American Sniper is a curious thing — a movie that’s provoking intense debate even though everyone appears to agree about what the movie says. Audiences on both the Left and the Right see Clint Eastwood’s film as having a clear, uncomplicated point of view about Chris Kyle and the American military effort in Iraq: There is good, and its name is America. There is evil, and we took it down in Iraq. The Right calls this perspective patriotic, while the Left calls it jingoistic, but both seem to think it pretty much sums up Eastwood’s take.
But American Sniper is not as simplistic as the response to it has been. Both those grunting hooah! and those shouting hooey! are missing the subtle ways the film expresses ambivalence toward Chris Kyleâ?? — â??not as a historical figure, but as symbol of a modern American warrior.
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