American Sniper is a movie dedicated to war veteran Chris Kyle. Kyle served four tours as a Navy SEAL, and he was the most lethal sniper in U.S. military history. He retired in 2009 and continued to serve his country by helping wounded warriors with PTSD. Kyle was born in 1974 and was murdered  in Erath County, Texas on February 2, 2013, while allegedly trying to help a wounded warrior. He had two children, one boy and one girl, and was married to Taya Kyle.

The movie is based on Kyle’s autobiography (written with two additonal authors),  American Sniper. In the book, Kyle says the men Kyle fought with noticed his lethal skills and began calling him “ The Legend.” He didn’t dislike it, but he didn’t like all the attention he got from the name. Chris’s wife says in a news interview with Fox News that her husband was a very independent person, usually didn’t like praise for what he was doing. In most of his military photos he was in the back with his glasses on.

The Sniper is directed by Clint Eastwood. Chris Kyle is played by actor Bradley Cooper. The movie was released on January 16, opening in 3,500 theaters. Shattering box office records, it was nominated for an Oscar for Best Film. Personally, I think Eastwood did an amazing job choosing Bradley to play Kyle, In addition to their physical similarities, Cooper did a fantastic job portraying Kyle in the way his family would want him to be.

In 2012, actor Bradley Cooper called up Navy SEAL Chris Kyle to discuss the movie they were making portraying him. In an interview with Navy Times, Cooper said, “I just thought I should get on the phone with him and let him know what I was willing to do for him and to trust me.” Eastwood and Cooper went to Midlothian, Texas to spend time with Kyle’s wife Taya, his two children, his parents (Wayne and Deby), his brother Jeff, and his brother’s wife Amy.

Although critics complain that some facts of the film are embellished, Cooper said, “The work that I did was all based on what Taya gave me, and also training with guys who had trained Chris on sniper rifles.”

Bradley Cooper was willing to do whatever he had to do to portray Kyle as best as he could, and to do so, he did lots of training for the movie. Cooper told Navy Times that he, consumed 6,000 calories a day and trained for eight hours a day, five days a week in physical fitness and dialect. Cooper added rifle training on the weekend.  After Kyle’s death, Cooper felt that the movie couldn’t just be another war story: they “had to tell Kyle’s story now.”

Cooper said that Kyle always wished that instead of keeping track of how many people he killed that he would have liked for them to keep track of how many lives he saved.

“My hope to God is that they feel like it’s authentic to a degree that they might not feel so alone anymore, and their story’s getting out,” said Cooper about veterans seeing American Sniper.

Taya Kyle wrote on her Facebook page after the movie was released, “The only thing I can say is thank you. Thank you for the love and support of our military. Thank you for being willing to watch the hard stuff and thank you for hearing, seeing, experiencing the life of our military and our first responders.”

Although millions of people loved American Sniper, there has been controversy over the movie. One of the main questions being asked about this movie is should Chris Kyle actually be portrayed as a hero? At the end of the movie, Chris (played by Bradley Cooper) said, “The thing that haunts me are all the men that I couldn’t save.”

Junior Brian Martin said, “I liked the movie because it showed a story of an amazing hero  (Chris Kyle) who served to protect those who can’t protect themselves.”

In my opinion, this specific war movie has shown the reality and hard times of war. That’s part of what people do not like about it. The controversy over this movie isn’t really about the movie: it’s about Kyle himself.  Amy Nicholson, who believes the movie is propaganda,  says on BBC News that, “American Sniper convinces viewers that Chris Kyle is what heroism looks like: a great guy who shoots a lot of people and doesn’t think twice about it.”

So what makes Kyle a hero to other people? Kyle is known for his 160 kills while at war. Some call that patriotic and heroic, that he did his brothers a great deed and saved their lives. Others think that he was just happy to kill people. Whether or not he is pinned as a hero is all in perception and opinion.

I believe he was a hero. Not many people think about how hard what he did was hard for him to do. This movie did a great job portraying that.

The Christ Kyle Frog Foundation is dedicated to helping military families, firefighters, police and others who defend the United States.