Jennifer Oliver O'Connell — The ‘American Sniper’ phenomenon and why Hollywood and the Left hate it

LOS ANGELES, January 29, 2015 − Clint Eastwood’s “American Sniper,” the film about Navy SEAL Chris Kyle’s life and four Iraq military tours, has been taking down box office records right and left. According to Box Office Mojo, the film grossed $89 million in its first weekend, and another 64 million in its second weekend. With a worldwide gross of over $260 million, it shows no signs of losing steam.

War movies, especially Iraq war movies, rarely fare well at the box office. So with this film’s unprecedented success comes the predictable parade of haters. From film reviews by certain writers who have only viewed the film’s trailer; to takedown pieces in the Washington Post about unverified stories that Kyle supposedly spread (but were not documented in his book); to low-blows on Twitter by irrelevant Fahrenheit 911 director Michael Moore−once an anti-war darling, now just another has-been searching for relevance−there seems to be a concerted campaign to diminish not only the film, but the life and legacy of a man whom many consider to be a hero and a legend.

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