The film’s title is a double entendre: an “American sniper” suggests precision, control, and national pride. But the film shows that sniper’s life as anything but precise. Kyle misses shots, hesitates, makes mistakes. The American sniper is not a god with a rifle; he is a broken man with a haunting. In the end, American Sniper asks each viewer to answer for themselves: Is Kyle a hero? A victim? A killer? Eastwood’s genius is to show that he is all three, and that the contradictions cannot be resolved—only witnessed.