The Man Who Shot Chris Kyle: An American Legend

Euro comics team Nury (The Death of Stalin) and Brüno (Tyler Cross) tackle a drama that, for better or worse, could only happen in America. Their subjects are American Sniper author Chris Kyle, famed for the most recorded kills in the U.S. military, and Eddie Ray Routh, the troubled former Marine who murdered Kyle at a shooting range. Fans of Nury’s typically biting satire may be surprised by what translates into largely sympathetic portrayals. Though he casts a skeptical gaze at Kyle’s unsubstantiated claims, such as that he shot “looters” after hurricane Katrina, Nury seems almost too dazzled by the swagger of Texan military culture to snark. Routh represents the dark side of that culture, having worked on mass graves in Haiti and suffered from delusions of tapeworms and mutant pigs. In a moment symbolizing the gap between the two veterans’ experiences, the American Sniper movie (Kyle had been pleased that he wouldn’t be played by “some leftist traitor like Matt Damon”) was feted at the Oscars over the weekend of Routh’s trial for Kyle’s murder. Brüno renders Iraq and Texas in thick inks and sun-baked colors. Gems are unearthed as the pair dig into the different, often strange ways people deal with death, violence, and trauma. Those flashes are what make this unusual project worth a look. (Feb.)