American Sniper

Tonight I saw American Sniper with my wife.  I was only partially aware of the story of Chris Kyle, mostly because I find out about him some time after his death.  I knew more of the better known details, namely that he was the best sniper in American history, and his tragic death, later after his heroic service in Iraq.  I started making my way through the book, and though I haven't finished it yet, there's a lot of great details that can't be included in the movie, I would think because of time constraints, though you can certainly see the spirit of the book in the movie.  How's that for a run-on sentence?

There have been several in my family that've had the distinct honor of serving this country, and while I did not serve, this movie is one that will leave you wishing you had.  We live our comfy little lives, while strangers go off and die for us, and I think this comes out in the movie.  This movie left me feeling more patriotic, and more like I've done so little compared to strangers who go off and fight for us.  Its probably the first that shows how soldiers deal with returning back to the States, and really the first that dealt with confronting the moral decisions of doing impossible things, we'd never have considered, because we've never been to a war zone.

Two of his military accomplishments really take the forefront in this movie, which the actors, and director Clint Eastwood managed to tie into Kyle's story really well.  One was his being the deadliest sniper in U.S. military history, and his longest shot, at 2,100 yards, well over a mile away.  These two things really stood out to me, and reminded me of another movie Lone Survivor, a movie about another Navy Seal, Marcus Lattrell.  While both movies chronicle extraordinary events in the lives of Navy Seals, and while both will choke you up, even the toughest of men, American Sniper, just made Chris Kyle seem like a self-made superman.  His attitude, his grit, are just...great, and really things that are lacking in our all too sissified culture.  You come out of that movie seeing his devotion to his fellow soldiers, and to his fellow Americans, in general.

It just...sucks, that he ends up dying serving others, well after the dangers of Iraq have passed.  That for me might be the biggest gutwrencher of Chris's story.  But even then, he died trying to help someone.  I left with a large lump in my throat, and watery eyes, because of a stranger willing to put himself in danger for people he'd never meet simply because they were American.  That is the thing to take away from this movie, and really the sacrifice of Chris Kyle in general.  His was, and is, a story of sacrifce, and service to others, at the highest level he knew.