Tragically, Kyle was slain in 2013 at a shooting range while trying to help a Marine suffering from PTSD. Reproduction of material from any Salon pages without written permission is strictly prohibited. The film memorialized Kyle, portraying him as a hero the year following his demise. Then there’s a fictional terrorist called the Butcher (Mido Hamada), who wears a long black coat and attacks small children with electric drills. If circumstances were different – if my family didn't need me – I'd be back in a heartbeat. I'd have to wait until the savage who put him up to it showed himself on the street.". Reporters tried repeatedly to verify this claim, but no evidence of it exists. All rights reserved. Kyle explained, "I wasn't going to [end] a kid, innocent or not. In reality, Kyle did make a stunning 2,100-yard shot, but it wasn't to end his rival sniper, Mustafa. A jury also found Kyle guilty of defamation for fabricating a story in which he punched Jesse Ventura. It was possible to see these stories as evidence of vainglory; it was also possible to see them as attempts by a struggling man to maintain an invincible persona.” Maybe some of these brags were true, and maybe they weren’t. Mustafa is mentioned in a single paragraph in Kyle's book, but the movie blows him up into an ever-present figure and Syrian Olympic medal winner who fights for both Sunni insurgents in Fallujah and the Shia Madhi army. It’s a tense moment, and the same incident the real Kyle used to open his memoir, American Sniper, on which this film is based. Chris Kyle Was Successfully Sued For Lying About the Former Governor of Minnesota: Kyle alleged that former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura defamed Navy SEALs and got into a fight with him at a local bar. “I hated the damn savages I’d been fighting. SALON ® is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as a trademark of Salon.com, LLC. Kyle further claimed that he and another sniper had sat on top of the Superdome in New Orleans during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and killed 30 armed civilians he thought were making trouble. Follow him @zaidjilani. He once told a military investigator that he doesn't “shoot people with Korans. She sends the child running towards the convoy. While the American Sniper film altered Kyle's memoir, one of Kyle's sniper trainers, Brandon Webb, still praised the movie's depiction of the dramatic moment. The film American Sniper, based on the story of the late Navy Seal Chris Kyle, is a box office hit, setting records for an R-rated film released in January. The Real Chris Kyle Fabricated A Story About Killing Two Men Who Tried To Carjack Him In Texas: Kyle told numerous people a story about killing two alleged carjackers in Texas. The war is a lot easier to support when no Americans ever make a mistake and everyone who opposes them is obviously horrible. Kyle claimed he had punched Ventura in a bar after Ventura said navy Seals “deserved to lose some” for their actions in Iraq. In the American Sniper film, Kyle grapples with the number of lives he's claimed. With 160 confirmed hits during the conflict, Kyle became the most dangerous American sniper in history. Lists about the true stories that inspired books, films, TV, and other stories you think you know. In 2012, he turned his story into a memoir, titled American Sniper. While he holds the record for the most sniper hits by an American, his choices haunt him. As for non-savage Iraqis who may have reasonable grounds to complain about what happened to their country following the invasion, they must be in some other movie. The Iraqis he shot deserved it, because – as it has established to its own satisfaction – they were savages. The message of American Sniper is that Kyle is the real victim of the war. We’re spreading freedom and democracy with guns and drones. 3. Kyle joins the Seals after he watches the 1998 US embassy bombings on TV (in real life, these had nothing to do with his decision). It’s a tense moment, and the same incident the real Kyle used to open his memoir, American Sniper, on which this film is based. I had the time of my life being a SEAL.” On an appearance on Conan O'Brien's show he laughs about accidentally shooting an Iraqi insurgent. Associated Press articles: Copyright © 2016 The Associated Press. Director Clint Eastwood – last seen at the Republican national convention in 2012, telling off an empty chair for invading Afghanistan – reduces everything here to primary colours and simple shapes. Kyle ultimately pulls the trigger on both targets, illustrating the difficult choice snipers must make in conflict. I had the time of my life being a SEAL.”. I always will. 6. The Film Suggests the Iraq War Was In Response To 9/11: One way to get audiences to unambiguously support Kyle's actions in the film is to believe he's there to avenge the 9/11 terrorist attacks. God bless America. Copyright © 2019 Salon.com, LLC. He develops a thousand-yard stare, and attacks his own dog at a barbecue. According to Webb, snipers have to make comparably distressing decisions quite frequently. Yet the film, the autobiography of the same name, and the reputation of Chris Kyle are all built on a set of half-truths, myths and outright lies that Hollywood didn't see fit to clear up. Should Kyle shoot? It may have been a smaller hand grenade rather than an anti-tank weapon, which is bigger and easier to see. Below, I probe the film’s key moments for inaccuracies. Mustafa was a real sniper, but he is barely mentioned in Kyle's book, and the two never really took part in a showdown. American Sniper’s Chris Kyle (Bradley Cooper) is an all-American boy raised in rural Texas with strong Christian values and a passion for firearms. The film made several significant changes, such as exaggerating some of Kyle's opponents and completely fabricating others. Jason Hall, the film's screenwriter, told Time Mustafa's role was exaggerated for dramatic effect. American Sniper is based on Kyle's memoir of the same name; however, the book is not always transparent. American Sniper presents two main villains whom Kyle must fight in Iraq: Mustafa, a Syrian sniper working for the insurgency, and the Butcher, who brutally slays children and families. You’re either with us or against us. It shows the sort of mentality post-war Kyle had, but the claim doesn't appear in the film. A lot of this film certainly isn’t – and all the complicated questions it leaves out would have made it a much more interesting story than the Bush-era propaganda it shovels in. American Sniper: ‘Clean Harry. 5. This film alters Kyle’s book significantly, but the reliability of his account may also be open to question. That bit is true: “I had it put in in red, for blood,” he wrote. This backlash has reportedly spread among members of the Academy of Motion Picture of Arts and Sciences, which could threaten the film's shot at racking up Oscars. I'm not lying or exaggerating to say it was fun. Navy SEAL Chris Kyle earned the nickname "The Legend" for his service in Iraq. Like Dirty Harry, but boring’ – video review, Read Peter Bradshaw’s American Sniper review, telling off an empty chair for invading Afghanistan. Kyle's memoir describes Mustafa as "an Olympics marksman who was using his skills against Americans and Iraqi police and soldiers.". Chris Kyle's Family Claimed He Donated His Book Proceeds To Veterans' Charity, But He Kept Most Of The Profits: The National Review debunks the claim that all proceeds of his book went to veterans' charities. A woman comes out of a house and hands a Russian-made RKG-3 anti-tank grenade to a young boy. She sends the child running towards the convoy. The movie cuts from Kyle watching footage of the attacks to him serving in Iraq, implying there is some link between the two. Clint Eastwood’s movie slathers myths on top of Legend’s own legends. In a separate case, Kyle told a writer he had shot and killed two armed men who attempted to carjack him in Dallas. They’ve taken so much from me.”. There is a mostly fictional sniper named Mustafa (Sammy Sheik), a former Olympic marksman, who is mentioned in one paragraph of Kyle’s book but in the film becomes his sharp-shooting, marine-murdering nemesis. Kyle suffers after his tours of duty, but only, he says, because he wanted to kill more bad guys to save more marines. 2. In the book, Kyle refers to everyone he fought as “savage, despicable” evil. I'd like to, but I don't.”. Ventura said he had never even met Kyle. In fact, everyone Kyle kills is horrible. And, despite the drama of the infamous opening scene, Kyle never shot a child. Every kill Kyle makes, even with shots taken after split-second decisions, is 100% righteous and saves American lives. But it has been heightened for the screen. In 2014, wrestler-turned-politician Jesse Ventura won over $1.8m (£1.2m) in damages from Kyle’s estate after a jury decided he had been defamed. Two years later, director Clint Eastwood transformed it into a blockbuster film starring Bradley Cooper. ------------------------------------------. In real life, Kyle wrote of Mustafa: “I never saw him, but other snipers later killed an Iraqi sniper we think was him.” In the film, Kyle and Mustafa battle to the death. One of the film's earliest reviews praised it for showing the “emotional torment of so many military men and women.” But that torment is completely absent from the book the film is based on. The real Kyle wrote that she had a Chinese grenade. A retired SEAL who served in Iraq said Kyle's misrepresentation “takes away from the legitimate heroism he showed.". In real life, ther… The skull logo of Marvel’s murderous vigilante the Punisher is on his vest and his armoured vehicle, yet nobody asks whether that sort of symbolism is going to help win Iraqi hearts and minds. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. The Real Chris Kyle Made Up A Story About Killing Dozens of People In Post-Katrina New Orleans: Kyle claimed that he killed 30 people in the chaos of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, a story Louisiana writer Jarvis DeBerry calls “preposterous." I'm not lying or exaggerating to say it was fun. Bradley Cooper as Chris Kyle in American Sniper. Zaid Jilani is a Syracuse University graduate student and freelance writer. In the opening scene, for example, Kyle holds back tears after pulling the trigger on a child and his mother. Kyle spends the film tracking down Mustafa, his evil alter-ego, until the two engage in a dramatic showdown.
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