American Sniper can be viewed as two things. One, a film masterpiece that depicts the change in character of a military legend as he battles PTSD, or an American Propaganda film that dehumanizes Middle Eastern people, and makes them out to be an inhumane, almost faceless enemy. Most people are on one boat or the other with this film. And each side has valid points to justify why they believe what they do about the film. Some people believe it is a Right Wing, racist, patriotism filled, action, “Go America!!” film. While the other thinks it is a character driven movie fueled by a Oscar- nomination worthy performance by Bradley Cooper depicting the struggles of war and what our soldiers go through during the battle and the struggle to adapt back to normal life.

American Sniper is director Clint Eastwood’s (yes, that Clint Eastwood the western star) fifth Oscar nomination for movies he’s directed, it is also his fourth nomination for best picture. While the movie is nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor (Bradley Cooper), Best Editing, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Sound Mixing, it is not predicted to win best picture. The same does not go for the Best Actor category, with Bradley Cooper being a favorite.

It’s a shame this movie was not nominated for best cinematography because it had some of the best visuals of any military movie I have ever seen (Barring “Saving Private Ryan”). Especially the scene shot during the Sandstorm. Even when it was cloudy and hard to see you knew where everyone was and where and what was happening during the firefight.

Now there are many flaws that go along with this film, excluding the fake baby, this movie dehumanized the Arabic and Islamic people greatly even to the point that the first scene of the film was Chris Kyle killing a mother and child that try to throw a grenade at the on-coming convoy. There are multiple scenes that really de-humanize these people, specifically whenever there is some sort of battle or firefight there are random citizens that come out of buildings that start attacking the US soldiers. There is also a scene that really makes the Arabic people out to be monsters, and even with the flows, it is one of the most emotional scenes in the movie.

American Sniper in my opinion is a military classic of a haunting tale of the most lethal sniper in US military history. It is a well told tale of a man’s struggle to deal with the things he has seen, the friends he has lost, and the people he has killed. He goes through the motions of PTSD and the movie has a haunting ending that left most of the theater in tears. It was a good film worthy of a best picture nomination.