I'm sure everybody is sick of hearing about American Sniper by now, but that's exactly what motivated me to weigh in on it.
Like any movie, book, poem, painting, etc., American Sniper can and will be taken differently depending on who sees it, what mood they are in, and their own personal biases.
Let me be clear that I in no way believe that this movie "glorifies" war as some people claim. Anyone who has seen the movie can tell you that the focus of this movie was the psychological effects of sniping and warfare that Chris Kyle had to deal with. It was very heartfelt and every moment that Bradley Cooper portrayed Kyle on screen was filled with very strong, good emotions. At no point was Chris Kyle celebrating the deaths of the people he killed. Instead his focus was always on saving American lives and dealing with the pain of what he had to do. This movie portrayed Chris Kyle as the hero he was and accurately showed what he had to deal with because of it.
Having said that, it is absolutely WRONG what people have done in theaters around the country yelling racist remarks and urging Kyle to shoot people. Yes, I agree he should have taken those shots, but celebrating them and urging them on with racist and angry comments is evil. Those people needed to die so that American soldiers and others could live, but that doesn't mean that those people didn't have families too. The racists assholes in America who think it is okay to treat ANYBODY with angry hate like that should maybe try to put themselves in the shoes of those people who Chris Kyle sniped.
The movie was amazing. I felt like it very accurately gave the viewer a sense of what it might be like to be forced to make tough decisions like that. If you don't mind the cursing and violence and can handle the powerful emotions involved, you should definitely see it. If you decide to let your children see it, please I BEG YOU, have a conversation with them afterwards about the emotions involved in the film. I witnessed my uncle have this conversation with his kids (15, 13, and 12) and they absolutely understood the purpose of the film.
Rather than glorifying war, I felt like the movie actually de-glorified war and brought it very close to home for a person like me who does not have a lot of family in the military and not much personal experience to speak of either.
Go see it.
