Psych 353- Assignment American Sniper PDF

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American Sniper...

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Psych 353 Dr. H. Kraft

American Sniper (1) The American Sniper film follows the life of Chris Kyle, a U. S. Navy who became one of the deadliest snipers in American history with 160 confirmed kills while serving four tours during the war in Iraq. Throughout the entire film, there are many stressors that Kyle has to adapt or maneuver in order to survive. Clearly, being in the battle zone is, in itself, a stressor in its own right. However, the primary stressor is that Kyle has a profound sense of responsibility to protect and provide backup to his fellow soldiers as they fight insurgent groups, raid buildings while at the same time defend himself from the enemy. He feels it’s his call of duty, his sole mission to save his fellow soldiers and the Marines. This is evident when Kyle’s first kill is a boy who is handed a grenade by a woman. The woman who expresses no emotion over the boy’s death, picks up the grenade after the boy is shot and moves toward Marines on patrol. Kyle kills her too. In addition, Kyle also suffers from acute stress such as when he is injured in the battlefield, when he witness a friend die in front of him and from prolong separation from his family. These traumatic scenes show the moral and psychological stress he experienced at every moment the act of heroism calls upon him. (2) As he watches his friends, of whom he feels he could have saved, die in front of him, he feels responsible for their death. He explains to the VA doctor that the inability to protect his fallen friends turns to guilt. Upon his return home, he takes his guilt out on himself by drinking heavily and getting into fights. The misery combines into exaggerated startle response by the simple sounds of a lawnmower, drills in the auto shop and the sound of his child’s cry. He is irritable and hypervigilance - evident when he attacks a dog whom he perceived as a threat to a child during a birthday party. Most importantly, though he is at home, every time his wife talks to him, he seems distant and emotionally detached. His mind seems to focus somewhere else, a blank gaze, aka “a thousand-year of empty stare” (gotta love Bradley Cooper’s superb acting on Marlboro Marine stare). (3) The extreme traumatic events he experienced on the battlefield contributed to Kyle’s struggle to get back into civilian life. During his session with his psychologist, he said that he is

hunted by the guys that he couldn’t save. The psychologist suggests a coping stress strategytelling Kyle that he can continue saving lives by helping other injured veterans in the hospital. It is an exposure therapy that is effective as a healing process for Kyle. In my opinion, the therapy works. In fact, Kyle devotes much of his post combat life by helping ailing veterans suffering from physical and psychological scars of war. However, in the very last scene of the film reveals Kyle is shot and killed by a deeply disturbed veteran who he is trying to help. There is surely something to be said here about the dark cycle of violence that is inevitably produced by war. The story delves deeply soberly into the high cost of war, the aftermath of battle when the adrenaline rush has passed, and our brave service men and women embark into a new call of duty to conquer PTSD....