Military Violence: Clint Civilizing Project (Green, Dreams; Dawson)

Arneri can \Y/ ar Aduen ture r317

American STar Adventure and the Generic these as exotic backdrops for white male feats of prowess and domina- tion through violence committed in the name of a setrler or so-called Pleasures of Military Violence: Clint civilizing project (Green, Dreams; Dawson). Eastwoo d's American Sniper Although adventure is sometimes associated with boys' frction of the nineteenth century or highly formulaic genres like the \7esrern, in the twenty-first century the adventure mode is presenr in a wider range of forms and media rhan ever (Green, Seuen Types; Cawelti). It AGNIESZKA SOLTYSIK MONNET is particularly relevant for understanding the way war is represented in the conrext of today's neoliberal political and cultural economy. Although the adventure mode obviously shapes film genres like fantasy and action, it also informs a wide ratge of war narratives, includ- irg nonfictional works like memoirs or documentaries. Most ( ( DVENTURE" rS A \rORD USED rN rHE NONACADEMTC \7ORID A commercial war films-no marrer how historical, biographical, or for something fun or unusual, as well as being a schol- A realistic-follow an adventure narrative arc that ultimately presenrs ,( \ arly rerm for an archetypal story (Frye; Cawelti), a mod- the hero-protagonist as not only surviving but more mature and ern narrative of colonial violence or capitalist enterprise (Green, somehow berter for his encounter with death and violence. This is Dreams), and a genre of nineteenth-century British fiction (Kestner). true even for allegedly realistic war films, such as Clint Eastwood's Adventure should also be understood as a narrative nzode that orga- Anzerican Sniper (2014). Commercial war films inevitably portray nizes stories and representations in contemporary popular culture, combat and military service as appealing, and American Sniper ts no structuring meaning and affect narratives featuring violence a in in exceprion. way similar to how melodrama organizes meaning and affect in narra- Yet the ongoing violence in multiple theaters of operation and the tives featuring suffering (\7illiams; Elsaesser; Brooks). According to large numbers of vererans returning from the wars in the Middle East Linda Sfilliams, melodrama comprises a family of narrative features with an anay of mental problems and injuries suggesr that a far more meant to create sympathetic identification with a virtuous victim cautious approach to enlistment would be appropriate. The fact that (2D. The pleasures of melodrama involve a complex play of intradie- young men and women continue to volunteer despite the question- getic misrecognitions and discoveries of the moral identity of key able status and outcome of these engagemenrs is restimony ro the characters but especially the victimized hero or heroine. Adventure powerful role of the media and especially of nanative film in shaping functions in an analogous way, but the main pleasures derive from cultural representations of distant wars. Hollywood continues ro identiflcation with a hero successfully confronting danger and vio- directly or indirectly promore militarism, as it has done since the lence. The "basic moral fantasy implicit in this type of story," John beginning of the twenrierh cenrury, and American Sniper serves as a G. Cawelti asserts, is "victory over death" (40). Ideologically, adven- useful example of the mechanisms by which the adventure mode ture can assume a runge of political configurations, including progres- makes war appear arrracrive because it was both a critical and a box sive ones, as there is no inherent political coloring to stories about office success. The film earned rhe mosr of any frlm in 2Ol4 and of overcoming great challenges. Historically, however, adventure writ- aîy w^t film of all time (Epstein). Anerican Sniper is also a useful ing-both frctional and nonfictional-has been closely aligned with example because some reviewers acrually described the film as critical the colonial and imperial projects of modern nation states, casting of war despite its having been based on rhe legendary sniper Chris Kyle's jingoistic memoir. For example, reviewing the film in Tlce TheJou.rnal of Popalar Calnrre, Vol. 51, No. 6, 2018 New Yorker, David Denby described American Sniper as "a devastating O 2018 \ù7i1ey Periodicals, Inc. antiwar movie, a subdued celebration of a warrior's skill and a - ^-1 AdaenTttre r378 Agnieszka S oltys ik Mannet Anerican War r3l9 sorrowful lament over his alienation and misery." CNN's Deah Obei- \While its reverential portrayal of its warrior-procagonist is not unu- dailah called it "a cautionary tale for Americans about why we must sual among contemporary war Êlms, its gritty hand-held camera aes- avoid war." Clint Eastwood himself claimed that che Êlm constitutes thetics and dutiful depiction of Kyle's brief bout with symptoms of afi "antiwar statement" because it looks at "what [war] does to the PTSD lend the film an appe r^rrce of realism and possibly critical family and the people who have to go back into civilian life like intent. Teasing out the features of the film that belong to the adven- Chris Kyle did" (qtd. in Kilday). ture mode and that organize its rhetorical and ideological vectors Nevertheless, the film hews closely to the adventure mode and fails helps bring its precise mechanisms of glamorization and enchant- to demystify or question combat, instead depicting its hero's violence ment, or the process of imbuing violence with moral sense and cul- as both morai and potentially pleasurable. Anærican Sniper presents tural potency that Sarah Cole describes in The Violet Hour,r into the experience of combat as an exciting battle between forces of right focus. and wrong, and it asks us to feel empathetic pity for its protagonist- The larger context for these questions of how war is represented hero, as well as admiration for his martial feats. It deviates little from includes the ongoing American military intervention in the Middle the war adventure formula as it was developed in the imperial wars of East (and Afrrca and other regions), which seems likely to continue the nineteenth century, pitting agents of white civilization against into the future. It is important to see the myriad ways in which war so-called savages in a dangerous frontier zone. Chris Kyle is portrayed is marketed, glamorized, and legitimated and how it has become such as an idealized American, literally a cowboy, who discovers his talent an unquestioned part of American life that even a thoughtful director for deploying righteous violence in an apolitical theater of combat like Eastwood falls into overt cliché in his treatment of it. The where good American soldiers battle sadistic and evil Iraqis. patently obvious fact that these wars are far more about resources Although Kyle's struggle with PTSD acknowledges that killing (especially oil) than about "defending America" (aside from American others and watching friends die takes a toll on a soldier, the film ulti- corporate interests) is never considered. Instead, the misleading claim mately depicts the pleasures of combat as not only worth the price made by the Bush administration in 2003 that Iraq was somehow but as offering unexpected rewards in the form of a greater maturity. linked to terrorist attacks on the United States is tacitly and uncriti- Kyle's unfortunate and biographically required death at the hands of cally recycled. Although Eastwood, as a director, has on occasion been a disrurbed fellow veteran does little to diminish the impression con- hailed for a seemingly more critical approach to the film genres that veyed by the frlm as a whole that being a sniper is heroic, meaning- made him famous-in films such as the revisionist Vestern Tbe ful, and rewarding. The ending is ultimately less about Kyle's death lJnforgiuen-many scholars have also noted the limitations of East- than an explicit and public celebration of his life's work as a profes- wood's seeming reformation (Piangina; Modleski). Just as the protag- sional killer. onist of that supposedly revisionist \Testern falls back into his earlier Anrcrican Sniper falls into a larger recent trend of more positive por- violent s/ays, Eastwood also does not stray very far from the pleasures trayals of war (\7estwell 8p; Boggs and Poliard 33L) and more specif- of imagining killing bad guys without qualm or conscience. -War ically of a highly nationalistic and essentialist view of the conflict in Iilfhile the \florld II diptych Flags of Our Fatbers and Letters the Middle East (Binns 88). Numerous scholars have noted the rise in fron lu'o Jitna attempted to look at the invasion of Iwo Jima with militaristic Hollywood fare since the 1990s, often focusing on'ù7orld equal sympathy for soldiers on both sides, that even-handedness is \Var II (e.g., Sauing Priuate Ryan, Flags of Oar Fatbers, and Fnry), as gone in this excursion into the war in Iraq. All Iraqis, men, women, well as the fascination with Special Forces and special operations of and even children, are portrayed as cruel, greedy, or naturally violent. all kinds (e.g., Black Hau,k Dotttz, Lone Suraiuor, and Zero Dark Thirty; The "causes" of the war-and of Kyle's commitment to it-----are por- see Gibson). American Sniper takes place in Fallujah, but its scenes of trayed through a series of news reports of terrorist attacks on US urban warfare are so generic that it could be happening in any war- embassies and locations, including 9/11, collapsing the entire Middle torn city (and were filmed mostly on sets in California and Morocco). East into one violent crucible of evil-doers who wish to kill Anzerica.n Var Adt enhrre r38r r 38o Agnieszka S altysik Monnet

This ability draw on the more "primitive" and "savage" features Americans. Eastwood's answer to this onslaught of attacks in the frlm to adversary-especially moments of violence-makes the is to propose a wat of attrition-Kyle's goal being to kill as many of the in adventure hero a formidable warrior, one able to be ruthless and cruel Iraqi insurgents as possible-and never ask why they keep coming. while retaining the moral purity of whiteness by having violence seen By representing Middle Easterners in this way, Eastwood's film con- "native" adopted strategically by the hero in order tributes to the forever wars in the region. The adventure genre that as a characteristic to combat a ruthless enemy. shapes the frlm's narrative movement also helps to legitimate this As many film scholars have noted, American cinema has a long- relentless deployment of military violence by making it seem mean- standing fascination with war adventure. The eadiest films made in ingful and justifled. the United States include restagings of charges during the Spanish- American war, as well as nostalgic retellings of the Civil \Var, such (191t). Adventurers and the Adventure Matrix as D. \7. Grifflth's Birtb of a Nation One of the most successful war adventure fiims of the twentieth century was SergeartT York (1941), which told the story of reluctant soldier Alvin York and his Technically, adventure is probably among the very oldest human nar- despite his concern about the first commandment. rative genres and dates back to the basic story of the warrior's talent for killing Arguably, this is the type of hero that Americans love the most---one exploits or the man who travels away from the group and returns who displays great skill at violence while keeping his moral righ- alive (Campbell). As Martin Green points out in Set'en TyPes of Adt'en- teousness and innocence intact through religious or other convictions. Ture Ta/e, adventure tends to take place at the margins of the known During \Wodd rJfar II, Hollywood produced great number of pro- world, in borderlands, or frontiers where the laws of the law-promul- ^ pagandistic war films, and the collaboration between the military and gating center are relaxed, which permits the hero to confront tacially cinema industry has continued to be strong in the postwar era (Boggs marked Others who become either subordinated allies or irredeemable and Pollard). enemies (36). The dichotomy of civilizationlsavagety is at the heart of emerges with particular force in the Vietnam era is a fas- the adventure tale and its investment in moral violence. Sometimes \fhat cination the irreguiar soldier: the Green Beret, the Army Ran- violence takes a back seat to other kinds of civilizing missions, and with ger, and the special or covert operations soldier. The appeal of this Green argues that Robinson Crusoe can be counted among the earliest frgure that he wields the legitimate violence of the state while and most important modern adventure tales, especially with regard to is appearing to operate outside of the emasculating rules and protocols its foregrounding of Protestantism, colonialism, capitalism, and mas- of military bureaucracy. He is trained to be independent, individu- culinity (Rol:inson Crusoe Story 47). maverick-----and therefore lends himself to the narrative There are, of course, a rartge of adventure stories, not all of which alistic-a needs the adventure mode far better than the dutiful infanuy- involve war or even violence, but most tend to pit the hero against of man. One could say that the cuit of the irregular soldier is inaugu- some wild or natural or savage adversary, which he overcomes by vio- rated the postwar context by Robin Moore's bestselling book ience or outsmarts through his naturally superior wits. In the modern in The Green Berets (1965), reinforced by the \Vayne adaptation era, as the adventure tale has developed in the Anglo-American con- John 1968 and continues with a wide range of text, white masculinity is often at the heart of the story, even if that of the book into film in films-some purely commercial, some more critical or ambitious- whiteness is sometimes seen as needing to "borrow" characteristics (1978), Apocalypse Nou, (T979), Top Gan from its racial Others in order to more effectively combat them b,ke Tbe Deer Hunter (L986), and more recently, Tlte Hurt Locker (2008), Act of Valor (Kaplan). Hence, adventure heroes such as James Fennimore Cooper's (2012), (2013). Natty Bumppo, Timothy Flint's Daniel Boone, Stephen Crane's and Lone Suraitor interest the irregular Henry Fleming, Lowell Thomas's Lawrence of Arabia, and Robin James \filliam Gibson argues that this in greater momentum the 1980s, as part of a larger Moore's Green Berets, often display savagery of their own (Siotkin). soldier took on in r382 Agnieszka S altysiA Mounet Anterican \Yar Aduenture ry8l. cuitural drive ro "overcome" the humiliation of the Vietnam \War. The Strategic Ambiguity of Popular Culture Gibson sees rhis new "highly energized culture of war and the warrior" as squarely "paramilitary" in irs focus (9). The new warrior The contemporary war film lies at the intersection of several compet- fought alone or with a small band of men and was both elite (superior ing logics. On the one hand, it is a business investment for a studio to other soldiers) and potenrially available for identification by any and needs to appeal as broadly as possible to a diverse audience in man because he was not a professional soldier or policeman. FIe was, order to recoup its producers' investment capital. On the other hand, in fact, a fantasy figure-a larger-than-life commando- a figure of if it wants to be taken seriously as a "realistic" or "critical" account of great and possibly superhuman power (one can think of Rambo and modern war, it needs to acknowledge the costs of war. Since the Viet- his wholly improbable feats of mayhem). nam era, this has meant at least a nod toward the problem of PTSD Gibson identifies the paramilitary hero as an ourgrowth not only among veterans. It also often translates into a need to depict war of the defear in Vietnam but the societal and economic changes in injuries as graphically messy rather than neat. Nevertheless, the the 1980s, many of which made American men feel powedess in their media industry that creates commercial war frlms is part of the larger own lives. The paramilitary hero served as an avatàt of potency and corporate structure which relies on American military hegemony to power that few men felt in any *uy.t O.r" could go further and see keep markets open for American business (including cultural prod- the paramilitary hero, as he garhered momentum in the 1980s and ucts). Therefore, the basic ideological orientation of Hollywood is tac- 90s, as a corollary of (and compensarory fantasy for) the neoliberal itly geared to supporting foreign wars (Robb; Boggs and Pollard; Der policies which were reconfiguring the economy and making work and Derian; Stahl). Nevertheless, being perceived as overtly propagandis- workers more precarlous. Americau Sniper can be situated squarely in tic would negatively impact box office sales and revenue. Hence, there this trend, with its protagonist depicted as an idealized insrance of is a strong incentive to make war Êlms as ambiguous as possible, American manhood: Kyle is a smail-town boy, Christian bur not allowing viewers a wide range of political opinions to flnd support pious (his thefc of a Bible from a church displays a perfecr mixture of for their views. This tactic-which we can call, borrowing a phrase respect and irreverence), a successful cowboy, a parient lover and loyal from rhetoriciao Leah Ceccarelli, "strategic ambiguity"-allows mul- husband, a playfuJ but protective dad, and finally, a lethal warrior tipie viewers to find evidence for their worldview in a text which has who quickly becomes a "legend" among his peers. been made purposely polysemic (Ceccarelli, "Poiysemy" 404). This A larger-than-life figure of potency and highly effective violence, ambiguity has worked well for the most successfi:l recent frims about Kyle is aiso the perfect warrior for a neoliberal age. Not interested in war, all of which have been either praised for their apolitical stance or politics, the Iraqi people, or rhe meaning of his mission, he wants to praised for wildly divergent reasons. For instance, Kathryn Bigelow's "get the job done" and that job just happens to be kilting as many The Htut Locker (2008), the most successful Iraq \Var film before "savages" as he can, either alone or with one spotter, exercising his Anzerican Sniper, is tightly focused on the individual psychodrama of unusual gift for accutacy when the rarger is "breathing." Moreover its adrenalin-addicted bomb disposal specialist and largely avoids any the large number of kills he can accumulate over his four tours gives commentary on the legitimacy of the war (Barker 156-69). him an air of professionalism, as does his calm and marter-of-fact Anærican Sniper has also been praised and condemned for widely demeanor while he is "working." This is not a warrior lost in an orgy divergent political tendencies. Neu, York Post reviewer Kyle Smith of violence. This is a m n methodically exrerminating enemies for a praised it for redeeming militarism itself: "After 40 years of Hoily- living. The insidious genius of the film is to make this work look wood counterpropaganda telling us war is necessarily corrnpting and both serious and ultimately satisfying. malign, . . . Anterican Sniper nol>Iy presents the case for the other side." Titne Out Neu, foregrounded the film's dark portrait of war: "Only Clint Eastwood could make a movie about an Iraq \ùZar yeteran l r384 Agnieszka S oltys i k Monnet Anærica n W ar Adc,entttre ry85

and infuse it with doubts, mission anxiety and ruination" (Rothkopfl. selfless devotion to helping other vets. The film conveniently ignores And, as mentioned earlier, one critic actually called it a "devasrating the more complicated aspects of this murder, including Kyle's insis- antiwar movie" (Denby). Most critics, however, have focused on irs tence on taking a maî he had quickly identified as unstable to a reaiism and aestheric power, eschewing quesrions of politics and ide- shooting range and putting a weapon in his hands (Espen). In any ology. Rotten Tomatoes praises irs "tense, vivid tribute to its real-life case, Kyle's death at the end is presented by the film as unrelated to subject" ("American"), and Claudia Puig, writing for USA Today, sin- his success as a warrior. It serves instead as a convenient prerexr to gled out Bradley Cooper's realistic portrayal of Chris Kyle for com- promote the authenticity and realism of the film by including real mendation: "Substantially bulked up and affecting a believable Texas footage of Kyle's funeral procession, suggesting that the frlm is a rcaI- drawl, Cooper embodies Kyle's confidence, intensity and vulnerabil- istic biography one step away from documentarian verisimilitude. ity." Finally, Kenneth Turin of The Los Angela Times praised the film Eastwood's portrayal of Kyle as suffering from PTSD also rein- for its ability ro engross the viewer in its realistic combat scenes: forces the seeming realism of the film, as well as making Kyle more "Eastwood's impeccably crafted acrion sequences so catch us up in the palatabie as a hero. Ever since the Vietnam tù7ar and the acceptance chaos of combat we are almost nor aware that we're watching a film of the label "post-traumatic stress disorder" into the Diagnostic and at all." In short, it is clear that Atnerican Sniper successfully sounds a Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in 1980, representations of wide spectrum of ideological notes, offering evidence for their very veterans displaying symptoms of psychological distress are obligatory different political takes on the war to a wide range of viewers. In this in films wishing to be taken seriously. Although the real Chris Kyle respect, it goes beyond the normal and inevitable polysemic nature of did struggle with psychiatric issues after his discharge, he did not representation and embodies instead the strategically ambiguous poli- describe these in his autobiography in any detail. Eastwood took it tics required of commercial popular culture. upon himseif to add this layer of complexity to the plot, not only Nevertheless, this ambiguity and apparenr political ambivalence partly for reasons of realism, as just described, but also partly to help shouid not be confused with ideological even-handedness or neutral- make Kyle a more likeable and morally acceptable character. lVithout ity. The paradoxes of the film do nor emerge from a thoughtful any hint of PTSD, a sniper who has become a "legend" for killing attempt to consider the different sides of the question of war as a mil- over one hundred and sixty people, and who professes no doubt or itary strategy and foreign policy, or of the $Var in lraq, or even of remorse over any of them, could potentially be seen as simply a killer, miiitary service as a personal choice. The 6lm may seem to pull in or worse, as a sociopath. By showing him suffering from mental different directions, bur there is nevertheless a dominant vecror of strain, Eastwood uses the conventions of melodrama to humanize and emotional and ideological effects choreographed by its îarratjye ,in- complicate Kyle.3 tax (closely aligned wirh what we call narrarive arc). This syntax is This depiction of PTSD and other darker sides of war part of ^re modeled on the adventure formula, by which a hero travels to a lim.i- what one could call the senrantics of the film (i.e., the building blocks nal place, discovers his talent for killing, and returns to his home a of the film and its intended meaning). This includes the gritty scenes better and stronger man. The dominant keynotes of rhis narrarive are of urban warfare, the images of injury and chaos in battle, the scenes the pleasure of overcoming challenges, the pleasure of wielding moral of Kyle's wife crying and their famlly being strained, the scenes of violence, and the pleasure of victory (including winning the admira- horror in Baghdad and the encounter with the character called the tion of orher men and the love of the woman). "Butcher," and other explicit acknowledgements of the costs and dif- This adventure-based narrarive arc makes Kyle's srory atrracrive ficulties of war. These scenes and images all contribute to the ^ppar- and compelling alrhough he is murdered at the end and is depicted ent realism or "realism-effect" of the film.a They also conrribure to as suffering from PTSD for a short while. The well-known facr of the sense that war is "hell," a true trial of a man's fortitude and chaç Kyle's death at rhe hands of a disturbed vet could nor be omitted, acter. To this end, we see other soldiers, including Kyle's brother, but it is presented as a uagic accidenr, an unfortunate result of his buckling under the strain of combat. The fact that Kyle remains stoic AduenTure r386 Agnieszka S olt1s ik Monnet Antericatz Var ry81 most of the time and eventually recovers only adds to the film's obvi- defrnition and can be literally a border or frontier. In American litera- ous presentation of Kyle as a figure to be admired. Thus, the seman- ture and cinema, a common setting for adventure continues to be \wild tics of the film-----accenting the costs of war-ultimately contribute to some version of the sTest-the wesrern frontier of the united \Var, what I have earlier described as its syntaoical throst (i.e., its narrative States as it was pushed toward the Pacific. During the Vietnam arc) unfolding in time and structured by the adventure formula, lead- as many scholars have noted (Hellman), Vietnam was often repre- (a demar- ing to success and maturation of the warrior-hero. sented as a frontier, both in the sense of a political border .ùrest caring line between the free capitalist and communist Asia) and a reiteration of the \7ild \West (for instance, in John Wayne's The \ùVar Adventure: Key Features Green Berers, the American ourpost in vietnam looks exactiy like a \Testern military fort, with a sign saying "Dodge City"-the name Like melodrama or the gothic, war adventure consists of a recogntz. of a famous wild frontier town-to make the association explicit)' able family of features which can be found in most iterations of the In Ailterican Sniper, a similar allusion is made in the first minutes "\Telcome form. These include: (i) a colonial setting or a symbolic border; (ii) of the film, when one of Kyie's military buddies says, to \Wild \West the hero as a wish-fulfillment fafltasy, often a larger-than-life frgure Fallujah, the new of the old Middle East." The border possessing unusual powers; (iii) a focus on killing; (iv) references to logic of this analogy is spelled out later in the film by Kyle himself, "'ù7ould excitement and pleasure; (v) the confrontation with danger and its who justifies the American presence in Iraq by saying, you overcoming leads to a coming of age experience; the hero is often rather frght them in San Diego?" The unlikely notion that Islamist stronger or better at the end than he was at the beginning; (vi) the fighters would attack the united States by sea establishes the notion hero is usually a mao and masculinity is typically important in the that Iraq is the front line of defense of the unites states itself, hence, pleasures and rewards of adventure; and (vii) war adventure aspires to literally, a national border space. heightened realism despite its formulaic nature; as a result, it often At stake in setring the adventure on a narional or symbolic border mixes fact and fiction. Some features may be more dominant than is a struggle between civilization and savagery. This is the trope that others, and some may be missing altogether, but these elements has justified all of European and American colonial ventures and vio- defrne war adventure and are often present in the adventure mode lence; it is the trope that was invoked evefy rime a Native American more generally. These features are more thematic than formal, strictly population needed to be removed or attacked; and is the trope that lù7ar speaking, because modes can inform a variety of media forms and now rhetorically fuels the on Terror as well as the militatizarion genres. To differentiate genre and mode it is useful to consider genre of the national border in the south. Casting the enemy as savage for as a more specific category, with a more defrned historical period and means defining them as less than human and therefore available format, than a mode, which is best understood as an underlying annihilation or genocide. This is how the "-ùrest was won" and this is structure. However, the term "genre" is used very differently by crit- how every American war has been waged. The casting of the adver- ics and sometimes so capaciously that it could be used interchange- sary as subhuman and irredeemably uncivilized---and therefore unas- ably with "mode," to avoid repetition. I argue that adventure is the similabie and incapable of negotiarion of treaty-is the classic move mode that informs and shapes the war adventure genre, which is a more of the colonial settler (Veracini). specific form of adventure. In Anerican Sniper, the genocidal logic of the border is on display One of the most universal features of the modern war adventure every rime an Iraqi character is on screen. Almost without exception, narrative is its frontier or colonial setting. Almost every kind of every local character is represented as irredeemably devious, violent, adventure involves leaving one's home and travelling to an unknown and cruel, exacrly as Narive Americans have been portrayed histori- place, often dangerous, exotic, and either lawless or where laws are cally. This display of villainy begins with the morhef and child duo more tenuous and frequently challenged. This is a liminal place by who open the film by throwing a \atge grenade at an American r 388 Agnieszka S oltysik Monnet Anteri ca n \Var Aduenttre ry99 convoy, preceded only by a suspicious-looking man who clearly tips Kyle discovers his talent for killing when hunting with his father as them off by mobile phone. Every Iraqi man who appears in Kyle's a boy. During his SEAL training, he turns out to be a poor shot dur- sights is doing something explicitly nefarious, such as planting an ing target practice but masterfully kills a snake just behind the paper IUD or running toward Americans with an AK-41 . A man whose target. "I'm better when it's breathing," Kyle jokingly explains of his house Marines commandeer and who offers them hospitality and din- uncannily good shooting of live animals and people. His apparent tal- ner also turns out to be a sniper with a Iarge arsenal hidden under his ent for killing is what the frlm is actually all about: it is a modern floorboards. Another man who becomes an informant will only give hagiography of a sniper with so many verified kills that he is nick- them information about a notorious enforcer called The Butcher in named "The Legend." Kyle's coyness about the "legend" epithet exchange for a large sum of money, underlining the cupidity and lack ("that's a title you don't want, trust me!") and his highly fore- of moral sense in the local population. The Butcher himself is proba- grounded professionalism ("just doing my job") are included in the bly the most compelling example of Iraqi savagery, as he sadistically fiim to make its basic theme and protagonist more acceptable, but driils his victims to death with a power tool, including a child we are the story is nevertheless an homage to a remorseless killer. forced to watch being killed. As if this parade of evil-doing were not The third feature is about the emotions that adventure produces in enough, Eastwood has Kyle and his men discoveritg an apartment characters and viewers alike. The main affective registers evoked by where people are tortured and mutilated, a man is hanging from the the adventure tale include excitement, intense adrenalin-fueled emo- ceiling in chains, and body parts and heads are stored in a macabre tion, and just sheer pleasure. Adventure is about victory, overcoming way on a kitchen shelf. obstacles, discovering new places, and conquering enemies-both nat- In short, the film amasses an overwhelmitg arcay of evidence to ural and human. This type of pleasure can be relatively innocent, such prove that the Iraqi insurgents are cruel, sadistic, amoral, and abso- as the thrill of achieving something extraordinary through sport or lutely evil. \fhen Kyle calls them "savages," as he does throughout exploration or saving someone from danger, but in the case of war the film, he is not harking back to a nineteenth-century colonial adventure it always centers on a pleasure in violence. The violence is nomenclature with a sense of historic irony. He means it perfectly carefully framed as moral vioience so that there is no need to feel earnestly: to him, Iraqis are evil and savage, and he uses both of these guilty about the pleasure. In the case of Anrcricatt Saiper, every terms without hesitation or qualification. It is no wonder that he person-without exception-that Kyle kills is explicitly shown to be never regrets a kill and only wishes he had killed more targets. Kyle's doing something criminal and potentially deadly for American sol- use of the term "savages" is not Iimited to fighters, however, but diers, including the mother and child mentioned earlier, whose encompasses the entire local population. $7hen his friend Biggles deaths are set up at the beginning of the frlm as a potential ethical tells Kyle he has bought an engagement ring in Baghdad for this problem for the viewer. Before we know anything about him, Kyle fiancêe, Kyle is appalled: "Dude, you bought it from savages? How trains his sights on a woman and child and must decide whether to do you know it's not a blood diamond?" Even though Biggles is shoot. The pressure is high, as he is told "it's your cail," and his spot- severely injured shortly after this conversation, he still manages to ter reminds him that he will be sent to military prison if he's wrong frnd the time to buy a new, smaller, but untainted diamond ring, about the child, although he has clearly identifred him being given a with his fiancée's father's help, in order to avoid giving her the ring "RKG Russian grenade" to throw. The film cuts at this point to Kyle purchased in Iraq.t himself as a child, shooting his first deer with his father's approval The second key feature of the war adventure narrative is that it is ("That was a hell of a shot, son. You got a gift") and then follows his squarely focused on killing. As Cawelti says, the basic moral fantasy childhood, youth, and courtship of his wife until picking up the of adventure is "triumph over death." The hero will have many close scene again twenty-seven minutes into the fllm, by which time we calls, but the main drama of the adventure story is that the hero dis- are supposed to have been persuaded of Kyle's good character. Now covers his "taste or talent" for killing. In the case of Anrerican Sniper, we see the child running toward the convoy to throw the grenade, r390 Agnieszlza S oltysi k Monnet Anterican'War Adaentare r39r

followed by his mother who picks it up and throws it after Kyle transformed into an excellent father: a scene of him teaching his son shoots him. If the first iteration of the scene s/as supposed to repre- to hunt, in an exact reiteration of the eadier scene with his own sent an ethical dilemma, the second viewing acts as a solution: the father, another scene of him watching horses with his daughter, and moral lines have been starkly drawn to reveal an irreproachably good finally a scene of him playing around with his kids at home. Another American (a patriot who enlists in response to the 9/11 attacks) and a set of scenes at the end emphasizes his virility and tries to prove his homicidal mother-child terrorist team. full recovery as a husband: one in which he pulls his wife into the Nevertheless, even if the moral right belongs to Kyle, the film is shower with him and another in which he points a guî at her in a reticent to show him actually enjoying the kill. That would blur the playful version of a coercion fantasy.In case we still need more proof lines between the sadistic enemy and the morally righteous hero. of his improved condition, his wife is given a speech in which she Even though Kyle cannot express pleasure personally, and must tells him how proud she is of him and how far he has come. instead appear very serious and professional throughout his sniping Finally, after he drives off with the man who is going to kill him, scenes (as he does on the main poster for the film), his spotter is selflessly devoting an afternoon to a needy vet, proving that he has allowed to express the visceral pleasure he cannot show. "Evil fucking become a more generous and civic minded man than he was before he bitch!" says the spotter as he grins after Kyle pulls the trigger, reas- went to Iraq, the film cuts to a frnal sequence of real footage from his suring the audience that Kyle was right to kill her, as well as express- funeral motorcade, showing streets lined with crowds of people, the itg the pleasure that always accompanies the deployment of ultimate evidence of his transformation into a public hero. Despite righteous violence against an enemy that deserves to die. Kyle is nev- the film's lip service to the fact of posttraumatic stress disorder, the ertheless shown enjoying the pleasure of military service in other narrative arc shows the hero transformed into an enviable man at the ways: by having fun with his team members, by having flirtatious end, a formidable warrior, a playful father, an adored husband, a self- phone calls with his wife while waiting for a target, and by being less friend and volunteer at the local hospital. It is certainiy not hard applauded by his fellow soldiers in the base cafeteria for his exem- to imagine viewers leaving the film with a wish to become like him. plary performance. Combat is portrayed as a challenging ordeal, but, as in the classical Besides being depicted as pleasurable, violence in the war adven- adventure paradigm, an effective means to test one's mettle and to ture mode is ultimacely transformative and regenerative for the hero. become a mafl. If the protagonist is somehow stronger, more mature, more "manly" To draw out the implications of the previous point more explic- at the end of the story, then the story is probably an adventure. Just itly, war adventure is traditionally a masculinist mode, almost always as Joseph Campbell's monomyth describes a hero who travels to a featuring a male hero, positively portraying the male bonds forged in "special world" and undergoes an ordeal, returning with a boon, one training and battle as the strongest and most important in a man's of the most common forms of the war adventure narcative is that of life, and, in its modern variaît (since Robinson Crttsoe), heavily rite of passage or transition from boyhood to manhood. Although invested in white male masculinity in particular.6 According to Kyle is not a boy when he leaves for Iraq, he is still a young man, Michael Kimmel, masculinity is not an interior trait but an identity just married, whom we have watched live an immature life of rodeo, that can only be conferred by other men (5). No activity elicits as parties, and miliary training. He is clearly a youth when he leaves much admiration and male approval as the successfui deployment of for war and a rr'an when he returns. Although he struggles with a violence, both by hierarchical superiors within the military (approval period of PTSD during his service and especially after his last tour, by symbolic father figures is literally built into the military system, the film shows him quickly recovering once he starts helping orher as every promotion of rank involves approval from commanding offi- veterans. At the end of the frlm, then, Kyle is not only recovered but cers), and by fellow soldiers. Chris Kyle is shown throughouc the 6lm far more mature and steady than he was before he left. There is a to enjoy the esteem and confrdence of his military superiors, as well quick succession of scenes at the end meant to show how he has been as the naked admiration and applause of feliow SEALs and Marines. lVar r3g2 Agnieszka Soltysik fuIormet Anterican Adaenhtre r393

The most illustrative scene for this, menrioned earlier, features a sol- its depiction of the real war hero John Paul Jones (1855), and Kirk dier who approaches Chris Kyle in a garage shop when he is home Munroe's Fortt'ard Marclt: A Tale of tlte Spanish-Anrerican War (1899), between tours to tell Kyle's son rhar his father had saved him in Fal- which has the fictional protagonist interacting with Theodore Roo- lujah and that he is a hero. The soldier even solemnly salutes him. sevelt and other historical flgures of the time. Although the jittery Kyle seems nonplussed by this incident, he later Placing the contemporary Hollywood trend of combat realism in takes great pleasure in helping disabied vererans he meets at the VA the context of the history of the adventure mode makes it clear that hospital and clearly enjoys their grateful admirarion. In a revealing this development is not really new ar all. Instead, it is a return on scene, he takes two injured vers shooting, and it is clear rhat all of the part of war storytelling to the conventions of the adventure genre them are transformed by the experience. The injured vet says, afrer and a departure from the more skeptical, ironic, and horror-domi- hitting the target, that he feels like he's "got his balls back," and nated narratives of the post-Vietnam era. In short, the film Anuricatt Kyle is shown in the immediately following scenes, described earlier, Suiper, although marketed as a true story and a critical look at the as fully healed from his PTSD. In the conrexr of the advenrure mode, costs of war, is clearly a twenty-firsr-cenrury iteration of the modern even practicing for violence by shooting guns ar rargets is a powerful war adventure narrative, whose cultural work has traditionally been catalyst for both masculine identity and psychic healing. and continues to be the legitimation and re-enchantment of empire The last key feature of war adventure is its tendency to mix fact and the violence needed to sustain it. Only by understanding rhe and fiction. \Var adventure aspires to be taken as aurhenric and true seductive power of the adventure mode, as it harnesses both pleasure and goes to great lengths to present itself as grounded in historical or and manhood in the service of righteous violence, can we hope to biographical fact. According ro war film scholars, rhis happens ro also break the spell and step back from the endless cycle of vioience and be a trend in recent war cinema, ar least since the beginning of the death that Hollywood war films help ro normahze and commodify. Iraq \Var (Bjerre; Chare; Gates). In the case of Antericatt Sniper, the fact that it is about a real person and based on his aurobiography Notes automatically lends rhe film credibility. Eastwood amplifies this further by including archival footage from Kyle's funeral procession, as 1. In her study ofviolence in high modernisr rexts, Â/ tltcViolur Hotr,Sarah Cole revives the well as several news reporrs of terrorist attacks on American targers terms "enchantment" and "disenchantment." demonstraring the long literary tradition of each of these categories (394)). Cole calls these respective "theories of violence." each sen'- throughout the frlm. The combat sequences are also shot in the "im- ing as a locus for a "porent polirical imaginary. including feminist and anrimilitarism mediate, chaotic, and claustrophobic" style that Philippa Gates has stances" for disenchantment and "nationalist ideals and a language of eievated militarism" identified as typicai of the mosr recenr cycle of war fllms and their for the rhetoric of enchantment O9-1+0). Each also "helped to sarucrure the literary outpur of the modernist years" in Cole's account. and I would argue rhat they help structurc the dual tendency toward representarional realism and extremely conser- representation of war violence more generally (i9)- Cole's descriptions of each term are par- (298). vative, moralizing, and giorifying narrarives In short, Anerican ticularly forceful and concise. "To enchant," she proposes, "is to imbue the violent experience Sniper frts perfectly in the recenr patrern of ultrarealistic and seem- with symbolic and cultural potency' (.tr3). To disenchanr. she continues, "is to refuse that ingly apolitical combat films and even corresponds ro the trend of structure. to insist on the bare. forked existence of the violated being. bereft of symbol" (1)). focusing in a seemingly nonjudgmenral way on soldiers as "war 2. See Faludi for a discussion of postwar masculinity in distress and Jeffords for how this played junkies" that Bjerre has discussed in an article in Tbe Jomttal of War out in Hollywood films more generally. and Cnltttre Sttdies (224). Nevertheless, this mixing of fact and fiction l. it bears rememberins that snipers have often been regarded with a high degree of ambivalence, to say the least. Shootin_e unsuspecring targets from a hidden position, snipers can and seeming hyperrealism is not a new developmenr in war narrarive easily be regarded as less honorable warriors than men who risk their lives and face their but a key feature of the adventure genre rhar dates back into rhe enemy in battle (Browne). Only in the current context of technological war and drone assas- eighteenth and nineteenth centuries with Defoe's Robittson Cnrtoe and sinations could a sniper like Kyle have been made into a hero. i. In this context, realism refers both to the representational strategies that the film a life- Captaitt Singleton. Comparable advenrure stories from the nineteenth -{ive like appearance. clearly aligning it with the world as we know it as opposed to fantasy or century include Melville's lsrael Patîer: His Fifty Years of Exile, with \X/ar r394 Agn ies zka S o lt1,s i P hf,orn eî Anerican Adt entare r395

obvious tcrion, and also to the fact that the film is marketed as potentially real, or true to Cawelti, John G. Adtentnre, Mystery, and RzuaTtce: Fornula Srories as historical fact, based on Kvle's biographl'. For a more detailed discussion of the difference Art attd Popalar Calttre. U of Chicago P, 197 6. between realism and the real, see Hôglund and Gallorvay. It bears pointing out that my use Ceccarelli, Leah. "Polysemy: Multiple Meanings in Rhetorical of the semanrics/syntax distinction is not dissimilar from Altman's argument that -{enre lilms can be approached although attention to their "common traits. attitudes. characters, Criticism." Quarterly Journal of Spæch, voi. 84, no. 4, 1998, shots, locations, sets" (rvhich he calls "semantics"). and the "srructures into q'hich lthese PP- 39t-1+15. buildin,e blocksl are arranged" (10). Similarly, I refer to the look and feel and lesthetics Chare, Nicholas. "lù(/arring Pixels: Cultural Memory, Digital Tesri- of the 6lm as "semantics" and the temporal unfolding of meanin-9 by the narrative as its mony, and the Conflict in Iraq." Conuergence, vol. 15, no. ),2009, "s)'ntax." pp.333-45. 5. This subplot about the ring also succinctly recalls the imperial histor,v ofthe war adr.enture Cole, Sarah. At tbe Violet Hotr: fuIodernism aud, Violence in England. and genre, u'hich has rradirionally taken precious jewels as a theme. rellecting the extractive and lreland. Oxford UP, 2012. minin-q interests of modern coloniaiism, s'here plunderin-q colonial territories and the Vild 'ùflest frontier for precious metals. gold, silver, and precious stones rvas at the heart of the Dawson, Graham. Soldier Heroes: Britisb Adtenttre, Enpire and the colonial enterprise (Green, Drctu: lI ).2). lnngining of ùIasuilinitler. Routledge, 1994. 6. In recent vears. there have been female adventure heroes: Lara Croft, Buffy the Vampire Denby, David. 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