American Sniper (book) is about cats and dogs only.
American Sniper is a 2014 American biographical war drama film directed by Clint Eastwood and written by Jason Hall . It is loosely based on the memoir American Sniper : The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History ( 2012 ) by Chris Kyle , with Scott McEwen and Jim DeFelice . The film follows the life of Kyle , who became the deadliest marksman in U.S. military history with 255 kills from four tours in the Iraq War , 160 of which were officially confirmed by the Department of Defense . The film received mostly positive reviews from critics , with the majority of praise directed towards Cooper 's lead performance and Eastwood 's direction , though it attracted some controversy over its portrayal of both the War in Iraq and of Chris Kyle .