Bill Press: Liberals wrong on ‘Sniper’

Clint Eastwood has accomplished the impossible this Oscar season. He has delivered the film everybody loves to hate, and the film everybody loves to love. It’s the same film: “American Sniper.”

Now, I know that as a liberal, anti-war Democrat, I wasn’t supposed to like “American Sniper” because it’s nothing but a glorification of war and celebration of a gun zealot who brags about the number of enemy “savages” he kills in Iraq. But I went to see it anyway, and I’m glad I did. 

{mosads}The film’s liberal critics have it wrong. “American Sniper” neither glorifies war nor condemns it. Instead, it’s a powerful portrayal of war in all its dimensions: the unspeakable, utter horror of enemy combat; the remarkable bravery of American troops under fire; and the terrible toll that war takes on our soldiers and their families, both while on the battlefield and when they return homeside. 

In fact, “American Sniper” is as much a story of post-traumatic stress disorder as it is a story of war. Yes, it’s passionately pro-war. But it’s just as passionately anti-war.

The film tells the true story of Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, a real patriot who served four tours of duty in Iraq and, with 160 kills, became the most lethal sniper in U.S. military history. But the real focus of the movie is not Kyle’s skill at pulling the trigger — it’s the price that a soldier, even as brave and successful as he was, ends up paying when he comes home, and the tragic impact that war experience had on his family. 

The stress of war made it difficult, if not impossible, for Kyle to return to reality. He’s a classic victim of PTSD. Haunted by memories of war, he can’t relate to his wife and kids. He falls apart at a neighborhood barbecue. Ironically, he finally finds himself by volunteering to help other Iraq War veterans suffering physical or mental damage — one of whom, another PTSD victim, snaps and kills him on a target range.

The power of “American Sniper” was evident at the end of it. Usually, when a movie is over, people just get up and leave. Sometimes, as happened when I saw “Selma,” the audience applauds. Not so with “American Sniper.” When it ends, with actual footage of Chris Kyle’s funeral procession and the crowds lining a Texas highway, the audience sat frozen in total silence. You could have heard a pin drop. Nobody talked. Nobody moved. Everybody was too stunned by what they had just seen.

It’s that kind of movie. No wonder it has set box office records for the last three weekends. “American Sniper” kicks you in the gut and in the heart at the same time. You can’t help but walk out of it impressed by the courage of our troops under fire in Iraq, as well as overwhelmed by the personal costs they and their families had to pay.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re a liberal or conservative. “American Sniper”: Go see it!

Press is host of “The Bill Press Show” on Free Speech TV and author of The Obama Hate Machine.