A Movie Review: American Sniper

American Sniper.  This movie is based on the true story of Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle (Bradley Cooper).  He starts out life protecting his younger brother.  He grows up with a won't give an inch personalty.  It fits perfectly with what he does, riding in rodeo events.  Then terrorists attacks start to occur across the globe and he decides to volunteer to serve in the US military.

It quickly becomes apparent that his skill set is precision shooting.  While stationed in America, he also runs into his future wife at a bar, Taya (Sienna Miller).  They marry and then 9/11 occurs.  He is sent to Iraq.  There, he starts to make a name for himself as America's more deadly sniper.  He is so accurate that a $180,000 bounty is put on his head.  An enemy sniper attempts to capture this bounty.  The rumor being that the enemy sniper is a former Syrian Olympian named Mustafa (Sammy Sheik).

Chris does four tours in Iraq.  This causes major disruptions at home.  While home, he suffers from PTSD.  His wife attempts to get him help, but he refuses.  Somehow, he finds refuge in going back to Iraq.  This desire is driven by his early youth when he was his brother's protector.  The tensions continue to grow at home with his wife wanting him to open up about his experience.  She also, of course, wants him to stop doing his tours as it is now his responsibility (she feels) to be there for her and their two young children.

This movie does carry some baggage as it deals with the Iraq war.  Many Americans feel (even those who initially supported the Iraq war) that it was a political blunder to go into Iraq.  It may have even assisted in the rise of ISIS.  On the other hand, this movie is an intense, based on real life, action movie.  Nearly every moment in Iraq is edge of your seat stuff.  Then during Chris' brief stays in back in America, you see the intense psychological damage that war can cause where even the most normal activities such as a car tailgating or the roar of a mechanic's machinery can set a war veteran on edge.

I read some brief lines this criticized this movie because it didn't delve into the Iraqi people themselves; however, one has to understand that this movie is bio-pic not a critical analysis of various aspects of the Iraq war.