I no longer think of Bradley Cooper as another pretty boy Hollywood type. I have always been pleased with Clint Eastwood’s treatment of violence and war in film as being more realistic—particularly in the transcendent aspects—and was pleased to see another empathetic depiction of men at war.

Having read a dozen memoirs [11 actually] by men who have seen ground combat in Iraq, this film rings true on every level. The thing about American Sniper which is most priceless is the complete lack of politics. One can sense no ideological axe to grind on the movie maker’s part. This is a pure perspective piece.

The primary perspective is that of Chris Kyle, who is imbued with the same ethics at the dinner table, that quite ironically, this anti-American writer lives by, namely the belief that human society is made up of sheep, wolves and sheep dogs, and that certain people have a choice as to which metaphor shall be their guiding light. Chris chose to be the sheep dog, and when his nation was attacked had no other course but to enlist and fight. Chris is a Christian alpha male who regards the Islamic foe as “savages” and saw himself as a crusader—with the enemy in agreement and putting a price on his head.

The combat sequences amply demonstrate the claustrophobic convoys and house to house fighting, and perilous rooftop stands that are a mainstay of the tales of returning warriors from the Middle Eastern theatre of the Islamist-Western War. The Iraqi population and Islamist war fighters are not denigrated by the movie maker’s hand, only in the words of a few passionate or disillusioned soldiers who found themselves at war with a nation they had little in common with; in other words their voices echoed the sentiments of soldiers in foreign lands throughout the ages.

Chris is the only major character in the film who expresses prowar opinions, with his wife, his Marine brother, and the SEAL with the most dialogue in the film, expressing sorrowful rejection of the Iraqi war. If one had to choose as to whether this film was prowar [note that the word program recognizes antiwar as a word but not prowar] or antiwar I would have to classify it as antiwar. The subject is war and the question of America right or wrong does not arise.

American Sniper, like Homer’s Iliad, tells the tale of men at war—of what it and they become—their sorrows, their triumphs, the martial qualities of their foes, and ultimately of their sad return. Clint Eastwood deserves credit for ending this film without recourse to jingoistic sentimentality or an emasculating wringing of hands; but with the simple sorrow and pride of a passing warrior. I have seen nothing on film that has evoked more the image of Hector being laid to rest by Priam [even the close of the movie Troy], than the ending of this tribute to Chris Kyle, a man who actually was a breaker of horses.

“And so the Trojans buried Hector breaker of horses.”

-Homer, The Iliad, Book 24, Achilles and Priam, line 944