The story of Chris Kyle as portrayed by Bradley Cooper in American Sniper has drawn criticism as well as praise over the years since everything from the actual life of the man to the technical details of the movie have been looked over repeatedly. Quite a few people have praised Cooper for portraying Kyle in this manner but others have said that it wasn’t nearly as accurate as people appear to think. That’s kind of an odd statement unless it’s coming from someone that knew Chris and understood what he was like. Given what the man accomplished in his life before he was murdered it’s fair to say that a lot of people had no idea what was really going on in his head, nor did they fully understand what he was all about unless he opened up to them. But he was good at what he did, and it’s easy to think that what he did left him not so much broken as shaken considering that a lot of us have no idea what warfare is like up close and personal.
Here are a few movies that are similar to American Sniper.
5. The Deer Hunter
One could say that American Sniper was similar to a lot of movies that deal with warfare and PTSD since despite coming after a lot of them, these movies were in some ways ahead of their time in describing just what it was like. The term PTSD is relatively new, but the condition has been around for a very, very long time since the trauma of battle hits every soldier differently and marks them in ways that are hard to describe in full detail but is nonetheless capable of wrecking a person or hardening them in ways that can be seen in the way they react to the world around them once their service is up. In this movie that’s made absolutely clear when one gets to see what happens to Nick.
4. Black Hawk Down
This movie has received a lot of criticism for the technical details but has also managed to be seen as one of the more entertaining movies out there that focuses on the real-life representation of those that head into active war zones on a regular basis. It had a stellar cast that likely managed to get a great deal of attention, but the fact is that those in the military look at this and might like it for the story, but will abuse it for the fine points that it missed throughout the length of the movie. In terms of war movies, this was one that kind of divided the audience into those that knew what they were looking at and everyone else.
3. The Hurt Locker
A lot of people would claim that the reason this movie won any awards was that it was due to politics and the type of maneuvering that it took to keep James Cameron’s movie Avatar from sweeping the Oscars when it came out. Whether that’s true or not there are still a lot of technical details that a good number of people noticed that were incorrect, but there were also moments that were apparently correct and on the mark. It’s tough to say, as a civilian, what is and isn’t real in a movie, but there are times when the laws of physics and reality itself, as well as common sense, kind of step in and say ‘whoa, no’.
2. Shooter
It’s a guarantee that this movie was for fun when it comes to being a sniper since a couple of experienced snipers have already gone on record saying that there’s no way that a lot of what happened in this movie would be possible. Mark Wahlberg and his fellow cast members made this movie look like it could happen and in the process ended up making a movie about a guy that looked to be tougher than hell and resourceful enough to take on a team of soldiers and come out the other side without a scratch on him. There might be plenty of elite soldiers in the military, and snipers are definitely tough, but sometimes one has to shake their head and admit that a movie is just a movie.
1. Enemy at the Gates
The validity of this movie is hard to question even if there are moments when it might appear that something that happens might be a little stretched. But the fact that the time period was host to one of the worst wars in recent human history isn’t far-fetched at all. The conditions that were shown in the movie aren’t too exaggerated either. If one speaks to veteran of those days, if they can find one still alive, they’ll likely be told a number of stories that would make this feel all too real.
Sometimes war movies swing wide of the mark, and sometimes they’re right on point.someone that knew Chris
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