American Sniper frames Kyle as a crusader targeting all Iraqis, including civilians

Evidence

Similar observations apply to American Sniper, a film that follows the story of Chris Kyle, the most lethal sniper in US military history. Kyle is a Navy SEAL sharpshooter who is tasked with protecting his fellow soldiers during four tours of duty in Iraq by killing anyone who appears to pose a threat to them. Like Zero Dark Thirty, almost every Muslim who appears on screen is the enemy. In fact, Kyle opens fire not only on menacing Muslim men but on women and children too, and he does so with little remorse. He repeatedly refers to the people of Iraq as “savages” and sees himself as a Christian crusader (with a crusader’s cross tattoo on one of his arms to prove it). While Clint Eastwood, the film’s director, is willing to probe some of the complexities of Kyle’s character, such as the toll that sustained participation in violence takes on Kyle’s marriage and psyche, Eastwood never challenges Kyle’s Manichean worldview of “evil Muslims” versus “righteous Americans.” — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 548

Categorization

• XREF: Kyle’s self-image as a ‘Christian crusader’ directly echoes the book’s earlier chapters tracing crusading imagery in Islamophobia.