Chris Kyle American Sniper Movie Breaks Record Opening

'American Sniper' Breaks Box Office Records After Oscar Nominations 
NBC News
January 19, 2015

NEW YORK — Oscar-nominated "American Sniper" led North American box office charts over the weekend with a record-smashing $90.2 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates.

The film, which broke the record for a January weekend as well as for any drama opening ever, was directed by Clint Eastwood and stars Bradley Cooper.

"American Sniper" virtually doubled industry expectations after widely expanding to some 3,500 screens from just a handful of theaters the day after scoring six Oscar nominations, including best picture and best actor for Cooper, who plays a Navy Seal sharpshooter.
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Story of Texan Chris Kyle, ‘American Sniper,’ works best as a portrait of PTSD (B+) Dallas News
By CHRIS VOGNAR
Culture Critic
December 24, 2014

Twenty-two years ago, Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven served up an eloquent encapsulation of what it means to take a life: “It’s a hell of a thing, killing a man. You take away all he’s got, and all he’s ever gonna have.”

The late Chris Kyle, the hero of Eastwood’s new movie American Sniper, might have an appropriate answer: Try killing 160.

That’s how many official kills were credited to the sharpshooting Texan, the most in American military history. As played by Bradley Cooper, Kyle absorbed his role, embraced his duty, but turned into a husk of a man once each of his four tours in Iraq was finished. Though it never uses the term “PTSD,” American Sniper, at its best, is a devastating portrait of post-traumatic stress disorder.

The movie is strongest when Kyle is home, as his wife, Taya (Sienna Miller, also strong), wonders whether the man who was her husband might re-enter the land of the living. Cooper turns Kyle’s emotional vacancy into a vivid presence. He wears it in the hollow eyes, and the clenched jaw, and the monosyllabic shutdown when anyone expresses concern.
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'American Sniper': What Happened in Real Life After the Movie Fades to Black
ABC News
By MEGHAN KENEALLY
Jan 20, 2015

His funeral was held at the Cowboy's Stadium to allow for crowds and his wife Taya gave an emotional eulogy on stage.

"When you think you cannot do something, think again. Chris always said the body will do whatever the mind tells it to. I am counting on that now," she said. "I stand before you a broken woman but I am now and always will be the wife of a man who was a warrior both on and off the battlefield."

The film showed clips of the ceremony and Kyle's flag-draped coffin, but some of the most moving moments came when it showed how hundreds of people lined the sides of the interstate to salute the procession as the coffin was moved from the stadium to the Texas State Cemetery about 200 miles away.
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