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LOS ANGELES – In November, the Hollywood Reporter quoted an anonymous industry insider predicting that the “lefty crowd isn’t going to gather around a Navy SEAL best known for killing people” when it comes Oscar time. The insider was talking about "American Sniper," which walked away with six Academy Award nominations on Thursday, including Best Picture. Which means the insider was wrong. “Big surprise of #Oscarnoms was Clint Eastwood’s ‘American Sniper,’” wrote the Wall Street Journal. “I was very surprised and pleasantly so,” said James Williamson, retired U.S. Special Forces colonel and co-founder of OPSEC, a non-profit organization that seeks...

Clint Eastwood’s latest film “American Sniper,” based on the autobiography of Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle, is set to rake in more money in one day that any Eastwood-directed film. Late night industry estimates show the film bringing down $29.1 million in its first expanded release day on Friday, Deadline Hollywood reported Saturday.

I’ve seen just about every film about the Iraq War ever made. I’ve produced and associate produced a few. I even appeared in one (for about a millisecond). And without a doubt, “American Sniper” is the single best work of film about the Iraq War ever made. Now, it’s not the most complex film. Not the deepest film. Not even the most provocative. But in terms of storytelling, action, emotion, production and performance, attention to detail and especially the frighteningly accurate soundscape, there’s been nothing else close that’s been made since my platoon entered the war in Iraq in 2003....

War movies often focus on battles over personalities. In great films like Lone Survivor (2013) and Saving Private Ryan (1998), some of the battle sequences are so real and devastating that it’s easy to get lost in them and lose focus on the individual soldiers trying to survive. Those films often attempt to show viewers what it must be like to be in the midst of an intense and devastating battle. American Sniper, which only yesterday was nominated for six Academy Awards,is different. It’s more of a character study than a war film with the main character being a Texan...

In director Clint Eastwood’s best films (“Gran Torino,” “Million Dollar Baby,” “Unforgiven,” “The Outlaw Josey Wales”), the multiple Oscar-winner is able to make us feel both the righteousness of justified violence and the heavy emotional price paid by those committing it. “American Sniper,” which is undoubtedly Eastwood’s best picture since “Million Dollar Baby” (2004), and might just be his best since “Unforgiven” (1992), faithfully constructs and respectfully deconstructs “The Legend”: Chris Kyle, the deadliest sniper in the history of the U.S. Military. “American Sniper” opens during the worst days of Fallujah in Iraq. Kyle (Bradley Cooper) is the eye in...

Chris Kyle was Derek's teammate through 10 years of training and battle. They both suffer/suffered from PTSD to some extent and took great care of each other because of it. 2006 in Ramadi was horrible for young men that never had any more aggressive physical contact with another human than on a Texas football field. They lost many friends. Chris became the armed services number #1 sniper of all time. Not something he was happy about, other than the fact that in so doing, he saved a lot of American lives. Three years ago, his wife Taya asked him to...

At this point in George W. Bush's presidency, Hollywood uncorked a barrel of anti-Iraq-war movies, all of them in their varying styles trashing the American military or intelligence agencies as vicious murderers, rapists and all-around freedom-tramplers. Most were duds because the public wanted nothing to do with those messages. But oh, did the critics love 'em. In Obama's "fourth quarter," as he calls it, Clint Eastwood has released his movie "American Sniper," starring Bradley Cooper as Chris Kyle, a NAVY Seal who survived four tours of duty in Iraq and was credited with an astonishing 160 confirmed kills. The story...

IÂ’ve watched the film depiction of the life of the late Chris Kyle, AmericaÂ’s deadliest sniper, Navy SEAL, and veterans advocate, twice. It is a gripping portrayal, but it is a portrayal nonetheless. While the screenplay perhaps lacks nuance, it is also a product of Hollywood and should be considered a truncated and dramatized version of one manÂ’s life story. The complexities of biography often elude filmmakers who are charged with creating dense and intricate portraits of a human being in 120 minutes. Nevertheless, the movie is quite enjoyable. The performances are stirring and the wartime themes, difficult as...

Chris Kyle’s story is one I believe absolutely should be told, and although I have my concerns regarding how accurately the movie will relay the events of his service as a SEAL, I wouldn’t miss it. Unfortunately it’s looking as though the naysayers are working overtime on this one, though, because the movie has yet to come out and the mud slinging has already begun.

Clint Eastwood returns to form with “American Sniper,” his best directorial effort since his one-two shot hits “Mystic River” (2003) and “Million Dollar Baby.” (2004) Based on Navy SEAL Chris Kyle’s autobiography, “American Sniper” is an introspective – yet incredibly intense – look at Kyle (Bradley Cooper), the SEAL’s most lethal sniper, throughout his four tours of duty in Iraq. Kyle quickly became famous as America’s most deadly sniper, becoming a legend among fellow American soldiers as well as an infamous target by the Iraqi insurgents. Eastwood’s film shifts between the mutual manhunt between Kyle and a savage insurgent leader...

Former Gov. Jesse Ventura filed suit Monday against HarperCollins, the New York publisher of the book that a federal jury in St. Paul said had defamed him. In July Ventura won $1.8 million from the estate of Chris Kyle, the late Navy SEAL who wrote the bestselling memoir “American Sniper,” which included a subchapter about an alleged California bar fight between him and a man he called “Scruff Face” and later identified as Ventura. Ventura, who is also a former member of a SEAL unit, successfully argued that the bar fight and disparaging remarks he made against Navy SEALs attributed...

Attorneys for Chris Kyle's estate are asking a judge to throw out a defamation verdict and $1.8 million award in the late Navy SEAL-turned-author's legal battle against Jesse Ventura — or send the matter back for a new trial. In court filings Thursday, they argued that the former Minnesota governor didn't meet the high bar of proof for defamation of a public figure. The judge failed to steer the jury away from an erroneous decision, they said, and the award's dollar amount was pulled from thin air. The Kyle estate is seeking to reverse a verdict issued in July that...

A jury awarded former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura $1.8 million on Tuesday in his lawsuit against the estate of “American Sniper” author Chris Kyle. On the sixth day of deliberations, the federal jury decided that the author of the 2012 best-selling book defamed Ventura in its description of a bar fight in California in 2006. Kyle, regarded as the deadliest military sniper in U.S. history, wrote that he decked a man whom he later identified as Ventura after the man allegedly said the Navy SEALs “deserve to lose a few.” Ventura testified that Kyle fabricated the passage about punching him....

Laura deShazo of Salt Lake City testified Monday she was at the pub in Coronado California, the night when slain "American Sniper" author Chris Kyle said he punched a man he called "Scruff Face." Kyle later identified the man as Ventura. DeShazo said she was in the bar to attend the wake for a friend of Kyle's. While there, she, her sister and her brother's girlfriend poses for a picture with Ventura.

Chris Kyle, a former Navy SEAL who was the U.S. military’s deadliest sharpshooter and wrote the best-selling book American Sniper, was fatally shot Saturday in a double slaying at an Erath County gun range, the U.S. Marshals Service said. Late Saturday, Lancaster police said they had arrested a man they say matched the description of a gunman wanted in the slayings. After a brief chase, officers arrested 25-year-old Eddie Ray Routh, said Lt. Kelly Hooten, a department spokesman. Kyle was at a charity event at the gun range at Rough Creek Lodge and Resort on behalf of his Dallas-based security...

A former Tarleton State University student who wrote the best-selling book, "American Sniper," was one of two victims shot and killed at Rough Creek Lodge late Saturday afternoon. Chris Kyle and a friend were found dead at Rough Creek's shooting range.

A Special Interview with Highly Decorated Military Hero Chris Kyle Ed Young hosts a special interview with Chief Chris Kyle, Navy SEAL and author of American Sniper. Join us as this American hero describes how his love for God, family and country shaped his military career and how he continues to serve and support our troops. Can't join us? Every weekend you can watch the worship experience at FellowshipLive.com Services at Grapevine, Plano, Fort Worth, Dallas (Texas) and Miami, Florida campuses this Saturday night and Sunday morning. Fireworks show at Grapevine campus Saturday night. Rebroadcast online afterwards: www.fellowshipchurch.com/messages See website...

'A young cowboy from Texas who joined the elite US Navy Seals became the most deadly sniper in American history. In a book published this month he provides an unusual insight into the psychology of a soldier who waits, watches and kills. As US forces surged into Iraq in 2003, Chris Kyle was handed a sniper rifle and told to watch as his marine battalion entered an Iraqi town. A crowd had come out to greet them. Through the scope he saw a woman, with a child close by, approaching his troops. She had a grenade ready to detonate in...

A sniper has told how he was given the nickname 'The Reaper' by his comrades in the military - after killing 33 men in less than four months. Former Army Ranger Nick ‘Irv’ Irving using his trusty SR-25 rifle he nicknamed ‘Dirty Diana’ to blast insurgents to death during the Iraq War. He was so possessive over ‘his girl’ as he called the gun, that he hated it when other men touched her and would spend four hours a night painting her. Before every battle he would get pumped up to the sounds of men zipping their gear up with...

Last month comedian Seth Rogen was the cause célèbre of Hollywood when terroristic threats caused Sony Pictures to cancel the release of his latest movie “The Interview.” Americans from across the political spectrum spoke out in favor of Rogen’s right to make any movie he wanted, and when it was released online, Americans supported the movie. Many may now regret that purchase. Rogen, like all Americans, was born with the right to say anything he wants, no matter how offensive. That’s why he was able to make a movie in which he kills the leader of North Korea. But that...