American Sniper Themes

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Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper is a film that captures the intense reality of war. Not only does it show the physical hardships of fighting for our country, but also the brutal conditions that can change a soldier’s mentality for the rest of their life. In the movie, Chris Kyle, a Navy SEAL, becomes a renowned fighter. He gains respect from his comrades by becoming a legendary sniper in Iraq, a country which is depicted as a dirty and rundown nation filled with members all working against American soldiers. Throughout the movie we slowly start to see how the war effects Chris and his relationships between his wife and kids back home as he seemingly turns into two different people depending on where he is in the world. Many of the themes shown in the movie have …show more content…
Although these goals are not negative, the film makes it seem this way. Both the United States and Iraq strive for control but we are shown that Iraq’s hunger for power is more intense. The director portrays Iraq as a place full of anger and evil that has spread throughout all of its people. The only roles that the women and children play in this movie are as ignorant citizens following the commands of a leader working against the U.S troops. As I watched this movie for the first time I fell into the roll, as most Americans watching probably did, of an audience member who was unaware of how one-sided this story actually is. For the next two hours I cheered as Chris Kyle killed off those working for al-Queda, sat up on the edge of my seat in despair when any American soldier got hurt, and felt numb once Chris was killed in the end. These are the feelings the producers wanted to capture in order for a successful movie, however, once it was over I realized what was wrong. The American soldiers always came out to be victorious and smarter with their decisions in comparison to the Iraq soldiers, who only seemed to have characteristics of being vicious and dangerous. When Chris would go home to his