No way in hell this movie deserves an 8. More like a 4. Its one of Eastwood's worst and most ill-judged given the mess in Iraq now as a result. It is difficult to review American Sniper without reflecting on the context - the illegal invasion of Iraq and its aftermath, which is estimated to have killed up to a million people. The people of Iraq suffer to this day as a result of Kyle and his fellow countryman's actions, under direction of their masters. If one concludes it was illegal, as is generally accepted, then each killing by Kyle in Iraq was murder.
Kyle was held by God to be responsible, but the war mongers in Washington and London have (so far) escaped justice. Eastwood as director, tries to portray the child killing psychopath in a rose tinted way (compared to the book), as a man who did his duty - but his moral duty was not to take part in a war based on a pack of lies.
This was a man who viewed Iraqis, who were defending their lands against an illegal invasion, as savages. He killed men, women and children defending their land. The film and book assume all the targets were justified or were terrorists, but this is clearly not the case.
He once told a military investigator that he doesn’t “shoot people with Korans. I’d like to, but I don’t.” That's the kind of man he was. He was also a proven liar, (and was successfully sued to that effect by Jesse Ventura amongst others) - so how can we believe anything he said.
Multiple scenes in the movie portray Kyle as haunted by his service and actions. But that torment is completely absent from the book the film is based on. In the book, Kyle refers to everyone he fought as “savage, despicable” evil. He writes, “I only wish I had killed more.”
Take the politics out, and we have a pretty humdrum film, with poor pacing and an unlikeable main character with psychopathic tendencies. There are also entirely fictional sequences which have no basis in reality such as with the Syrian sniper. Kyle was no hero (more a legalised(?) mass murderer) and Eastwood was misguided to portray him as one. Basically the film is an overrated, jingoistic, deceitful mess, which did not deserve its Oscar nominations. Whiplash, Birdman and the other winners far exceeded the quality of American Sniper.