Rachel Weeks/Correspondent
American Sniper is a biographical war drama that is centered around the life of former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, the man who was given the title of Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History. He earned the title of deadliest marksman with 255 kills, 160 of which were officially confirmed by the Pentagon. Kyle, played by Academy Award nominee Bradley Cooper, was just a normal Texas boy who lived by his father’s motto, “be a sheepdog who protects others, not a sheep or a wolf.” Earlier in his life Kyle worked as a rodeo cowboy, but after seeing footage of the terrorist attacks on the U.S. embassies in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi, he enlisted to become a U.S. Navy SEAL. This viewing of the attacks ultimately changed his life forever.
Director Clint Eastwood (Million Dollar Baby, Letters from Iwo Jima) truly captures the life of an American soldier in this film. The scenes change quickly, symbolizing how fast life seems to go by when you’re juggling tours in Iraq and taking care of your family. Kyle is forced to find a balance between his military and personal lives. He goes back to Texas and becomes the doting husband that his wife, Taya (Sienna Miller), fell in love with but finds himself struggling to suppress the side of him that is a military weapon.
The most memorable moment in American Sniper is when Kyle spots a little boy who he assumes is carrying a grenade. He is ordered to take the call on the shot. There is a moment when Kyle stops to check his morality and you finally see the father underneath the Navy SEAL uniform. This shows that even the most lethal man in the U.S. military knows what is right and wrong. Soldiers are not only trained for destruction.
Following Kyle’s life, from his four tours in Iraq to his marriage to Taya and the births of his two children, feels entirely real. While watching this film, you realize that this man who has killed so many people for his country is a real person and there are many more men like him out there. Even when out of Iraq, Kyle showed a patriotic spirit by helping out wounded soldiers at a local hospital. He once states that he was “haunted by all the guys he couldn’t save”, so he thought this was a good way to save the ones that were still alive.
American Sniper surely delivers to anyone who watches it, delivering a mixture of action and emotion. Whether you read Chris Kyle’s autobiography or never heard of the name before in your life, you will not leave the movie theater disappointed.
