Summary

• Iraq War Veteran Jay Dorleus takes issue with aspects of American Sniper's portrayal of warfare, including VBIEDs (vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices).
• Dorleus awards the Clint Eastwood movie a 5/10 for accuracy.
• American Sniper was a critical and commercial success, but it isn't always an accurate depiction of Chris Kyle's life and military career.

American Sniper, an Oscar-winning Iraq War movie directed by Clint Eastwood, gets a mixed review from a combat Veteran. Released in 2014, American Sniper stars Bradley Cooper as real-life figure Chris Kyle, one of the most deadly snipers in U.S. history. The film is loosely based on Kyle's own memoir of the same name, which hit shelves in 2012. Eastwood's film was a box office success and ended up taking home the Oscar for Best Sound Editing, though it was nominated for five others.

In a recent video for Insider, Iraq War Veteran Jay Dorleus watches American Sniper scenes and breaks down just how accurate they are compared to his real-world combat experience.

According to Dorleus, the film gets a number of things wrong, especially as it relates to the portrayal of a VBIED (vehicle-borne improvised explosive device) and military tactics. Read selections of his analysis below:

“The formation that they’re using right here to patrol through the city is not one that I recommend, nor have I ever seen done downrange. What you have here is just a cluster of people just walking down the street. All it takes is a grenade or an RPG to be fired at them and they would take multiple casualties. When in reality what they should be doing is either push the vehicles ahead of them or push the vehicles behind them. And then between the personnel themselves they should have at least five meters of standoff in between them.”

“If I have any suspicion that a vehicle-borne IED is coming towards me, the first thing I’m going to do is take cover because when it does go off shrapnel is going to go everywhere. If you’re just standing on the road like these guys were you’re probably going to get hit by something.

“They were essentially in a line firing at the car and then Chris Kyle is firing from above. They’re in his line of fire. So a lot could have gone wrong with just them standing in the road like that. In reality, what they should have done is get behind cover and then engage the car.

“I would give American Sniper a five out of 10 mainly because of the realism with the VBIED and then also the technique that these guys use as they were patrolling just didn’t make any sense.”

How Was American Sniper Received?

There Are Other Ways Clint Eastwood's 2014 War Movie Isn't Entirely Accurate

American Sniper is based on real events, depicting the life and military career of Kyle, who had 160 confirmed kills during the Iraq War. The film earned mostly positive reviews from critics, who praised Eastwood's direction and Cooper's committed performance. American Sniper's Rotten Tomatoes score currently sits at a respectable 72%, with its audience score much higher at 84%.

According to Men's Health, Cooper put on 40 pounds in order to more accurately portray Kyle.

American Sniper was nominated for six Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Sound Editing, and Best Sound Mixing. In addition to being a critical success, the movie was also a hit at the box office, earning $547.6 million worldwide on a budget of $59 million. American Sniper's total haul at the box office consists of $197.5 million from overseas territories and an impressive $350.1 million domestic.

Despite the film's success, American Sniper has come under fire, so to speak, for its lack of accuracy. The movie takes artistic liberties with aspects of Kyle's life and service, and other elements, such as the villain known as the Butcher (Mido Hamada), are entirely fictionalized. It's worth mentioning, too, that the source material itself, Kyle's memoir, has also been accused of containing a number of fabrications. While American Sniper is one of the more memorable movies Eastwood has directed, it's clear that it's not quite accurate when it comes to the portrayal of Kyle's life or the military tactics used during the Iraq War.

How Much Does American Sniper's Accuracy Matter?

And Why That's A Difficult Question To Answer

Like other movies based on true stories or real events, American Sniper sometimes plays fast and loose with history, changing events or characters in order to tell a more compelling story. This is similar to how The Hurt Locker approaches the Iraq War. The Hurt Locker's accuracy has also come under fire in the past, with veterans taking issue with the way bomb disposal and the general soldier's experience is portrayed. Despite this, however, the 2009 Kathryn Bigelow drama was a major contender at the Oscars that year and ended up taking home six awards.

A non-veteran may also, however, be more likely to interpret the events on-screen as being accurate, which could result in a skewed view of the controversial real-life conflict.

Ultimately, the goal of a film is to entertain. American Sniper features a handful of big battle sequences and emotional moments, and the creation of characters like the Butcher ups the stakes for Cooper's character and personifies the enemy forces he is fighting against. While American Sniper is clearly trying to entertain, however, its inaccuracies beg the question of what obligation it has to "the truth." This question is further complicated when the event is a controversial war that claimed many thousands of lives, and complicated further still when source material itself has been accused of fabrication.

Whether American Sniper's inaccuracies matter will come down to the individual viewer. An Iraq War veteran like Dorleus is likely to take greater issue with the inaccuracies because he experienced the events that are being shown on screen, while a non-veteran probably won't know any better, so it may not matter as much to them. A non-veteran may also, however, be more likely to interpret the events on-screen as being accurate, which could result in a skewed view of the controversial real-life conflict.

American Sniper's Inaccuracies & Whether The Movie Is Anti-War

What Does Clint Eastwood Think?

Eastwood told THR in 2015 that American Sniper has an "anti-war" message. To that end, the film does attempt to show the negative effects of war, not only on the soldiers themselves, but also on their loved ones back home. In American Sniper, Sienna Miller plays Taya, Kyle's wife, and it's her personal hardships (and those of their child) that are largely carrying the movie's anti-war message.

In addition to being a prolific director, Eastwood has starred in dozens of films over the course of his long career, including hit Westerns like The Good, The Bad and the Ugly and Unforgiven.

However, Eastwood's claims that American Sniper is anti-war is directly challenged by some of the movie's more fictitious elements. Mustafa, for example, is mentioned very briefly in the book (not by name), but he's painted as Kyle's sniper rival in the film and becomes a central antagonist, all to create a more exciting story. All of this culminates in a very Hollywood, climactic battle in a sandstorm where Kyle finally takes Mustafa out.

François Truffaut, an influential director of the French New Wave, once said that "Every film about war ends up being pro-war," the implication being that every movie that visually depicts war goes to lengths to make its events exciting in one form or another. American Sniper is certainly guilty of this, and it's possible that Kyle himself is, too, considering the questions that have been raised about some of the events detailed in his book. Ultimately, American Sniper's inaccuracies and their importance are part of a much larger conversation, and it's one with no easy answers.

Source: Insider