UPDATE (JAN 30)
Since I posted this, I’ve had time to go and actually watch a few videos of interviews with Chris Kyle and in all honesty I feel that the label “psychopath,” which I thought was plausible from his excerpted writing, is just not right.
Psychopaths tend to be narcissistic people. The Chris Kyle I saw on those videos came off as a modest and likeable person.
So I’m going to withdraw the label for now.
There’s something amiss here and Mr. Kyle just might not be the monster that at first glance some of his words (and actions) might make him.
I will be posting more on this, but for now, I will let the piece stand as it is, along with this note.
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
At Alternet, via Salon, Syracuse U. student Zaid Jilani dissects the lies propagated by director Clint Eastwood in his new box-office hit, “American Sniper.”
The movie lionizes the crack sniper Chris Kyle as a heroic, conflicted, All-American hunter of evil “rag-heads.”
The real Kyle, on the other hand, seems to have been a psychopath in love with killing and even more in love with his image as a killer:
The film American Sniper, based on the story of the late Navy Seal Chris Kyle, is a box office hit, setting records for an R-rated film released in January. Yet the film, the autobiography of the same name, and the reputation of Chris Kyle are all built on a set of half-truths, myths and outright lies that Hollywood didn’t see fit to clear up.
Here are seven lies about Chris Kyle and the story that director Clint Eastwood is telling:
1. The Film Suggests the Iraq War Was In Response To 9/11: One way to get audiences to unambiguously support Kyle’s actions in the film is to believe he’s there to avenge the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The movie cuts from Kyle watching footage of the attacks to him serving in Iraq, implying there is some link between the two.
2. The Film Invents a Terrorist Sniper Who Works For Multiple Opposing Factions: Kyle’s primary antagonist in the film is a sniper named Mustafa. Mustafa is mentioned in a single paragraph in Kyle’s book, but the movie blows him up into an ever-present figure and Syrian Olympic medal winner who fights for both Sunni insurgents in Fallujah and the Shia Madhi army.
3. The Film Portrays Chris Kyle as Tormented By His Actions: Multiple scenes in the movie portray Kyle as haunted by his service. One of the film’s earliest reviews praised it for showing the “emotional torment of so many military men and women.” But that torment is completely absent from the book the film is based on. In the book, Kyle refers to everyone he fought as “savage, despicable” evil. He writes, “I only wish I had killed more.” He also writes, “I loved what I did. I still do. If circumstances were different – if my family didn’t need me – I’d be back in a heartbeat. I’m not lying or exaggerating to say it was fun. I had the time of my life being a SEAL.” On an appearance on Conan O’Brien’s show he laughs about accidentally shooting an Iraqi insurgent. He once told a military investigator that he doesn’t “shoot people with Korans. I’d like to, but I don’t.”