YMMV / American Sniper

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Is Chris Kyle a hero of a just cause, a victim who got caught up in a pointless war (but refuses to admit it, even to himself), or a sociopath and a cold-blooded murderer? When he says to the therapist that he doesn't regret any of his kills, are we supposed to believe him, or is he just in denial?
• Aluminum Christmas Trees: The film was criticized by some for depicting Kyle's Iraqi enemies as bloodthirsty savages, even though that depiction of the Sunni insurgency is pretty much entirely accurate. These are the same guys who soon coalesced under ISIS, after all.
• Broken Base:
  • Is the film a jingoistic war film which simplifies the Iraq war into a good vs evil conflict, or is it a character study about a well-meaning, but flawed war hero and his battle with PTSD during his career?
  • Is the film mere war propaganda meant to make the war seem like a rightful cause, or is a film that shows war to be hell through the perspective of a decorated soldier who is just doing his duty?
  • Chris Kyle being somewhat of a polarizing figure himself to begin with has caused much mixing of opinions on the film itself as well.
• Designated Hero: The film's depiction of Chris Kyle, who comes across as overly patriotic and egotistical. His perceived simplistic good versus evil mindset on the matters of the Iraq conflict also drew criticism. Him somehow landing a date with his future wife Taya by constantly leaving messages on her answering machine didn't help.
• Do Not Do This Cool Thing: Although Kyle is shown as a haunted man after his experiences.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Despite the film's limited appeal in international territories, it managed to gain an audience in Japan and stay at the number one spot for two weeks. Likewise Italy and France, where Eastwood has long been celebrated as an auteur film-maker (and where critics, even on the left, tend not to be too partisan about film aesthetics) managed to be the film's most profitable international territories.
• He Really Can Act:
  • Sienna Miller got this reaction even from people who didn't like the film. It's even more impressive considering one of the last major films she starred in.
  • If you ever had doubts about Bradley Cooper's talent, this film puts them to bed.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • The various controversies over Chris Kyle and this film spawned various image macros and demotivators comparing him unfavorably to various historical snipers, especially World War II-era Finnish sniper Simo Häyhä. [1]^note There are some factual inaccuracies with this particular macro, namely the number of kills Hayha achieved. Taking into account the differences between 1930's and modern kill confirmation methods, as well as the Finnish governments use of Hayha as propaganda, has led some historians to conclude that the mans kill count was inflated. Low-mid 200's is the more commonly accepted count for academics (though, in fairness, that number is still much higher than the 160 maximum Kyle achieved). The line about Hayha having "never lied" about his achievements is also mildly contentious, though not definitively untrue. The 500 man figure mentioned above does come from Hayha, who wrote that he had shot that many in his private journal. Given that this was written in a private journal only found after his death, and that Hayha was noted for never really talking about his time in the war (he was said to have expressed an "I did my duty" attitude when he did speak of it and had a reputation for humility in general)it is entirely possible that it was more a case of being honestly mistaken rather than the kind of self-serving exaggeration that Kyle is often accused of.
  • The baby in one scene being very clearly a doll lead many to use it as ammo to make fun of the film when another work uses or doesn't use a doll for a baby.
• Moral Event Horizon: The Butcher crippling and killing a young boy with a power drill to punish his father for ratting him out. Also one for Mustafa, who can clearly see what's happening and yet continues holding off the SEALs, preventing them from reaching the Butcher in time to stop him.
• Narm:
  • The infamous fake baby can fill an entire theater with laughter.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • The Butcher using his power drill on the boy.
  • The torture chamber with a dead soldier hanging by chains from the ceiling and a shelf of heads from decapitated soldiers.
  • Chris's PTSD, particularly when nearly killing an innocent dog.
• No Such Thing as Bad Publicity: The large amount of controversies the film accumulated has not stopped it from being just the highest-grossing war film of all time (unadjusted to inflation), but also the highest-grossing film of 2014 in the United States, beating out major hits like Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1.
• Overshadowed by Controversy: While the film was largely well received, it's just as well known for what many found to be overly sanitized depictions of The War on Terror in general and its protagonist, the late Chris Kyle. While the film portrays Kyle as a saintly figure, according to his former comrades-in-arms, he was actually a racist and religious zealot who frequently broke protocol and was extremely difficult to work with due to these facts. Other controversies included the fact that the only Muslim characters in the film are either helpless victims for Kyle to save or over-the-top villains for him to kill, and the fact that ordinary soldiers and Marines are portrayed as incompetent next to Kyle and the elite Navy SEALs and often need to be rescued by them.
• Sacred Cow: A lot of American conservatives treated the film like this, denouncing anyone who dared have any issue with it or not consider it the greatest film of the year as "unAmerican". On the other hand, there are those who never saw the film and denounced anyone who enjoyed it (or even saw it in the first place) as jingoist flag-wavers despite the negative view towards war itself.
• Special Effect Failure: The movie has excellent effects, but one prominent aversion was the obviously fake baby held during the scene in the nursery (they had been planning to use a real one, but the child they cast got sick at the last minute). It could be forgiven as the baby being asleep, if not that baby cooing sound effects had been added in. The baby has been subject to some Memetic Mutation, including 'fakebaby' becoming a hashtag on Twitter. Jokes about nominating the baby for fake award categories has also been seen.
  • The blood effects, especially during the sniping scenes, are pretty cartoonish.
• Tear Jerker:
  • "I'm ready to come home..."
  • The phone call in the bar.
  • The final sequence, with Nini Rosso's "Il Silenzio" on the soundtrack.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not Political?: Despite Clint Eastwood himself advocating that the movie is anti-war, this has not prevented the film from facing accusations of being neoconservative propaganda. Filmmaker Robert Greenwald accused it of being a "Neocon Fantasy".

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