This week in our ASTU class, we started watching American Sniper, a movie about the most deadly sniper in American history, Chris Kyle, who was deployed in Iraq. This film clearly states the divide between terrorists and Americans. I see this movie as propaganda for America, but its not necessarily a bad thing. Much of war that happens is not seen directly, we see pictures occasionally or articles about the events that occur. Therefore, I think it is important to have movies portray war because we can see what battles are like and get a better understanding of what and who were fighting for. Although American Sniper does change some of the details, it still gives a great foundation for what it was like for an American soldier in Iraq. Journalist such as Alex Von Tunzelmann, wrote in the guardian about how historically accurate American Sniper was, he wrote “The war is a lot easier to support when no Americans ever make a mistake and everyone who opposes them is obviously horrible.” This is an important point to understand why American Sniper can be seen as propaganda, because they portray all of the kills Kyle takes, as terrible people that would have killed tons of Americans. This idea is central in portraying a film about America in war. We see this mentality in world war 2 especially, when nazi propaganda was quite wide spread. Now this movie is not as nationalistic as propaganda the nazis did, however it is along the same lines of trying to get the public on the side of pro-war. This film is not only important to understand the experiences of war, but it also sheds light on what its like coming back form war. Which is a really important issue for veterans in today’s society. In society we don’t usually talk about the details of war, which makes it harder to understand what veterans have gone through. Much of the time, they also don’t want to talk about what its like, therefore the conversation that should take place to help them, never happens. Movies such as American Sniper, lend a hand in opening up the conversation to figure out ways to help veterans as well as showing the public what war is like. This is important to help people understand what our country is fighting for.

Tunzelmann, Alex Von. “Is American Sniper Historically Accurate?” The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 20 Jan. 2015. Web. 30 Mar. 2017.