Since the film’s release last week, Clint Eastwood’s “American Sniper” has been the consistent topic of debate amongst Hollywood chatter throughout online platforms. “American Sniper” chronicles the adulthood of U.S. Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, played by Bradley Cooper, as he became known as one of the most lethal snipers in American history throughout his four combat tours in Iraq. Directed by Clint Eastwood, the film was based on Kyle’s best-selling 2012 autobiography of the same name.
Although the movie ranked No. 1 this past weekend, grossing more than $105 million at the box office and setting an opening weekend record as the top-grossing Oscar nominee ever, appreciation and praise of the film has not been unanimous.
Film director Michael Moore, who famously criticized the Iraq War in his 2003 Oscar acceptance speech, is now expressing his views via Twitter, calling snipers “cowards.” On January 18, Moore tweeted, “My uncle killed by sniper in WW2. We were taught snipers were cowards. Will shoot u in the back. Snipers aren’t heroes. And invaders r worse.” A few hours later he followed up, tweeting, “But if you’re on the roof of your home defending it from invaders who’ve come 7K miles, you are not a sniper, u are brave, u are a neighbor.”
Seth Rogan, the director of the recent cinematic controversy “The Interview,” also tweeted that the film reminded him of the faux-Nazi propaganda film that Quentin Tarantino featured in his film “Inglourious Basterds,” in which a German sniper talks about how he picked off 200 Allied soldiers from a clock tower. He later amended his opinion, writing, “I just said something ‘kinda reminded’ me of something else. I actually liked ‘American Sniper.’ It just reminded me of the Tarantino scene.”
More recently, journalist Karen Zacharias wrote an editorial for CNN titled, “Why I refuse to see ‘American Sniper,’ ” expressing concern that the film may be glorifying or misrepresenting war. She claims, however, that her reluctance has nothing to do with Michael Moore’s flippant assertion that snipers are cowards, countering that she was always taught that cowards are those who refuse to serve their country.
Zacharias writes, “When my father died there were no crowds gathered at Cowboys Stadium, no JumboTron displaying pictures of the family man my father was, and no front-page stories. There was just a broken family feeling very abandoned by an ungrateful nation.” She concludes, “Hollywood has a way of fictionalizing war, of making it all about ‘us’ and ‘them’… I have traveled to my father’s battlefield in Vietnam and I have befriended Vietnamese who lost even more than I did during the war. I have learned there is no ‘us’ and ‘them.’ There is only ‘us.’ ”
While I respect Zacharias’ personal reasons for abstaining from viewing the film, I felt as though the arguments she cites in her piece are not entirely applicable to “American Sniper.” Chris Kyle had no intention or expectation of a crowd gathering at Cowboys Stadium in his honor or a 200-mile procession — and that is exactly the point. Rather, “American Sniper” tells the crucial, very real story of a man grappling with his role in the Iraqi war.
In fact, when asked by Time magazine’s Belinda Luscombe why he originally wrote the novel, Kyle explained that he wanted to write about “not the sacrifices that the military members make, but the sacrifices that their families have to go through, about the single mothers now raising their children … then also stories about my guys that deserve to be out there. They didn’t get the Medal of Honor so you don’t know about them, but they died heroes and people should know about them.” Both in his live interviews and as portrayed by Bradley Cooper in the film, Chris Kyle honorably emulates humility, dedication and a life and heart of service — an inspiring, humanistic example of conduct that is able to resonate with the majority of the feature’s audience.
I was personally both entertained and enlightened by “American Sniper,” leaving the theater wanting to communicate the importance of Chris Kyle, his story and the film. What I appreciated the most about the film was its alarming ability to be apolitical. The piece makes no statement about the folly of war, nor does it glamorize or glorify it. “American Sniper” is simply Kyle’s story, from the moment he decides to enlist to when he returns home permanently. It does not attempt to suggest what should have been done overseas or what was being done overseas; it solely presents the reality of the war for a single soldier and from his point of view.
Ultimately, “American Sniper” is truly a great American war story, and what I believe may quickly become a classic. The power of the film comes not from its underlying commentary — and I am irritated that critics may be attempting to fabricate some — but instead from its simplicity and focus. The strength of Chris Kyle’s tale lies in its resonant portrayal of a man struggling with his responsibilities to his God, his country and his young family, and how those contrasting responsibilities riddle him with internal tensions. It is not necessarily a story about snipers, violence or war, but one about how we may fare when faced with such imminent pressures.
Lauren McCarthy can be reached at laurmc@umich.edu.