Clint Eastwood and the film-making team behind controversial Oscar-nominated Iraq war biopic American Sniper left out a final scene that would have shown the death of US navy Seal Chris Kyle, following a request from his widow, reports the New York Daily News.
Screenwriter Jason Hall told the newspaper that Taya Kyle made a telephone call not long after her husband’s shooting at a Texas gun range to ask star Bradley Cooper, director Eastwood and others not to show the moment. “Five days after Chris was murdered, [Taya] called and said, ‘This is going to be how my children remember their father, so I want you to get it right,’” said Hall.
The film-makers had initially intended the scene to form the denouement of their movie, but decided to adhere to Taya Kyle’s request. Hall said the team “went around and around” trying to work out another way to finish the biopic, brainstorming five different endings. Ultimately, they decided on the scene used in the final cut, in which Cooper’s Kyle is seen heading off to a gun range with the man alleged to have murdered him while his wife watches pensively from the doorway of their home. The film then cuts to Kyle’s funeral.
“In the end, I think we felt that this was a film about Chris’s life and not about his death,” said Hall. “We also wanted to be careful not to glorify the guy who did it.”
He also said he was thinking of Kyle’s two children when considering their mother’s request. “I didn’t want it to be the thing that was hanging over their heads for the very rest of their lives as the film that showed their father getting shot,” he said.
Hall also said he was not concerned by criticism of the film, which has centred on accusations that it glorifies a ruthless killer. “Any time a movie gets a reaction, it’s a good reaction,” he said. “And the fact that people are talking about soldiers and about Iraq is a positive reaction. The benefit that we have seen from it, and hopefully it continues, is that soldiers see the movie and they come home and they start talking.”
American Sniper is up for six Oscars, including best actor for Cooper and best picture. The film has also taken a $392m (£255m) at the global box office after capturing the imaginations of US patriots. It passed the $300m mark in the US alone this weekend.
Former US marine Eddie Ray Routh, 27, is currently on trial for murder, accused of shooting dead Kyle and his friend Chad Littlefield at a gun range in Stephenville, Texas, in 2013. Kyle and Littlefield had taken Routh there to try and help him overcome personal issues, including suspected post-traumatic stress disorder.
