Film Review: American Sniper

*Spoiler alert*

American Sniper, a film review

The movie cover and name alone made me expect another patriotic movie starring a heroic character somewhere in the Middle East. And so it was. American Sniper (2015) is based on the life and autobiography of Chris Kyle, an ex-Navy SEAL that went on 4 missions in Iraq. Chris Kyle has become legendary in the U.S. military with 160 kills on his name; around 250 if we were to include his kills without official confirmation. Thus, Clint Eastwood and his associates felt the necessity to produce an honoring movie of this hero.
                Besides the many praises received, the film was also subject to controversy. This was not based on how well or how bad the movie was made, but rather on the inaccurate portrayal of the movie’s protagonist.
                This review wishes to examine the representations of censorship in this action-war-drama movie. This will be done through the approaches of ‘producing the other’ and ‘censorship involved in remembering’.

Producing the other

The film starts off in random part of Iraq in ruins. With ‘Allah Akbar’ chants of nearby mosques in the background, U.S. militaries march through while Chris Kyle, a talent at shooting from long range, observes the area from above. While observing, every inhabitant is shown in a suspicious manner. He then spots a mother and young boy walking towards the American convoy. After the mother stealthily hands the young boy a grenade, he starts running and attempts to throw the grenade at the American soldiers. In the nick of time, Kyle shoots the boy, causing the woman make an attempt of her own. After picking up the grenade from the boy’s body, she starts running toward the convoy and is also shot by Kyle.
                This scene is, more or less, the entire movie in a nutshell; Iraqis are savages (the word ‘savage’ is actually used when referring to Iraqis) that would send their children and women to die, while the Americans are there to liberate Iraq from its savagery. Throughout the movie, Iraqis are portrayed as being either bloodthirsty terrorists or helpless victims of their malicious environment. The depiction of the Americans on the other hand is more as fighters against evil.
                This is evident in the Iraqi family scene as well. During the search for Al-Qaeda leader Al- Zarqawi, Kyle stumbles upon a father and his family which demands money in return for information about the right hand of the Al-Zarqawi, also known as ‘the Butcher’. While the money is transported by the convoy, an American soldier remarks that the drill is the Butcher’s favorite torturing device. In this same scene, an American soldier brings up a personal story. Before the money even reaches the family’s house, the Butcher shows up and kills the son of the father by drilling into his head. Hereafter the father is shot dead in cold blood. The arriving American convoy is in sorrow not so much because of the dreadful way in which the family members were murdered, but rather as a result of the loss of a key informant.
                The aforementioned scenes reveal how the ‘other’, is produced compared to the ‘self’. There is not a single mention of the motives of the rebelling Iraqis. What is left is the shallow image of an irrational and barbaric ‘other’; children and women are used to attack American soldiers, victims asking money from their ‘liberators’, the drilling into the head of a child, the list goes on. On the other hand, by displaying the personal stories of American soldiers -Kyle’s life in particular- the audience is better able to identify with the Americans and understanding is created for their motives. This is also visible in the scene dedicated to the funeral of a fallen soldier, while the shocking death of the father and son were solely regarded as a loss of information. Thus, the ‘self’ is allowed to eliminate the dehumanized ‘other’, possibly also serving as justification of the former presence of the U.S. in Iraq.

Censorship Involved in Remembering

To recapitulate the scene that is the movie in a nutshell, Chris Kyle has just shot the young boy and woman that attempted to attack the U.S. convoy with a grenade. Despite the cheers and praises of his companions, Kyle is shown upset with his first two kills. Even after having many kills on his name, the sniper is shown in a scene hoping that he does not have to shoot a child with a weapon. Chris Kyle comes across as a sympathetic soldier with a conscience; better yet, “a killing machine with a golden heart” (Taibbi).
                However, this representation has been contested by many as it distorts the reality of Chris Kyle’s true nature. The real American sniper, according to critics, was a blatant racist and received pleasure from killing. This heavy accusation was not made up out of thin air. In fact, the substantiations of this statement were found in the autobiography of Chris Kyle himself. “Kyle reportedly described killing as ‘fun’, something he ‘loved’; he was unwavering in his belief that everyone he shot was a ‘bad guy’. ‘I hate the damn savages,’ he wrote. ‘I couldn’t give a flying fuck about the Iraqis.’ He bragged about murdering looters during Hurricane Katrina, though that was never substantiated”. (West) Perhaps the mindset of Kyle is a necessity of any soldier to be able to face the enemy, but his remarks about ‘murdering looters during Hurricane Katrina’ –which are Americans as well– does not do his image any good. It gives rise to the suspicion that many of the 250 unconfirmed kills of Kyle were also innocent victims; a very contrasting image of the Kyle depicted in the movie.
                Excluding this wicked side of Kyle from American Sniper reminds one of ‘censorship involved in remembering’. What is remembered is that Chris Kyle was an excellent patriot with a conscience that fought for the liberation of Iraq. What is forgotten is that Kyle was a trigger happy lunatic that had fun killing Iraqi savages. Why? Difficult to say for a movie that came out this year, but possibly in order to preserve the positive perception of the former presence of the U.S. in Iraq.

To conclude, this review has attempted to explore the representations of censorship in American Sniper. What was discovered was that the produce of the Iraqi ‘other’, more or less justified Kyle’s mass kills as well as former U.S. presence in Iraq. Furthermore, this review has elaborated on the censorship involved in remembering and it can be seen that Chris Kyle’s positive characteristics were remembered -or even invented to be remembered-, while his negative sides was forgotten. After all, American Sniper proves that censors indeed intend to construct rather than prohibit.

Taibbi, Matt. "'American Sniper' Is Almost Too Dumb to Criticize." Rolling Stone. N.p., 21 Jan. 2015. Web. 30 Mar. 2015.

West, Lindy. "The Real American Sniper Was a Hate-filled Killer. Why Are Simplistic Patriots Treating Him as a Hero?" The Guardian. N.p., 6 Jan. 2015. Web. 30 Mar. 2015.