Movies In History: American Sniper

Given that it probably seems to those who stop in here that I see every "war movie" going, it will probably come as a surprise that: 1) I don't, and 2) I wasn't particularly inclined to see this one, but I don't really know why.  It may be because I've known a couple of men, one particularly well, who had been snipers and they were profoundly unlikely to discuss it, which makes me feel just slightly odd about one who does. That isn't intended as a criticism, it's just a comment.

But I did see it last night, and because my wife wanted to, which is even more of a surprise.  She recently read Chris Kyle's book, another surprise, and like it.  I haven't read the book. Because she read the book, she wanted to see the movie.

Because I haven't read the book, I can't comment at all on how accurately the film depicts the events of the book.  And I'm also not going to comment much on the surprising amount of controversy this film is generating, and from surprising quarters.  I will say, however, that some of the criticism strikes me as very "parlor" in nature, i.e., the sort of slightly leftist commentary that comes from people whose view of conflict is very antiseptic. War is nasty, and that's just the way it.  To depict that honestly, and to write about it, isn't something that deserves criticism.  Nor does a person deserve criticism because they took an active part in it, which seems to be the basis of at least some criticism.  It's interesting, indeed, how we're now at a point where that sort of criticism is not too uncommon in some quarters, when in earlier eras that would have been regarded as rather dishonorable.

Anyhow, what I will note is that this film, which depicts a lot of urban comment, is correct in material details, which it should be.  It's pretty darned graphic, but not grossly over the top for the most part.  Equipment appears to be generally correct with perhaps a few minor errors.

It depicts urban combat in a very gritty fashion, and it reminded me to a slight extent of Black Hawk Down, which in my view is the most accurate combat movie ever filmed.  It's not Black Hawk Down, but it does a nice job with this story.