Chris Kyle's Story In 'American Sniper' - Business Insider print Chris Kyle. Facebook The blockbuster movie " American Sniper ," which was directed by Clint Eastwood and stars Bradley Cooper, has brought renewed attention to the story of the deadliest sniper in US military history. Chris Kyle has 160 confirmed kills under his belt from his time as a Navy SEAL sniper in Iraq. The actual number of people he killed is likely even higher — Kyle claimed he killed 255 people. (Confirmed kills must be verified by witnesses.) "American Sniper" had a huge opening weekend at the box office , netting $90.2 million. The movie, which is based on Kyle's autobiography of the same name, has been nominated for six Oscars, including best picture. Kyle died in 2013 after being shot by a former Marine who was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. The story behind Kyle's military career and subsequent return to the US is a bit more muddled and complex than what's shown in the movie, which has been the subject of a debate about whether the film overly glorifies Kyle and the horrors of war.

Kyle was born in Texas to a church deacon and a Sunday-school teacher, according to a 2013 profile of him in D Magazine. His father moved around a lot for work, so he grew up in different areas of the state. His upbringing in Texas taught him to love guns. He went hunting with his father and brother and liked to practice his shot with a BB gun. In high school, Kyle earned a reputation as a defender of his friends — he was willing to start a fight if it meant sticking up for someone else. After high school, he attended Tarleton State University in Texas for two years before enlisting in the Navy and undergoing SEAL training. Shortly after getting married, Kyle was deployed to Iraq and showed his skills as a sniper. Screenshot/KTVT/CBS-11 His first kill was in Nasiriya, Iraq, in 2003. He shot a woman who was preparing to throw a grenade at approaching Marines. "The first time you're killing somebody, you're not even sure you can do it," Kyle said in an interview with Time .

"You think you can, but you never know until you're actually put in that position and you do it." In one legendary shot, later in his career, he hit an insurgent target who was 1.2 miles away. Using his scope, he spotted the insurgent on the roof of a building and took him out. In an interview with Lester Holt on the "Today" show , Kyle called it a "lucky shot." Kyle saw the killing he did as a necessary part of protecting American troops. He has said that he never regretted pulling the trigger, because he viewed it as an "us"-or-"them" scenario — either he takes out someone he sees as a threat, or that person takes out American troops. Chris Kyle/American Sniper In his interviews for the D Magazine profile, Kyle said: "You don’t think of the people you kill as people. They’re just targets. You can’t think of them as people with families and jobs. They rule by putting terror in the hearts of innocent people. The things they would do — beheadings, dragging Americans through the streets alive, the things they would do to little boys and women just to keep them terrified and quiet ... That part is easy.

I definitely don’t have any regrets about that." He started earning a dangerous reputation among the insurgents, who called him the "Devil of Ramadi" — one of the most dangerous cities in Iraq, where Kyle served — and put a bounty on his head. His fellow SEAL Team 3 members called him "The Legend" and picked the comic-book character "The Punisher" as their platoon's mascot. "It gave me pride, knowing I was doing my job enough to get in the minds of the terrorists and make them fearful of me," he told Holt. Kyle survived six IED attack and three gunshot wounds in four tours of duty in Iraq before retiring in 2009. His wife gave Kyle what he interpreted as an ultimatum: Taya wanted him to return home to his family and two young children, whom he hardly knew, or the marriage would be over. Screenshot/KTVT/CBS-11 Kyle, like many veterans, had trouble adjusting to civilian life after he returned home. The hardest part about coming home was missing his "boys" and missing "being around them in the action," he told D Magazine. "That’s your whole life, every day for years," he said.

"I hate to say it, but when you’re back and you’re just walking around a mall or something, you feel like a pussy. ... You hear someone whining about something at a stoplight, and it’s like, 'Man, three weeks ago I was getting shot at, and you’re complaining about — I don’t even care what.'" Kyle found that much of the American public didn't understand and couldn't relate to the realities of war. "For the most part, the public is very soft," he told Time. "You live in a dream world. You have no idea what goes on on the other side of the world, the harsh realities that these people are doing to themselves and then to our guys. And there are certain things that need to be done to take care of [American troops]." Kyle eventually found a purpose in being a father and helping veterans and civilians. He started Craft International, a defense contracting company, and took veterans to shooting ranges as a sort of therapy. Screen grab/NBC 4 It was during one of these sessions that Kyle was killed.

A woman who lived near Kyle had heard of how he met with veterans after they returned home for war, and she called him one day to ask if he could help her son, who was suffering from mental illness and might have been suicidal. So Kyle and his friend Chad Littlefield agreed to take the 25-year-old Marine to the shooting range to blow off steam, according to D Magazine. It may seem a shooting range is an unusual place to bring a person suffering with PTSD, but former Navy SEAL sniper instructor Brandon Webb says this is quite normal. "It's like guys going out and playing catch and talking about issues,” Webb said in an interview . “Every Marine is a rifleman. It’s a familiar environment. There’s a level of trust and the walls come down.” Eddie Ray Routh shot and killed both Kyle and Littlefield. He is now facing trial for their murders. Bradley Cooper, who plays Kyle in the film adaptation of his autobiography, got Kyle's blessing to make the movie shortly before he died. The film's release started a debate about how accurate Kyle's story is. He claimed in his book, without naming names, that he punched former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura at a bar after Ventura insulted Navy SEALs.

Last year, a jury awarded Ventura $1.8 million in damages for the passage in Kyle's book that they deemed libelous. Another story that's part of Kyle's legend couldn't be verified by reporters. Kyle had reportedly told some people that shortly after he got back from Iraq, he killed two men at a Texas gas station when they tried to carjack him. When a reporter asked him if the story was true, Kyle said it was. But when news outlets went looking for documentation of the incident, they couldn't find it. Photo of Navy SEALs Brandon Webb (left) and Chris Kyle at the SHOT Show in Las Vegas, Nevada in January 2013. Courtesy of Brandon Webb Cooper has argued that the film is meant to make people pay attention to the plight of veterans — nothing more. "[American Sniper] is not a political discussion about war," Cooper told The Daily Beast . "It’s a discussion about the reality.

And the reality is that people are coming home, and we have to take care of them." Webb, who served on SEAL Team 3 with Kyle, wrote that "Chris Kyle was a human being, a Texan, Navy SEAL, father, husband, and a hero to many at a time when we need all the heroes we can get. I knew him to be a good person, regardless of all the bulls--- floating around in the media." Amanda Macias contributed to this report. Chris Kyle's Death: Text Messages, Terror in 'American Sniper's' Final Hours | Hollywood Reporter The movie, nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars, deliberately left out the death of its hero. This story first appeared in the March 13 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. EARLY ON THE AFTERNOON OF SATURDAY, Feb. 2, 2013, a rumbling black Ford F-350 with a lift kit and big tires, tinted windows and a massive Road Armor front grille adorned with a chrome skull pulled up in front of a small house in Lancaster, just south of the Dallas city limits. It was a sunny, unseasonably warm day in North Texas.

Chris Kyle, a 38-year-old former Navy SEAL and author of the best-selling autobiography American Sniper, stepped out of the cab and began walking up the gravel driveway. Eddie Ray Routh, 25, tall and bearded, appeared from the back of his house. "You must be Eddie," Kyle said. The men had never met, but Routh's life was like a distorted mirror of Kyle's. Thirteen years younger, he graduated from the same high school in nearby suburban Midlothian that Kyle had attended. Unlike Kyle, who joined the Navy at 24 after attending college and working as a rodeo rider and cowboy, Routh enlisted in the U.S. Marines at the age of 18 in 2006. He became an armorer, repairing and maintaining small arms, and shipped out to Iraq in 2007. There is no record that Routh went "outside the wire" — seeing combat, in military vernacular. After Iraq, he was stationed aboard the USS Bataan, an amphibious assault ship, on a seven-month Middle East deployment.

Finally, he served for four months in the humanitarian relief effort in Haiti following the horrifically deadly earthquake of January 2010 and came back with harrowing stories, his father later said, of "fishing hundreds of bodies — men, women, children — out of the ocean, piling them up and throwing them into mass graves." Chris Kyle, author of American Sniper and the most lethal sniper in American military history, was killed on Feb. 2, 2013. He was 38. By all accounts, Routh returned to civilian life a profoundly changed man. Within a year, his life was falling apart. He had trouble keeping a job and began behaving erratically, having panic attacks and saying crazy, delusional things. At one point he was convinced that an imaginary tapeworm was devouring everything he ate. He talked about killing himself; alarmed, his family members took away his guns. He was admitted to the Veterans Administration hospital in Dallas for the first time in July 2011 and diagnosed with PTSD. Doctors prescribed a raft of antipsychotic and anti-anxiety drugs, including Risperidone, a powerful antipsychotic medication used to treat schizophrenia.

Meanwhile, he steadily self-medicated with alcohol and marijuana. In September 2012, police picked him up walking down the road, incoherent, and he was brought to the VA hospital, suffering from what psychiatrists there called a major depressive illness and psychotic delusions. He was again given medication and discharged. He would seem better for a time, and he even found a girlfriend, Jennifer Weed, whom he had met online. They briefly lived together. She later recalled that he sometimes talked as though he had, in fact, seen action in Iraq, saying: "I've killed before, and I'll do it again." On Jan. 19, 2013, he had another psychotic episode, holding Weed and her roommate prisoner in their apartment while brandishing a knife until police arrived, and he landed at the VA hospital once more. But after a five-day stay, he was released again. Routh's mother, Jodi, had pleaded with the VA doctors not to release her son. Exhausted and running out of options, she turned to Chris Kyle. His two kids attended the elementary school where she worked, so when he came to pick up his children, she approached him as a last resort.

She said that she had heard he was spending a lot of time helping other veterans with disabilities and PTSD and told him about Eddie's deepening crisis. He promised to reach out to her son. Jodi Routh would later say that Kyle never mentioned that he might bring Eddie to a remote shooting range with an arsenal of pistols, rifles and ammunition. Eddie Ray Routh as seen in court on Feb.19 for his capital murder trial in Stephenville, Texas. •••••••• WHAT HAPPENED NEXT — THE SHOCKING, SENSELESS FUSILLADE of 13 bullets that left Kyle and his close friend Chad Littlefield dead and triggered a frantic manhunt for Routh — is the missing reel, the unseen ending to American Sniper. (The filmmakers had considered but ultimately omitted a final scene portraying the killings, partly in deference to Kyle's widow, Taya, and her children.) New details that emerged at the capital murder trial of Routh at the Erath County District Court in the small ranching town of Stephenville, Texas, offer a riveting and disturbing account of the tragedy that befell the man they called The Legend.

On Tuesday, after less than two and half hours of deliberation, the jury found Routh guilty of murder and minutes after that verdict was announced, the judge issued a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. Before Clint Eastwood's film adaptation of Sniper became a runaway hit ($429 million and counting at the worldwide box office), and before Chris Kyle became a best-selling author (his book has sold 2 million copies), he was already a folk hero in North Texas. After retiring from SEAL Team 3 in 2009, Kyle had returned to Midlothian with his family. Back home, he was revered as much for what he had endured as he was for his exploits as the deadliest sniper in American history. After four combat deployments in Iraq, Kyle was a physical and emotional wreck, to a degree suggested but largely unexplored in the film. He had been shot twice, had undergone reconstructive surgery on both knees and had dangerously high blood pressure, impaired hearing and floaters in his right eye. He battled insomnia and nightmares and episodes of road rage and was receiving disability benefits for his PTSD. For a time, he drank heavily.

He totaled an SUV, was arrested for DWI and for assault after a bar fight and told some far-fetched stories that later proved troublesome (his estate is presently appealing a $1.8 million defamation lawsuit successfully brought by Jesse Ventura). But the ever-resilient Kyle gradually recovered his equilibrium, reluctantly embraced fame, and found that an effective way to prevail in his own struggles was to serve his fellow veterans. The need was dire: In Texas, and across the country, the Veterans Administration was overwhelmed; by 2012, the chronically understaffed VA hospital in Dallas had an annual caseload of more than 13,000 veterans with PTSD. In the time he could spare from building his security firm, Craft International, Kyle began sponsoring retreats and outings where men with shattered bodies and minds could hang out and do a little hunting or target shooting — tapping their "warrior spirit," as Kyle put it. Routh’s mug shot from 2013 reveals a scruffier, radically thinner man. During the trial, a battalion of TV remote trucks decamped to Stephenville, 100 miles southwest of Dallas, for Routh's murder trial.

Flanked by his three defense attorneys, who entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity, Routh sat calmly listening, dressed in a dark gray suit and tie, observing or taking notes, hunched over a yellow legal pad. At the time of his arrest, he was shaggy-haired, bearded and thin. Two years later, the beard is gone, his head shaved, his body much heavier. On the trial's opening day, Feb. 11, the prosecution's lead witness was Taya Kyle, now 40, wearing a silver cross and her husband's dog tags around her neck. As several jurors wiped away tears, she narrated a slideshow of her husband's career and his life as a husband and father, with shots of Easter egg hunts and vacations together, offering her account of their last hours together. Spared the prospect of condemning a likely mentally ill veteran to death, the 10 women and two men of the jury were faced with deciding if the defendant and self-confessed killer was guilty of "intentionally and knowingly" (the legal standard in Texas) murdering Kyle and Littlefield and was aware that it was wrong to do so.

The alternative was an acquittal on the grounds that Routh was insane, "in the grip of a psychosis so severe," as defense attorney Tim Moore argued, "that he would not know what he was doing was wrong." Kyle’s widow, Taya, attended the Academy Awards on Feb. 22, where Clint Eastwood’s adaptation of Sniper earned an Oscar for sound editing. Even if he had been acquitted, Routh would almost certainly have spent the rest of his life in a maximum-security mental hospital. But with the guilty verdict, it’s life in a penitentiary with no chance of parole. The keys to the verdict, and to the puzzle of how and why this tragedy happened, are hidden in the trial's details, exhibits and testimony — and in crucial new information about the fateful events of Feb. 2, 2013, that only now have come to light. •••••••• ROUTH SPENT THE NIGHT BEFORE HE MET CHRIS KYLE drinking Texas Crown Whiskey and seesawing between anxiety and wild optimism. Weed, his girlfriend, was visiting, and at one point he surprised her by suddenly proposing marriage. (She accepted.) He apparently got little or no sleep.

In the morning, his mood had soured and he quarreled with Weed, ordering her to leave. Weed called Routh's 43-year-old uncle, James Watson, and asked him to drive over and try to calm Routh down. Watson testified that when he arrived, Weed was gone and Routh was alone with his black Labrador retriever, Girley. Watson and Routh talked about the Bible, and the uncle played a hymn for Routh on his phone. Then Routh got his bong and the men smoked a bowl or two of pot. They were hanging out on the back porch when Watson heard a loud diesel engine in front of the house and the crunch of a man walking down the gravel driveway. Not long afterward, he heard the truck driving away and was surprised to discover that Routh had left without saying goodbye or making sure Girley was secured and his house locked. Kyle and his good friend Littlefield were killed at the shooting range of the Rough Creek Lodge, an 11,000-acre resort located about 25 miles outside of Stephenville. Out on the street, Kyle introduced the scruffy ex-Marine to Chad Littlefield, who was riding shotgun in the truck.

Kyle's friendship with Littlefield, 35, who worked for a private water-treatment company, seemed to mark a new turning point in his life as a civilian and suburban dad. Littlefield, significantly, had never served in the military — they had met on the sidelines at their daughters' soccer games — but they shared an enthusiasm for working out and guns. After he climbed into the F-350, Routh spoke briefly on the phone with his mother, who was out of town visiting his father in Abilene, Texas, where he had found a job in the nearby oil and gas fields. Leaving Lancaster, they took Highway 67 heading west, crossing the Brazos River and rising into the wooded uplands of rural Erath County. The route takes about an hour and 45 minutes, passing through classic Texas ranch country: wide-open space, wooded hills, endless sky. Their destination was a shooting range at Rough Creek Lodge, an 11,000-acre upscale resort 26 miles outside Stephenville, the town where Kyle had attended Tarleton State University and competed in rodeo in the early 1990s before becoming a SEAL.

Kyle had helped design a 1,000-yard shooting range in an isolated corner of Rough Creek and was welcome to visit or stay at the lodge with his family, free of charge. Rough Creek, with its spectacular cowboy-movie vistas, offers a peculiarly Texan cornucopia of activities and amenities: horseback riding, hot stone massage, clay shooting, a pistol range, bird and pig hunting, archery, tomahawk throwing, paintball and kennels stocked with 60 hunting dogs. Littlefield, 35, often worked out and shot guns with Kyle. They had met at their daughters’ soccer games. In his memoir, Kyle wrote that taking veterans out to hunt or shoot in bucolic settings was relaxing and therapeutic, adding, "As you'd expect when I'm involved, there's a lot of bustin' going on back and forth and giving each other hell." Whatever transpired on the trip to Rough Creek, such camaraderie didn't seem to materialize.

At the trial, a police officer said that after Routh's arrest, he had overheard Routh complaining that Kyle and Littlefield "wouldn't talk to me." A forensic psychologist who interviewed the defendant in jail reported that Routh said the number of guns in the truck had made him feel anxious and that he'd become convinced that Kyle and Littlefield were planning to kill him. And something about Routh's behavior had spooked Kyle and Littlefield, too. At the trial, it was revealed that Kyle, behind the wheel, had texted Littlefield, who was sitting right beside him, "This dude is straight up nuts." Littlefield texted back: "He's right behind me, watch my six," telling Kyle in military slang to watch his back. The last time Taya Kyle spoke with her husband, she testified at the trial, was around 3 p.m. She reached him on his cellphone, and he told her they had just arrived at the lodge. But their short conversation left her fretful. "Usually, he's making their day," she said, referring to veterans he had taken on previous excursions.

"I thought he was irritated." Rough Creek Lodge's general manager testified that Kyle checked in at the resort headquarters and said they'd only be shooting for about 45 minutes. Heading out, Kyle or Littlefield raised a red Bravo flag, warning that the range was in use. Routh’s former home in Lancaster, Texas, where he initially met Kyle on Feb. 2, 2013, and where a tense standoff with local police occurred later that night. A couple of hours after their mid-afternoon phone conversation, Taya tried to reach Chris again. He didn't pick up. "Are you okay?" she texted. "I'm getting worried." Arriving at the range, the party carried several rifles, five handguns and boxes of ammunition and protective earplugs to an open platform, 12 feet wide and sheltered under a corrugated metal roof. Kyle and Littlefield were carrying loaded .45 caliber 1911-style pistols on web holster belts. They began using the range, and investigators determined that a .38 single-action handgun was fired downrange, as was a Colt .45 cowboy-style revolver.

Routh later said that it bothered him that Chad Littlefield was not shooting — it somehow made him a threat. At some point Routh armed himself with a 9mm Sig Sauer P226 MK25 pistol, the model used by Navy SEALs, and a Springfield .45 pistol. Kyle and Littlefield never had a chance to defend themselves. Routh told one of the psychologists who testified that he shot Littlefield first, then Kyle. Littlefield was struck seven times in the back, shoulder, head and hand, with slugs from the 9mm handgun. Kyle was hit six times in the head, shoulder, chest and right arm, by bullets from the Springfield .45. They apparently fell with their sidearms still holstered and with the safeties on. Littlefield was lying on his back on the shooting platform and Kyle was facedown in the grass nearby. Routh reloaded the Sig Sauer to its full 15-round capacity and took this weapon, along with one of the rifles and Littlefield's cellphone, when he left in Kyle's truck. No one saw him drive away. Around 5 p.m., a Rough Creek employee noticed the warning flag was still up.

A lodge guide was dispatched to the range, and he discovered the two men. Lodge staff and EMS first-responders attempted to revive the victims, but there was no sign of life. As darkness fell, police, sheriff's deputies and Texas Rangers descended on the scene. One of the Rangers arrived towing a horse trailer that had been seized after being used to manufacture meth; it was now a mobile CSI lab. The murder site was strewn with so many weapons, shell casings, boxes of ammunition, earplugs and other detritus that cops ran out of the yellow plastic tents they place next to items to catalog evidence. With the bodies still in place, they took photographs and set up a Spheron SceneCam, which produces a 360-degree, high-resolution visual record. The next day, autopsies revealed that four of Kyle's six wounds were determined to be "rapidly fatal," and four of the seven wounds that Littlefield received were likewise deemed unsurvivable.

Back in Midlothian, Taya was putting the kids in her car to drive them to a babysitter — she and Chris had made plans to go out to dinner with friends — when local police officer Mark Triebly, a high school friend of her husband's, pulled up in front of the house. Triebly told her that Chris had been hurt and asked her to provide a description of his truck. She called someone to come over and take the children for the night and prepared to go see her husband at whatever hospital he might have been taken to. A short time later, she received official confirmation that Chris and Chad were dead. Routh was still missing. Routh’s trial brought media attention — and an intense lawenforcement presence — to Stephenville. •••••••• LATER THAT DAY, EDDIE RAY ROUTH'S UNCLE, Watson, said in court, he was napping in his recliner with the front door propped open at his home in Alvarado when he became aware that Eddie was standing there. He was holding a 9mm pistol. "Check out my truck," Routh told him.

"I'm driving a dead man's truck." Watson went outside and saw a big black Ford in the driveway. There was a rifle in the backseat. One of the prosecutors asked Watson if his nephew's odd pronouncement and inexplicable new possessions indicated to him that something ominous had occurred. "In retrospect, yes," Watson replied. Routh left and drove to his sister's house in Midlothian, 15 miles away. Laura Blevins and her hus­band, Gaines, became terrified when Routh said that he had killed two men at a shooting range and showed them the pistol and a rifle in the truck. Fearing for their lives, they convinced Routh to leave and dialed 911, telling the operator what her brother had said. "He's f—ing psychotic," Laura said during the call. "He was talking kinda babble." Laura called her mother, Jodi Routh, and told her what Eddie had said. "I had Chris' number in my phone," she testified at the trial, "and I dialed that number praying to God that he would answer." No one did.

Sometime that evening, Routh drove to his home in Lancaster, picked up his dog, Girley, and drove off before police had staked out the location. Yet something drew him back. When Kyle's F-350 pulled up at the house again around 9 p.m., a patrol car was parked outside. More officers rushed to the block on West 6th Street and a standoff ensued, with Routh refusing to exit the truck or roll down the window. Jesse Chevera, a Lancaster police detective who lived next door to the Rouths and had known Eddie since childhood, attempted to coax Routh out of the truck while officers crawled from behind to position deflation devices under the rear tires. One of the officers was wearing a body camera, and a recording of the conversation between Chevera and Routh was played in court. Chevera had phoned Routh's parents and put them on speaker, but Eddie steadfastly refused to surrender. He also made a number of bizarre statements. "I didn't get a wink of sleep last night," said Routh. "Everybody just wants to barbecue my ass right now. … It was weird talking to my sister.

It was all happening so fast I didn't know if I was going insane. … Is this about hell walking on Earth right now? … Is it voodoo that's upon us? … The f—ing anarchy has been killing the world. … Is the apocalypse upon us right now? … I can feel everybody feeding on my soul right now, Jesse, and that's not good." Taya Kyle hugged Judy Littlefield, the mother of Chad Littlefield, in court on Feb.11, the opening day of the trial. After half an hour, Routh started the truck and roared away in a cloud of black smoke. (The deflation sticks did not deploy properly.) During the chase that followed, at times topping 100 mph and captured on several police dashboard cameras, police rammed the truck, and it began leaking fluid. Along a stretch of I-35E, the truck slowed, stalled and stopped. Routh got out with his hands up, lay down on the asphalt and was arrested. An officer retrieved Girley from the cab of the truck and led her away on a leash.

Later that night, in a videotaped interview with a Texas Ranger that included rambling asides about "the wolf, the one in the sky" and pig excrement, Routh confessed, saying he shot the two men before they could shoot him. "If I didn't take out his soul," he said of Chris Kyle, "he was going to take mine next." •••••••• WHAT, IN REAL TERMS, WAS AT STAKE in the trial of Eddie Ray Routh? Most significantly, the verdict determined the facility at which Routh will spend the rest of his life. "In Texas, if an individual is convicted of capital murder, life without parole, he will spend the rest of his life in a penitentiary with little or no mental health assistance," says George Parnham, a Houston-based criminal defense attorney who represented Andrea Yates, a mother who drowned her five children in 2001, in two consecutive trials.

By contrast, a successful insanity defense, Parnham says, means that "the individual is sent to a maximum-security mental-health hospital … where he is then treated by psychologists, psychiatrists and therapists and given proper doses of medication." The evidence that Routh has a grave mental illness — perhaps adult-onset schizophrenia, exacerbated by PTSD — and was likely experiencing a profound psychotic break when he killed Kyle and Littlefield might seem abundant and compelling. But the Texas penal code (which Parnham describes as "archaic") gives juries great leeway in concluding that a mentally ill person still knew what he was doing and that his actions were wrong — and this describes Routh, prosecutors said, whose flight after the killings betrayed an awareness of guilt. Furthermore, the prosecution presented two expert witnesses who had interviewed Routh in jail and flatly declared that he is not schizophrenic, psychotic or afflicted by PTSD, instead portraying him as a manipulative, dishonest, substance-abusing miscreant with a personality disorder who is skilled at citing past trauma and feigning insanity. As this moral and legal drama played out in Stephenville, it was impossible to separate the trial from the American Sniper juggernaut.

District Court Judge Jason Cashon had ruled before the trial that potential jurors would not be disqualified if they had seen the film or read the book and directed the jury that its obligation was to be "the voice and conscience of the community." At the Cinemark Cinema 6, a few miles from the courthouse, Sniper was playing to capacity weekend audiences throughout the trial. On a recent Saturday night at 7:30 p.m., after the first week of testimony, there wasn't an empty seat in the house. Main Image: Associated Press Hollywood's Iraq war film "American Sniper" triggers racist attacks on US Muslims | Al Bawaba Hollywood's Iraq war film "American Sniper" triggers racist attacks on US Muslims Hollywood's Iraq war film "American Sniper" triggers racist attacks on US Muslims 0.80 7 Published January 25th, 2015 - 07:56 GMT via SyndiGate.info Rate Article: Facebook Twitter Google+ Linkedin Pinterest Delicious Stumbleupon Digg Reddit American Sniper has done Muslims more harm than good in the US.

(Image: Americansnipermovie.com) Muslims of the United States are facing a “drastic increase” in anti-Muslim threats following the release of the movie "American Sniper," says an American-Arab organization. The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) wrote letters to director Clint Eastwood and star Bradley Cooper, censuring the depiction of Muslims and Arabs in the newly-released movie. "A majority of the violent threats we have seen over the past few days are (a) result of how Arab and Muslims are depicted in American Sniper," the ADC said. The group added that it had received hundreds of messages against the Oscar-nominated war film, many of them through social media. "Your visibility, influence, and connection to the film would be a tremendous force in drawing attention to and lessening the serious dangers facing the respective communities," read the letters, addressing the two Hollywood stars. Released earlier this month, the movie, which was nominated for six Academy Awards including best picture, tells the story of an American soldier called Chris Kyle deployed in Iraq. Kyle, who was shot dead in 2013, is a notorious US navy Seal who has a record for the highest known single kill count in the US military history.

In a book on which the movie was based, Kyle writes of killing 60 Iraqi "savages". "Savage, despicable evil. That's what we were fighting in Iraq," he writes. Many other viewers, including combat veterans, have also objected to the release of the movie. PressTV-'American Sniper' threatens US Muslims Society Hosts Chris Pine and Cheryl Boone announce the movie 'American Sniper' as one of the Oscar nominees for Best Picture in Beverly Hills, California on January 15, 2015 (AFP Photo) Muslims of the United States are facing a “drastic increase” in anti-Muslim threats following the release of the movie "American Sniper," says an American-Arab organization. The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) wrote letters to director Clint Eastwood and star Bradley Cooper, censuring the depiction of Muslims and Arabs in the newly-released movie. "A majority of the violent threats we have seen over the past few days are (a) result of how Arab and Muslims are depicted in American Sniper," the ADC said. The group added that it had received hundreds of messages against the Oscar-nominated war film, many of them through social media.

"Your visibility, influence, and connection to the film would be a tremendous force in drawing attention to and lessening the serious dangers facing the respective communities," read the letters, addressing the two Hollywood stars. Released earlier this month, the movie, which was nominated for six Academy Awards including best picture, tells the story of an American soldier called Chris Kyle deployed in Iraq. Kyle, who was shot dead in 2013, is a notorious US navy Seal who has a record for the highest known single kill count in the US military history. In a book on which the movie was based, Kyle writes of killing 60 Iraqi "savages". "Savage, despicable evil. That's what we were fighting in Iraq," he writes. Many other viewers, including combat veterans, have also objected to the release of the movie. NT/NT Best picture: 'Boyhood' may have Oscar edge Best picture: 'Boyhood' may have Oscar edge 'Boyhood' is the best picture front-runner, but 'Birdman' and 'American Sniper' also have qualities Oscar voters like.

Post to Facebook Best picture: 'Boyhood' may have Oscar edge 'Boyhood' is the best picture front-runner, but 'Birdman' and 'American Sniper' also have qualities Oscar voters like. Check out this story on USATODAY.com: CancelSend A link has been sent to your friend's email address. Posted! A link has been posted to your Facebook feed. Join the Nation's Conversation To find out more about Facebook commenting please read the Conversation Guidelines and FAQs Best picture: 'Boyhood' may have Oscar edge Brian Truitt , USA TODAY Published 8:57 a.m. ET Jan. 15, 2015 | Updated 9:42 p.m. ET Jan. 15, 2015 CLOSE x Share Just after the Oscar nominations USA Today's Bryan Alexander interviews Alicia Malone from Fandango.com about her thoughts on the Academy's picks. Patricia Arquette and Ellar Coltrane star in 'Boyhood,' up for best picture at the Academy Awards. Arquette competes for best supporting actress.

(Photo: AP) 30 CONNECT TWEET LINKEDIN COMMENTEMAILMORE True stories appealed to the voting contingent for the Academy Awards this year, yet a youthful coming-of-age tale and brilliant looks at a struggling actor and an embattled teen drummer also were deemed worthy of a best-picture nomination. Boyhood, Richard Linklater's "little movie that could," has become a full-on powerhouse, and it's the front-runner to win the category at the Feb. 22 Oscars ceremony. 'Birdman,' 'Budapest' lead Oscar nominations "Boyhood has it all," says Fandango.com Oscar expert Dave Karger. "It has the indie cred, it has the emotional pull, it has the reviews, it has the acting nominations. It's a strong, strong contender." Oscar voters were obviously taken with Boyhood's journey of a child growing into an adult, not only because of its emotional scope — thanks to nominated performances by Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette, plus newcomer Ellar Coltrane — but also its impressive, innovative filmmaking. Filmed once a year over 12 years, Linklater's Golden Globe-winning masterwork took time to perfect and the academy noticed.

Similarly, Birdman was a work of high art on screen, and it focused on something the Oscars have always loved: show business itself. Alejandro González Iñárritu's comedic drama focused on a washed-up A-list actor (Michael Keaton, nominated for best actor) trying to make a comeback on the Broadway stage, with the entire movie looking like one very long take, thanks to movie magic. A standout cast such as this one, with three acting nominations (Keaton, plus Edward Norton and Emma Stone in supporting categories), usually equates to a best-picture win. However, Karger says, "it's nearly impossible to win best picture without an editing nomination, and Birdman doesn't have one." Last Slide Next Slide The Academy doesn't always go for comedies, but The Grand Budapest Hotel — another Globe winner — was too charming to pass up with its stylishly told tale of an eccentric European hotel concierge (Ralph Fiennes), his shy lobby-boy protégé (Tony Revolori) and the non-stop array of quirky characters around him.

One of Wes Anderson's most complex and ambitious movies to date, it's also one of his most relatable on a grand scale with themes of family dysfunction and friendship mixed with flights of fantasy. "Grand Budapest Hotel is utterly delightful," Karger says, "but might be too whimsical to win." (Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures, AP) American Sniper has Oscar pedigree — with Clint Eastwood in the director's chair — and a real-world military vibe that the academy has approved of before with best-picture winner The Hurt Locker. Best-actor nominee Bradley Cooper transformed himself physically into the powerful and ultimately tragic real-life role of Chris Kyle, a Navy SEAL who was one of the most lethal soldiers in history, but also a guy who was under fire in the Middle East and at home as he's haunted by a war he just can't leave behind. "It's a very timely patriotic movie by a filmmaker whose work everybody seeks out," says The Hollywood Reporter's Scott Feinberg. "It also happens to star a guy who's been nominated for an acting Oscar the last three years." Between Birdman, Grand Budapest Hotel and American Sniper, Boyhood does have some competition, Karger figures.

"But it remains to be seen which movie can emerge from the pack and become the real challenger." Snubs, surprises abound in Oscar nominations Complicated real-life geniuses have shown up on Oscar's big board before — A Beautiful Mind, Amadeus, etc. — and director James Marsh's The Theory of Everything is a moving biopic fueled by its main thespians, both of whom are up for Oscars in the lead acting categories. To play British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, newly minted Globe winner Eddie Redmayne spends two hours contorting his body more and more to show the scientist's deteriorating physical condition, and Felicity Jones has an equally powerful turn as his loyal first wife, Jane Wilde. Theory is "the perfect model of the sort of movie the academy loves," Feinberg says. Also in its favor: Strong endorsements from Stephen and Jane Hawking and the stars who have been on the stump to effectively promote it. "It's a movie that's hard to take issue with." List: Who got nominated for an Oscar? Whiplash is a jazz-driven project on a more intimate scale, but the drama that mostly unfolds in a band room was too intense for voters to ignore.

The fiery combativeness between a savagely brutal conductor (J.K. Simmons) and his ambitious yet naïve young drummer (Miles Teller) — locked in a psychological battle with only a drum kit between them — is mesmerizing, and the deft cinematography and riff-tastic tunes only add to its award potential. Like others before it such as Winter's Bone and Beasts of the Southern Wild, it fits a certain slot in the category for well-received underdog insides done on a modest budget. "It's also an extremely gripping and entertaining movie," adds Feinberg. American Sniper, Theory of Everything and Whiplash have key nominations for screenplay and editing, "but they're missing that crucial bid for best director," says Tom O'Neil of GoldDerby.com. "They all have strong, passionate support, but probably not enough to carry the win." Another famous Englishman is the central figure of The Imitation Game, a World War II thriller that doubles as a portrait of famed mathematician and codebreaker Alan Turing. Director Morten Tyldum, a nominee himself, pieced together a strong ensemble — led by Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley — that was key for Oscar voters.

Yet even with the large-scale stakes of taking down the Nazis' Enigma machine and turning the tide of the war, the acclaimed film delves into the complex character of Cumberbatch's Turing and his struggles with his homosexuality and conflicts with colleagues. O'Neil feels that Imitation Game has the best chance of upsetting Boyhood come Oscar night. "It's this year's King's Speech without the warm fuzzies," he says. "It shows the Brits beating the Nazis again, but even tosses in an added social message about gay persecution. It's a little bit Brokeback Mountain and Philadelphia, too." CLOSE x Share At the Academy theater film critic Leonard Maltin speaks to USA Today's Bryan Alexander about who was snubbed by this year's Oscar nominations. The civil-rights drama Selma seemed made for Oscar-night glory with a historical journey exploring one of America's most important icons, Martin Luther King Jr. But both actor David Oyelowo in the lead role and director Ava DuVernay were shut out. It's possible that Oscar voters want it to repeat the success of the similarly themed 12 Years a Slave, last year's big winner for best picture, but it doesn't look likely.

White, male field spurs Oscars diversity backlash "It's a longshot, but Selma could end up benefiting from its Oscar snubs just like Argo got a big sympathy boost when Ben Affleck was spurned" in the best director race in 2012, O'Neil says. "Not likely, but possible." There is at least one silver lining for Selma: "It's the first film directed by an African-American female to be nominated for best picture," Karger says. "That's a fantastic achievement." Competition feels fierce for acting, directing Oscars Boyhood seems like the easy winner right now among awards prognosticators, "but beware of hubris," O'Neil adds. "That's what The Social Network thought four years ago before it got usurped by The King's Speech." Karger took note of the lack of blockbusters in the list of eight nominees, which have all grossed less than $60 million at the domestic box office.

(That should change with American Sniper getting a nationwide release this weekend, plus a likely boost from its nomination.) Overlooking bigger hits such as Interstellar, Gone Girl and Unbroken shows that "the rationale for expanding the best picture category to bring in the more popular movies simply is not happening," Karger says. Bradley Cooper: Playing Chris Kyle 'Life Changing' Bradley Cooper: Playing Chris Kyle 'Life Changing' Actor Bradley Cooper. (Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images) Tuesday, 03 Feb 2015 12:44 PM Close A A Playing "American Sniper" hero Chris Kyle was "life changing" for actor Bradley Cooper, who believes he will never get over the experience. Speaking at the Oscar Nominees Luncheon in Beverly Hills on Monday, Cooper told the crowd that he has yet to appreciate just how big an impact portraying Kyle had on him personally. "I don’t think I’ll realize it fully until maybe later in my life. It was life changing. Completely," the Huffington Post reported. The film, which has generated a lot of political controversy, has received five Academy Award nominations and Cooper has been nominated for a best actor award, National Public Radio (NPR) reports.

Special: Clint Eastwood: You 'Must Read' Chris Kyle’s Book — More The movie, which tells the story of Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle, whose 160 confirmed kills during four tours of duty in Iraq makes him the most lethal sniper in U.S. history, has earned $250 million at the box office, making it the highest-grossing war movie ever, bypassing "Saving Private Ryan," which earned $216 million, CNN notes. The film also earned $67 million internationally for a total of $316.2 million so far. However, Cooper's take on his portrayal of Kyle, who was murdered Feb. 2, 2013, at a gun range by a veteran suffering from PTSD whom he was trying to help, is much more personal than financial. "The responsibility to play a human being when his family is still alive and it’s still fresh was a huge endeavor and something that I knew was going to be important. I treated it in a way I hadn’t before," Cooper said, noting that Kyle, known in Iraq as "The Legend," was killed two years to the date that Cooper was giving his speech, the Huffington Post reported.

Cooper said Kyle's wife, Taya, "gave us everything. I had thousands of hours of footage of him. So it was a completely different thing of allowing him to come inside me, basically. "I just really loved this story, and it’s changed over the years. He was murdered a year and a half into our development and it changed everything. It became a different movie. It became more about the plight of the soldier and his family." Cooper virtually became Kyle, packing on 40 pounds of muscle to play the role of the beefy Texan sniper. Chris Kyle - U.S. Navy SEAL - Biography.com U.S. Navy SEAL Chris Kyle was a Navy SEAL marksman whose autobiography ‘American Sniper’ became a bestseller and was made into a major Hollywood film starring Bradley Cooper. IN THESE GROUPS U.S. Navy SEAL Synopsis Born April 8, 1974, in Odessa, Texas, Christopher Scott Kyle joined the Navy in 1999 and quickly gained admittance to its elite SEALs unit. Kyle served four deployments to Iraq as a sniper and by his own account killed 160 people.

His autobiography, American Sniper, became a bestseller and was later turned into a major Hollywood film directed by Clint Eastwood. Kyle was murdered at a Texas gun range in 2013. Early Life The late Navy SEAL sniper, Christopher Scott Kyle was born April 8, 1974, in Odessa, Texas. The son of a church deacon, Kyle grew up on a ranch and experienced a childhood that was shaped by outdoor pursuits. He loved to hunt deer and pheasant and later competed in a number of bronco busting contests. For two years he studied agriculture at Tarleton State University in Stephenville, Texas, before leaving for a job as a ranch hand. His lifelong interest in the military eventually led him to the Navy in 1999, where he quickly gained admittance to the SEALS, the force’s elite special operations unit. Military Life After weathering a demanding selection process, Kyle was selected for and trained as a sniper. Over the course of his 10-year military career, Kyle served four combat deployments to Iraq.

His marksmanship became renowned not just within the American military, for whom he was charged with protecting, but among insurgents as well, who nicknamed him “The Devil of Ramadi.” His enemies had also put a $20,000 bounty on the head of any U.S. sniper. Kyle’s steel nerves and patience for tracking his subjects earned him two awards of the Silver Star and five awards for the Bronze Star. "After the first kill, the others come easy." - Chris Kyle In all, Kyle claimed to have killed more than 160 people, a record for a U.S. military sniper though the number could not be officially substantiated. “After the first kill, the others come easy,” he later wrote in his bestselling 2012 book, American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History. “I don’t have to psyche myself up, or do something special mentally – I look through the scope, get my target in the cross hairs, and kill my enemy before he kills one of my people.” Post-Military Years Kyle left the military in 2009.

In his post Navy life, Kyle followed a number of different pursuits, many of them no doubt aided by the fame his book brought him. With his hulking presence and quiet demeanor, Kyle encapsulated the image of a military hero and as sales of his books soared, he appeared on talk shows and participated in the NBC competition show, Stars Earn Stripes. In addition, Kyle co-launched a non-profit group, FITCO Cares Foundation, which supplies fitness equipment to war wounded veterans. Kyle’s childhood passion for guns remained with him. He founded Craft International, a security company that is marketed with the motto, “Despite what your momma told you, violence does solve problems.” Kyle was also an outspoken opponent of President Obama ’s push to tighten gun controls. (Photo: Paul Moseley/Fort Worth Star-Telegram/MCT via Getty Images ) Murder and Aftermath Kyle’s life came to a tragic end on February 2, 2013, when he and a colleague, Chad Littlefield, were shot at a gun range outside of Forth Worth, Texas, by Eddie Ray Routh, an ex-Marine who had a long history of mental illness. Chris Kyle was 38 years old.

Kyle’s murder drew an outpouring of support, especially in his home state of Texas, where an estimated 7,000 people attended a public service for the late SEAL at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington. In addition to his wife, Taya, Kyle’s survivors include his two young children. In October 2014, prosecutors announced they would not seek the death penalty against Routh. Routh’s trial lasted two weeks and deliberations less than two and half hours. On February 24, 2015, the jury found Routh guilty of murder and the judge sentenced the veteran to life in prison without parole minutes after the verdict was rendered. 'American Sniper ' Film In 2014, Kyle’s book American Sniper was released as a major Hollywood film, starring Bradley Cooper as Chris Kyle and directed by Clint Eastwood . Lauded by some critics and fans while generating massive controversy over its depiction of violence and take on the Iraq War, the commercial blockbuster received six Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. Fact Check We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us !

Citation Information Michigan native, former Navy Seal remembers 'American Sniper' Chris Kyle | WKAR Michigan native, former Navy Seal remembers 'American Sniper' Chris Kyle By Scott Pohl • Feb 9, 2015 Related Program: Ryan Parrott of Sons of the Flag. He knew 'American Sniper' Chris Kyle well. Credit Courtesy of Ryan Parrott Listen / 14:02 “American Sniper” has set box office records over the last few weeks. It tells the story of Chris Kyle, known as America’s most lethal Navy Seal sniper. The film is up for six Oscars, including Best Picture, and Bradley Cooper is nominated for Best Actor for his portrayal of Chris Kyle. The movie has generated lots of discussion, both pro and con, about Kyle’s legacy. Current State’s Scott Pohl speaks with Ryan Parrott . Now living in Texas, he served with Chris Kyle and spent a lot of time with him after his time on active duty. He has founded an organization serving the needs of veterans with burn injuries called Sons of the Flag . A teacher at Chippewa Valley High School in Clinton Township got him interested in the Navy Seals. Tags:

Question: Which Best Picture nominated movie tells the story of US soldier, 'Chris' Kyle?
Answer: AMERICAN SNIPER