National Review editor explores the Left’s hostile response to war hero

Rich Lowry‘s latest column at National Review Online delves into controversy surrounding the real-life events surrounding the new movie “American Sniper.”

Clint Eastwood’s new movie, American Sniper, marks the return of the American war hero.

Heroism on the battlefield had never gone away, of course, far from it (witness the Medals of Honor awarded for acts of extraordinary valor in Iraq and Afghanistan). But the classic war hero is more than just brave or fierce. He is famous and almost universally acclaimed. On top of his battlefield exploits, he is a cultural phenomenon.

That is what American Sniper unquestionably makes of Chris Kyle. The late Navy SEAL sniper had already written a best-selling memoir and was known as “The Legend” within the military for his record number of confirmed kills during four tours in Iraq. The success of the movie, where he is played by Bradley Cooper, also means he will be remembered as a larger-than-life figure. Such is the power of the silver screen.

American Sniper had the largest opening ever on Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, or any weekend in January. It is producing the kind of numbers — a projected $105 million weekend — usually reserved for mindless comic-book superhero movies. It has played especially well in Middle America, with its top-grossing theaters in places like San Antonio, Oklahoma City, Houston, and Albuquerque.

All of this is profoundly disquieting to the Left, which has so much sway in Hollywood. It hates and distrusts the idea of the war hero, believing it smacks of backwardness and jingoism. Its notion of compelling war movies were the tendentiously anti-war flops Green Zone, Stop-Loss, and In the Valley of Elah. Its reaction to American Sniper has been to belittle the movie and smear Chris Kyle.

Actor Seth Rogen compared American Sniper to the Nazi propaganda film featured in the movie Inglourious Basterds. Director Michael Moore tweeted that he’d been taught to consider snipers cowards. Kyle “was a hate-filled killer,” according to the Guardian, which also deems him “a racist who took pleasure in dehumanizing and killing brown people.” One member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences — American Sniper is up for best picture — told the website TheWrap that Kyle “seems like he may be a sociopath.”