The story-line for "American Sniper" has all the elements for an intense mind journey for those of us who've never experienced real combat in a war zone.
The American involvement in the Afghan war just like the one in Vietnam has no true identification of its real enemies in the heat of battle, at least much of the time. In Afghanistan, like in the Vietnam war some children recently potty-trained are fully armed and eager to kill any American solider in sight. Too often in war, it's killed or be killed, even it involves killing the old and very young.
The focal character in "American Sniper," Chris Kyle (Bradley Cooper) is credited with more than a 160 kills in his many tours in the middle eastern war. He is faced with his personal demons and angles as to which of his kills are justified or maybe flat out murder of the innocent. The movie leaves open ends as to whether 'all' of his kills where legit, and I liked that aspect of the movie. If you see this flick, you be the judge of his war kills.
Deby Kyle (Elise Robertson) wants to raise her children she's had with her husband, and her spouse Chris wants the same, but he also wants to serve the U.S. in it's mission of madness. Chris, during his many encounters in the battle field manages to come out on the highly positive end physically, but dealing with Shell Shock puts tension in his marriage and over all life back home in America.
I give this movie an average rating of 2.5 stars. It was too pro war for me, and the scenes that were supposed to be intense simply lacked that knock-out cerebral punch. While having sympathy for the 6,848 U.S. troops killed in both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars (causalities.org), I also realize they volunteered, unlike the vets in World War I, II and Vietnam.
More than 50,000 U.S. soldiers have been wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001, more than 1500 troops have lost an arm or a leg and 100s of them have lost multiple limbs so we can drive our gas guzzlers to our next abomination. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/07/iraq-afghanistan-amputees_n_2089911.html)
