The film follows the life of Kyle, who became the deadliest marksman in U.S. military history with 255 kills from four tours in the Iraq War, 160 of which were officially confirmed by the Department of Defense.

It stars Bradley Cooper as Kyle and Sienna Miller as his wife Taya, with Luke Grimes, Jake McDorman, Cory Hardrict, Kevin Lacz, Navid Negahban, and Keir O'Donnell in supporting roles.

It received generally positive reviews, with praise for Cooper's lead performance and Eastwood's direction, although it also attracted some controversy over its portrayal of both the Iraq War and Kyle himself.

[citation needed] At the 87th Academy Awards, American Sniper received six nominations, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Actor for Cooper, ultimately winning one for Best Sound Editing.

Years later, Chris has become a ranch hand and rodeo cowboy, and returns home early, to find his girlfriend in bed with another man.

Assigned to kill Mustafa, who has been sniping U.S. Army combat engineers building a barricade, Chris’s sniper team is placed on a rooftop inside enemy territory.

Chris spots Mustafa and takes him out with a risky long-distance shot at 2,100 yards (1,920 m), but this exposes his team's position to numerous armed insurgents.

After Chris gets back stateside, on edge and unable to adjust fully to civilian life, he is asked by a Veterans Affairs psychiatrist if he is haunted by all the things he did in war.

When he replies it is "all the guys [he] couldn't save" that haunt him, the psychiatrist encourages him to help severely wounded veterans in the VA hospital.

Years later, on February 2, 2013, Chris says goodbye to his wife and family as he leaves in good spirits to spend time with Eddie Ray Routh, a veteran suffering from PTSD at a shooting range.

An on-screen subtitle reveals that Chris was killed that day by Routh, followed by archive footage of crowds standing along the highway for his funeral procession.

[31] Cinematographer Tom Stern shot the film with Arri Alexa XT digital cameras and Panavision C-, E- and G-Series anamorphic lenses.

[44] American Sniper premiered at the AFI Fest on November 11, 2014, just after a screening of Selma at Grauman's Egyptian Theatre in Los Angeles.

[52] It set an all-time-highest Thursday night opening record for an R-rated drama with $5.3 million (previously held by Lone Survivor).

The website's critical consensus states, "Powered by Clint Eastwood's sure-handed direction and a gripping central performance from Bradley Cooper, American Sniper delivers a tense, vivid tribute to its real-life subject.

[88] Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter called the film "A taut, vivid and sad account of the brief life of the most accomplished marksman in American military annals.

"[89] Justin Chang of Variety gave the film a positive review, saying: "an excellent performance from a bulked-up Bradley Cooper, this harrowing and intimate character study offers fairly blunt insights into the physical and psychological toll exacted on the front lines".

"[91] Keith Phipps of The Dissolve wrote that the film, while well made, missed a chance to explore the toll that such service exacts on soldiers.

"[93] Elizabeth Weitzman of New York Daily News gave the film four out of five stars, saying "The best movies are ever-shifting, intelligent and open-hearted enough to expand alongside an audience.

Club gave the film a B, saying "American Sniper is imperfect and at times a little corny, but also ambivalent and complicated in ways that are uniquely Eastwoodian.

"[97] Rafer Guzman of Newsday gave the film three out of four stars, saying "Cooper nails the role of an American killing machine in Clint Eastwood's clear-eyed look at the Iraq War.

"[100] Joshua Rothkopf of Time Out New York gave the film four out of five stars, saying "Only Clint Eastwood could make a movie about an Iraq War veteran and infuse it with doubts, mission anxiety and ruination.

"[101] Dean Obeidallah praised the film, saying "His focus was not on whom we were fighting, but the unbearably high price Americans pay for waging war regardless of its target.

Matt Taibbi, in Rolling Stone, wrote that the movie turned the complicated moral questions and mass-bloodshed of the Iraq war into a black and white fairy tale, without presenting the historical context.

[103] Alex von Tunzelmann of The Guardian argued that the film presented a simplified black and white portrayal of the Iraq war, and that it features the distortion of facts into unreliable myths based upon previous legends.

[105] Cavalry scout sniper Garett Reppenhagen stated that he did not view Iraqi civilians as savages, but as part of a friendly culture for which the movie has furthered ignorance, fear, and bigotry.

"[114] Bradley Cooper stated that much of the criticism ignores that the film was about widespread neglect of returning veterans, and that people who take issue with Kyle should redirect their attention to the leaders who put the troops there in the first place.

[119][120][122] The film's narrative has Navy SEAL Ryan "Biggles" Job dying from surgical complications from an operation on his face relatively soon after being shot in Iraq, but in reality it was several years later.

[123] In the film, Kyle decides to join the navy after watching the 1998 United States embassy bombings on TV, in reality this did not contribute to his decision.

[124] One aspect of the film that received negative comment was its use of a fake baby doll in one scene, which was said to look obviously artificial and that it was a distraction to critics and viewers.