the decline of Clint Eastwood as a film director. Eastwood took what could have been a truly interesting subject, the most lethal sniper in US History, and turned it into a silly conflict of pure good vs pure evil.
I am a fan of good war movies, Blackhawk Down being among my favorites. What a movie like DOWN doesn't try to do is moralize. From the first minute in, American Sniper is setting up good vs evil undertones in such a childlike manner that it's an embarrassment to watch.
Chris Kyle did four tours in Iraq. Instead of examining why Kyle kept going back, Eastwood invents a silly foil for Kyle's sniper in the form of "The Butcher", as well as a super-sniper that kills for the Butcher. Kyle has to go back to Iraq and "finish the mission" so the Butcher doesn't kill more of our guys. Eastwood might as well have just made a purely fictional film because to say this is based on a true story is deliberately misleading.
The religious and moral "values" hammering the viewer in the head throughout this film make it completely unwatchable. Do yourself a favor and stay far away. Watch Blackhawk Down or Fury, movies that do a far better job of looking at the horrors of war without being blinded by the prejudices of their directors.