Sitting in the theater, solo, immersed in the dusty, chaotic world of the US Special Forces in the Iraq war…I get it.
I get why Navy S.E.A.L sniper Chris Kyle would go back for 4 tours of duty. I get why soldiers use racist epithets and call the people of Iraq “savages.” I get why coming back to American suburbia would be confusing and challenging.
Brotherhood, purpose and sacrifice.
As I literally felt my testosterone levels shoot off the charts watching American Sniper, I touched in with the warrior…the hero. The part of me that would do whatever it takes to protect the people I care about.
What kind of mental ju-jitsu would I have to make to get right with shooting a child…or his mother? What kind of conceptual gymnastics would it take for me to sleep at night, having ended the future of over 200 people…seeing their faces in the crosshairs as I served their sentence with a long rifle?
I imagine I would have to aggressively make the people on the other end of my barrel the “other.” I would have to see them as something not-me, not even human, to follow through and execute my duty.
This is what Chris Kyle did, and what US soldiers often do. In the dirt, as bullets rip the air and you watch your buddies drop with random regularity.
This is the demand we place on the warrior…and it’s not suited to polite society.
I have heard the critique from the political left, highlighting the brutal, objectifying and propagandizing nature of the film. I can see that perspective.
I have also heard the praise from the political right, highlighting Chris Kyle as a hero, a patriot, and man of honor and integrity. I can see that perspective, too.
Predictably enough, Seth Rogen and Michael Moore have weighed in publicly on the left, and Kid Rock and Blake Shelton on the right.
There are two narratives, of course. The one in the movie, which showcases some of the effects of war on the warrior. And the real-life Chris Kyle, who seemed less introspective and concerned with the killings he did as part of his service.
I don’t want to live in a world of Chris Kyle’s, reducing issues to red, white and blue and brutally enacting a myopic will on the world…but I get why he did it.
Either narrative, left or right, still supports my point: Both Kyles (real and as portrayed in the film) are doing it to cope with the insane task before him. He is doing it because he cares about his god, his country and his family.
He does this to get his job done. He does this because that feeling of clear, black and white purpose is exhilarating and deeply rewarding. He does this because brotherhood is as deep a part of our human DNA as opposable thumbs.
He does this because we ask him to.
Was it Chris Kyle who crafted the justification for this war? Was it Chris Kyle who declared that Saddam Hussein needed to be removed from power by the full force of the US armed forces? Was it Chris Kyle who stood to gain from the military and economic control of the region?
I submit: no.
It was you and me.
American Sniper is a hero’s tale of what life is like on the ground. The messy, murderous dirt in the chess match that is multi-national geo-politics.
Kyle stands out, because he did what we asked him to with shocking efficiency.
Was Kyle a model of integrity? To some (mostly to the political right) yes, to other(mostly to the political left), no. He certainly did what was asked of him in wartime, what any warrior of integrity does. And he was especially good at it.
His story is appealing, because it distills the complexities of an insane world to simply this: I must kill anyone who is a threat to my brother to preserve my freedoms and family.
It is not his job to unwind the infinite chain of signifiers, that lets you and I sit calmly on our couch watching CNN, while our tax dollars inflict genocide on a foreign people.
It is not his job to say “enough” as well meaning opportunists shuffle pieces around the global chessboard.
His job is to do what we ask him to do. To execute the inconvenient truths that our votes and our tax dollars legitimize on a daily basis.
