American Sniper

I would have to give American Sniper a big thumbs up, even though I would agree with many of the observations its detractors have made about it. Perhaps that will take a bit of explaining.

An early scene shows a young Chris Kyle, being lectured by his father at the dinner table. His father explains that there are three kinds of people in the world, the sheep, who can't conceive of any evil in the world, the wolves, who prey on the sheep, and the sheep dogs, who protect the sheep.

Some people like to criticize Chris Kyle, because he enjoyed killing people. A soldier's job is to kill people. It is a job that needs to be done, and I see nothing wrong with a man enjoying his work.

Everyone that Chris Kyle killed in the movie was trying to kill American soldiers. I consider it more likely than not that the real Chris Kyle killed some innocent people by mistake. I am sure that some of these people were guilty of nothing more than growing up in what ended up being a war zone. It's war. Shit happens.

The movie does not try to explain why certain people might want to kill American soldiers. Some people do that, because they are just evil. In a later scene, where a recent letter from a soldier is read at his funeral, Chris Kyle remarks that this letter, where he questions our involvement in Iraq, is what killed him. I would say that is a perfectly valid observation.

If a man wants to kill me, perhaps it is because his mother failed to properly nurture him when he was little. And it is sometimes possible to turn a friend into an enemy by validating his worldview. But a soldier who thinks that way in a combat situation is going to have a life expectancy of about three seconds. He want's to kill me, because he is evil. I need to kill him first. Anything beyond that is irresponsible and reckless.

Other considerations might be worth examining, as part of a long term solution. I am personally concerned that our drone attacks might be creating more terrorists than we are killing. That is a legitimate topic for another movie. But a failure to address such issues is not a shortcoming of any movie that chooses not to address them.

I did find the movie's treatment of PTSD to be quite insightful. Chris Kyle, now a civilian, is sitting in a playground. As his daughter is playing, he scans their surroundings, keeping an eye out for enemy snipers and suicide bombers.

It occured to me that regarding this as an illness might be the wrong approach. When a soldier enters basic training, he is not given a diagnosis that indicates his unsuitability for combat, and prescribed a course of treatment. He is presumed to be unsuitable, until he has been properly trained. Perhaps a soldier who has been in combat should simply be presumed to be unsuitable for a return to civilian life, until he has been trained to do that.

There are enlistees who are unable to endure the physical rigors of training, and others who can't shoot straight because they can't stomach the idea of killing people. Some people just aren't cut out to be soldiers. A man who is a good soldier might believe beating the crap out of his wife is a good idea. Some people aren't cut out to be civilians.