American Sniper Is Based On A True Story, But How Accurate Is Clint Eastwood’s Movie? – SlashFilm

Motion pictures based mostly on the lives of actual folks must steadiness on a tightrope between sticking to the true story and throwing components of it within the wind to make issues extra thrilling. The ape-themed Robbie Williams biopic “Higher Man” came upon first hand that making issues too unusual is dangerous, because the weird film turned the primary huge field workplace bomb of 2025. On the opposite hand, fashionable exaggeration can even profit a movie — as an illustration, 1984’s “Amadeus” is the perfect music biopic of all time and in addition cheerfully inaccurate.

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Clint Eastwood’s controversial 2014 conflict film “American Sniper” was a giant field workplace hit, and the movie’s “based mostly on a real story” nature signifies that it offers with the same old biopic challenges. The film tells the story of Chris Kyle (performed by Bradley Cooper) — a well-known Navy SEAL sniper with over 160 confirmed kills — and relies on his 2012 memoir of the identical title. It was nominated for six Academy Awards (taking dwelling the Oscar for Finest Achievement in Sound Enhancing) and obtained reward from veterans for its depiction of the conflict in Iraq. On the opposite hand, its unflinching reward of Kyle, questionable depiction of “savage” enemies, and “America is all the time proper” perspective have drawn criticism. 

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Whereas “American Sniper” depicts sure occasions that really did happen, the film additionally comes with a laundry listing of inaccuracies and biopic oddities — and until the viewer goes in with deep data of Kyle’s private historical past and the Iraq Battle, lots of them could be significantly more durable to identify than the infamously absurd prop child the protagonist could be noticed holding. Let’s check out how correct “American Sniper” actually is.

A film adaptation of a memoir generally is a tough factor, and on sure key events, “American Sniper” opts to distort Chris Kyle’s story. In actual fact, the very first scene of the movie options Kyle in a troublesome state of affairs when he sees a girl hand an anti-tank grenade to a boy and ship him towards U.S. marines. That is an embellishment: A related scene does seem within the ebook, however with simply the girl and a far much less highly effective explosive. There’s additionally one notable scene that is an entire fabrication: The incident the place Kyle’s staff takes short-term shelter in the home of a civilian household, solely to finish up combating them when the sniper discovers a weapons cache that reveals them as insurgents.

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One other vital change to Kyle’s story within the film is his motivation to develop into a army man. The movie’s depiction of Kyle becoming a member of the Navy after seeing footage of the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings has little to do with actuality — the actual Kyle enlisted shortly earlier than they came about and had all the time wished to take action. Different main adjustments contain Kyle’s fellow Navy SEAL Ryan “Biggles” Job (Jake McDorman), who dies in Iraq within the film. In actuality, he was blinded and died in 2009 after present process facial reconstruction surgical procedure in Arizona. Kyle’s tendency to make use of satellite tv for pc telephones mid-mission to speak together with his spouse, Taya (Sienna Miller), has additionally been drastically exaggerated for dramatic impact, and the film differs from the ebook in the case of depicting the pair’s relationship and interactions.

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Jean-Jacques Arnaud’s 2001 movie “Enemy on the Gates” depicts a fictionalized duel between Jude Regulation because the well-known Soviet WWII sniper Vasily Zaitsev and Ed Harris because the alleged (however traditionally very doubtful) German sniping legend Erwin König. “American Sniper” opts for the same method by pitting Kyle towards a feared Syrian sniper identified solely as Mustafa (Sammy Sheik) — an nameless loss of life ghost whose sole defining traits are his lethal accuracy and his background as a formidable Olympics sharpshooter. A recurring presence within the film, Mustafa poses a critical risk, to the purpose of being the one who kills Biggles. Fittingly for the sniper duel setup, the film additionally places him on the receiving finish of Kyle’s well-known 2,100-yard shot.

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Mustafa, as he seems within the film, by no means existed. Whereas a sniper of that title with a rumored historical past as an Olympian does get a brief point out within the ebook, Kyle particularly wrote that he by no means had any interplay with the person. On the opposite, he talked about listening to that Mustafa could have been killed by one other American sniper. As such, he wasn’t the goal of Kyle’s well-known shot — as a substitute, the two,100-yarder hit a grenade launcher-wielding rebel.

Nonetheless, not less than Mustafa was really talked about within the memoir. The identical cannot be mentioned for the Butcher (Mido Hamada), a brutal one-notice villain with zero redeeming traits who capabilities as a key goal of the Navy SEALS … and would not seem within the ebook in any respect. The Butcher could or could not draw unfastened inspiration from an actual-life Shi’ite Muslim militia chief often known as Abu Deraa (who has no connection to Kyle), however actually, he is such a one-dimensional hate sink that any connection to an actual individual is doubtful at finest.

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One extraordinarily notable occasion the film largely glosses over is Chris Kyle’s loss of life. On the finish of the film, Kyle has left the army behind and, after some powerful instances, is nicely on his technique to rediscovering the pleasures of civilian life. He then tells his spouse that he is heading out to fulfill a fellow veteran at a taking pictures vary — and the film bluntly informs us that mentioned veteran killed him that very same day earlier than slicing to archival footage of Kyle and his funeral.

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That is what occurred in actual life as nicely, although the film leaves out a substantial portion of the unhappy story. Identical to the fictional model, the actual Kyle additionally devoted loads of vitality to serving to out different veterans, usually utilizing taking pictures — an exercise they have been all accustomed to — as a method to get via to them. On this capability, Kyle and fellow veteran Chad Littlefield agreed to fulfill former Marine Eddie Ray Routh on the Tough Creek Lodge and Resort gun vary in Texas on February 2, 2013. Routh, who had a historical past of psychological well being points and was underneath the affect on the time, shot each males.

Curiously, “American Sniper” would not draw back from the adjustments it made to the unique story. On the opposite, screenwriter Jason Corridor has been utterly open about altering the occasions from these depicted within the ebook and has additionally defined his causes to take action. In a 2015 interview with the New York Day by day Information, he defined that whereas Kyle’s loss of life was in a number of variations of the script, it finally did not obtain extra consideration as a result of his household particularly requested tact — and Corridor ended up agreeing:

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“I did not need it to be the factor that was hanging over [his children’s] heads for the very remainder of their lives because the movie that confirmed their father getting shot.”

This wasn’t the one manner Kyle’s premature loss of life influenced the film, both. In actual fact, Corridor instructed Army.com in 2014 that nicely over half of his script went via a big overhaul after Kyle was murdered and Taya Kyle turned extra concerned within the artistic course of, offering perception that enabled Corridor to depict Kyle as a much less distant character than he’s within the ebook:

 “[The script] modified about 60 %. It concerned the household far more and I used to be capable of get the voices proper and I used to be capable of perceive who Chris was earlier than the conflict and the way this man with this huge coronary heart and this unusual tenderness was capable of pull this lady out of the darkness and drag her into the sunshine and love her till she may love herself. And it was her standing within the mild that was capable of pull him out of the darkness when the turmoil of conflict engulfed him.”

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Aside from all of the adjustments the film made, the ebook it is based mostly on would not have a monitor file as probably the most dependable scripture on the market. Kyle’s memoir has been the topic of some controversy over time. Considered one of its tales options Kyle knocking out a well-known individual — who he later confirmed to be professional wrestler-turned-Governor Jesse Ventura – and ended up inflicting authorized hassle, as Ventura sued Kyle in a case that was ultimately settled for an undisclosed sum in 2017. This story hasn’t been in new editions of the ebook since 2014, and fairly understandably would not function within the film.

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One other difficulty surfaced in 2016, when The Intercept printed an investigation of Kyle’s army file. Within the ebook, Kyle states that he was adorned with two Silver Stars and 5 Bronze Stars, however The Intercept’s data indicated that these numbers have been embellished and his precise file was one Silver Star and three Bronze Stars. This side of Kyle’s story ended up being fairly sophisticated. His 2009 Navy separation kind really talked about two Silver Stars and six Bronze ones … however after a 2016 assessment, the Navy revised the rely to at least one Silver Star and 4 Bronze Stars for Valor.

All in all, there’s little denying that Chris Kyle was a posh individual and a gifted sniper, and the film on the whole and Bradley Cooper’s efficiency particularly do a wonderful job at depicting the type of army-minded life the well-known Navy SEAL described in his autobiography. Nonetheless, should you desire traditionally correct conflict dramas, not to mention ones which are not less than considerably crucial of their topic, it is good to keep in mind that “American Sniper” paints its image with pretty broad strokes and places its topic on a pedestal.

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