Rah rah, sis-boom-bah, let’s go Americ – hunh? Hold on, wait a minute there. “American Sniper” isn’t one of them flag waving, we are awesome, kill em all and let God sort the rest out, let’s feel good about what our country has done kind of war movies. Man World War II was good for that kind of stuff. But ever since Vietnam, and especially with the quagmires our country are currently embroiled within, it’s been a bunch of debbie downers, “oh look at what hell War hath wrought upon men’s souls” kind of movies.

So here we go with another of these nuanced, not so black and white portrayals of war, along with a complex look at what is considered one of our greatest military heroes for a number of reasons. So put your flags down, this is not the kind of movie that waves them around, the flags in this movie usually drape coffins and are folded up and handed to widows.

Chris Kyle (Bradley Cooper) is a shit kickin’ Texan, a cowboy wanna be who rides broncos at rodeos on the weekends with his brother, feeling like he has more to offer the world. One day he sees news footage about an attack on an American embassy and good old patriotism hits him right in the nuts and he goes to the nearest recruiting office and signs up for the Navy SEALS at age 30. And of course we know he survives the training and since we know the title of the movie, we know he becomes quite amazing with a sniper rifle, coming to it quite naturally. Around this time two things happen to change his life forever. He meets the woman that would become his wife and the mother of his children, which is pretty big. And then there’s 9/11, which directly effects him because he finds himself deployed to Iraq, where he uses his sniper skills to protect his fellow servicemen.Continue Reading …