American Sniper and the UnAmerican Sniping of it

This afternoon, I had the opportunity to go online and watch Glo Zell interview President Obama, or see American Sniper. Wow! It was powerful and hard hitting! Man, that President Obama sure knows how to give an interview!

Get real! I saw American Sniper and I must say it exceeded my expectations. To do any sort of a decent movie review, I'd have to include a lot of spoilers, and I don't want to do that. I want you to see this movie and experience it as unbiased as possible the first time.

I knew the basic story before I went to see it, but the movie is gripping enough that even when you know how it will end, it keeps you on the edge of your seat.

Much of the film is a character study of how Chris Kyle became the man he was, how he dealt with hardships, and relationships, and sorrow and loss. Also his struggle with the morality of taking a human life, even when it will save the lives of others. And what this does to a man's soul as he looks upon evil and does battle with it day after day. The film also deals with his wife, struggling to maintain her life and family in spite of a husband who deploys for months on end, and may not ever come home.

Some of it is a gritty, sometimes brutal, but realistic telling of what our soldiers endured in the Middle East and what their families endured at home. It is rated "R". It is definitely not a movie for children. The violence is at times quite graphic. The language is the language of fighting men, more fitting for the locker room than the parlor. I did not find it distracting. Some might.

The acting is top notch. Bradley Cooper could be a ringer for Kyle. The director, Clint Eastwood, knows how to get the maximum performance from his actors and how to capture that on film. When the credits rolled, I sat in my seat for a while, wiping away a few tears. It is a moving story about a real, down to earth guy. Not a super hero or super spy, but a real American hero.

As I sat there, I tried to picture how anyone could not be moved by this movie, even Leftist tubs of lard like Michael Moore. One thing that occurred to me, was that there was a lot of truth in this movie. Being confronted with truth may be so foreign to some that they are uncomfortable in its presence.

It was in no way a "propaganda" film. What did they propagandize? "Join the SEALS, go through brutal training, get shot at or blown up, and if you do make it home you may be messed up psychologically, missing a few limbs and have you wife and kids leave you"? Great! Sign me up!

There is one message that Chris Kyle carried, and that was it was important for him to protect his country. That his country was worth defending and even worth dying for. That may have sent Leftist blowhards like Moore, if he ever even saw the film, into a catatonic state. (No, not California!)

Chris Kyle is the Alvin York of our time. If you are of age, you should see this movie. It is a well crafted piece of cinema, and leaving the theater, I was hard pressed to remember any movie I had ever seen that was better than this one or had greater emotional impact.

Still haven't.

If you faint at the sight of blood, don't see it. If violent movies give you bad dreams, don't see it. Wait 'til it comes on TV and they'll edit out some of the language and gorier parts. The rest of you, go to the theater and see it at least once. Soon. In addition to seeing a fine, well crafted movie based on the true story of an American hero, every dollar that it makes at the box office is a big...raspberry (kept it PG-13, didn't I?) to the leftist tools who are trying to discourage people from seeing it.

Vote with your wallets, America, for movies about true American heroes, and maybe Hollywood will finally take a hint about what the American public is longing to see.

Five stars out of five.