Summary
- American Sniper took artistic liberties, with only 56.9% footage making it a true story.
- The film added drama by inventing fake characters like Mustafa and The Butcher.
- Kyle's reasons for enlisting, his injury, and final conversation were altered for cinematic effect.
This article contains discussions/references to terrorism, death, and trauma.
Is American Sniper based on a true story? The movie claims to tell the true story of Chris Kyle, but it took artistic liberties with Kyle’s life and changed the book’s narrative. Released in 2014, American Sniper charts Kyle’s childhood, early adulthood, military career, retirement, and ultimately his untimely death. Bradley Cooper stars as Kyle in director Clint Eastwood’s loose film adaptation of American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History. The movie earned six Oscar nominations, including a Best Picture nomination for Eastwood and a Best Actor nomination for Cooper.
While Kyle was celebrated for his success as the deadliest marksman in U.S. military history, his tours of duty during the War in Iraq took a huge toll on his marriage, which became the main conflict of the film. Critics praised Cooper’s committed performance and Clint Eastwood’s engaging direction, but American Sniper was controversial for its historical inaccuracies. According to the data site Information is Beautiful, there is just 56.9% of footage that makes American Sniper a true story.
Where To Watch American Sniper Online
Here's here to watch American Sniper, the 2014 war biopic drama directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Bradley Cooper and Sienna Miller.
12 Chris Kyle Never Had To Shoot A Child
It Was A Woman Who He Shot Rather Than A Child
In the opening scene of American Sniper – and the opening of Kyle’s memoir – the pressures of Kyle’s sniping career are demonstrated when he sees a woman hand an anti-tank grenade to a child, who then approaches a U.S. military convoy, and Kyle has to decide whether to pull the trigger.
This is a moment that the movie uses to show that the enemy is more vile and evil than they might have been otherwise because they are sending a child to their death, proving they have fewer morals than one might expect. In real life, there was no child (via The Guardian); the woman herself carried the grenade to the convoy.
Kyle described this incident as “the only time I killed anyone other than a male combatant.” This is still a tough issue, but it was an adult woman who was the threat, and she did this of her own volition. However, in the movie, it wouldn't have had the same impact that it did when he had to decide whether to kill a child or not.
11 The 1998 U.S. Embassy Bombings Didn’t Influence Kyle’s Decision To Enlist
Kyle Wanted To Enlist Since High School
The filmmakers simply used it as a visual shorthand to demonstrate Kyle’s need to defend his country.
In the movie, Bradley Cooper's Kyle is motivated to enlist in the U.S. military when he watches the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings on television but this didn’t influence his real-life decision to enlist. Kyle had intended to join the military after he graduated from high school. The filmmakers simply used it as a visual shorthand to demonstrate Kyle’s need to defend his country.
It also had nothing to do with a cheating girlfriend, as the film suggests. In the book on which the movie is based, there is no cheating girlfriend, so this was just added to the film as one of the reasons he wanted to get away and join the military. In the movie, this was when he approached the recruitment office to enlist.
With no cheating girlfriend, it was also easy to embellish the entire embassy bombing as a reason to enlist as well, though that makes it the easiest to disprove. Kyle enlisted on August 5, 1998 and the U.S. embassy bombings took place on August 7, 1998 — two days after he enlisted.
10 Rodeo Injuries Almost Prohibited Kyle From Joining The Military
Kyle Wasn't Accepted At First Like He Was In The Movie
When Kyle first enlisted to join the military, he was turned down due to injuries he had sustained from bronco-busting rodeos (via Slate). While he did get a full-time ranch job after he left Tarleton State University after attending for two years (before dropping out), Kyle got a call from Navy recruiters who had changed their minds and decided to accept him into the Marines.
The movie streamlines this part of the story to save time, so Kyle goes straight from the rodeo circuit to Marine weapons training. The timeline here is also crucial in disproving this discrepancy when exploring how much of American Sniper is based on a true story.
DID YOU KNOW: To play Kyle, Bradley Cooper spent six months working out for 4.5 hours a day (via Variety).
Kyle became a professional Bronco rider in 1992, but the injury ended his career and he then went to Tarleton State University from 1992 to 1994. He enlisted in the Navy on August 5, 1998. That means his injury happened six years before he enlisted in the military.