Controversy clouds the American Sniper

Iraq War veteran Eddie Ray is to stand trial for murdering Chris Kyle, whose autobiography the film was based on.

DALLAS: The real-life story behind Hollywood’s American Sniper, rolled out this holiday season, has been a dark tale of lawsuits and a pending murder trial for the man accused of gunning down the movie’s hero.



Iraq War veteran Eddie Ray Routh is to stand trial in February on charges of murdering Chris Kyle, the former Navy SEAL whose best-selling autobiography American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in US Military History was the basis for the film from director Clint Eastwood and starring Bradley Cooper.



Prosecutors recently said they are not seeking the death penalty against Routh, who could face life in prison if convicted, said Warren St. John, one of Routh’s court-appointed attorneys.

“Our guy is not evil,” said St. John, adding that the defense will argue that Routh is insane.

Kyle apparently saw Routh as a troubled veteran in need of help.

After leaving the Navy in 2009, Kyle, a Texas native, settled in suburban Dallas and became president of Craft International, a tactical training company that was also dedicated to helping wounded veterans.

Kyle was credited with 150 confirmed kills in Iraq and Afghanistan, a record that earned him regard as the most deadly sniper in Navy history.

Kyle and his friend, Chad Littlefield, took Routh to a shooting range on December 2, 2013. Routh is accused of shooting Kyle and Littlefield to death and stealing Kyle’s truck.

Routh was apprehended that day, charged with capital murder and remains in the Erath County Jail on $3 million bond. His family says he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and had been hospitalised at a mental institution.

Kyle’s estate has also had its troubles, with a jury in St Paul earlier this year awarding former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura $1.8 million in damages for a passage in Kyle’s book about a supposed bar fight between the two that jurors found libelous.



This month, Ventura sued the book’s publisher, HarperCollins, seeking an unspecified amount in damages for what he claims is unjust enrichment and defamation.

Kyle’s widow, Taya, said the film felt “natural” in that it got the story right. “The atrocity of it is that it is two really good men who were helping somebody,” she told Dallas broadcaster WFAA.

Earlier Academy Award nominated actor, Bradley Cooper who essays the role of Chris Kyle in the film had told Reuters that he had set high targets with the movie.

The actor was quick to note that American Sniper, his film about Navy Seal sharpshooter Chris Kyle, is not about the Iraq conflict but an intimate character study of the harrowing impact of war on a soldier and his family.

“It is a movie about what someone like Chris, a soldier, has to go through and the dilemma and the horror of it and the battle internally and with the family,” Cooper said about the film that opens on limited release on Christmas day and nationwide on January 16 next year. 

Published in The Express Tribune, December 29^th,  2014.

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