The story of US Navy SEAL Chris Kyle is made for Hollywood. Dubbed the deadliest sniper in American history, Kyle used his exceptional marksmanship to rack up 160 confirmed kills and another 100 probable ones. The highly decorated soldier had cheated death multiple times over his four harrowing tours in Iraq, which makes it all the more ironic that he met his end not on the battlefield but in his hometown in Odessa, Texas, where he was fatally shot by a mentally ill veteran he had tried to help.
The screenplay based on Chris Kyle’s autobiography fell into the hands of veteran director Clint Eastwood. His filmography boasts such Oscar winners as Mystic River and Million Dollar Baby. But the 84-year-old can be unpredictable and even erratic. A lifelong Republican, his legacy now includes the infamous speech at the 2012 GOP National Convention, in which Eastwood talked to an empty chair and rambled on for a good 30 minutes. His disastrous appearance, broadcast on live television at prime time, has taught him that not everyone can be Michael Moore and that some movie directors are better off staying behind the camera.
Determined to be politically agnostic this time, Clint Eastwood's take on the war in Iraq is personal and anecdotal. He focuses on what repeated deployments can do to a soldier and his family, and hopes to sidestep the moral debate over why American troops are there in the first place. That debate also includes whether America has the right to turn civilian towns into war zones, thereby making anyone who dies by a sniper’s rifle a “war death” rather than an execution without trial. But by making Chris Kyle the film’s superhero and allowing the audience to observe only through American eyes, Eastwood has already weighed in on the debate.