(Credits: Warner Bros. Pictures)

Every once in a while, a film comes along that hits harder than expected. American Sniper is one of those. Gritty, complicated, and emotionally loaded, it is not just a war movie. It is a full-on character breakdown, and it is leaving Netflix on June 21st. So if it is still sitting in your watchlist, this is your sign.

Directed by Clint Eastwood and released in 2014, American Sniper tells the story of Chris Kyle, a Navy SEAL sniper. He is someone whose pinpoint accuracy earned him the nickname “Legend” among American forces in Iraq. But back home, that same precision did not help him hold together the pieces of his personal life. Adapted from Kyle’s own memoir, the film does not glorify war. It shows the cost of it, both on the battlefield and far from it.

Bradley Cooper delivers a career-defining performance. It is not flashy or melodramatic. It is internal, restrained, and devastating. You watch a man unravel slowly, not through big outbursts but through silence, tension, and detachment. Cooper gained over 40 pounds for the role and reportedly studied hours of Kyle’s interviews, but it is the emotional transformation that stays with you, not the physical.

One of the film’s greatest strengths is how it refuses to take a side. It is not rah-rah patriotism, and it is not a blunt anti-war lecture either. It exists in the middle, which is exactly where Kyle lived. He is a hero to some, a controversial figure to others, and the film leans into that complexity without trying to resolve it. It trusts the viewer to feel conflicted.

The combat scenes are brutal, yes, but never mindless. They are constructed to make you feel the intensity and disorientation, not just the adrenaline. But what really lands is everything between the battles, the scenes of Kyle at home, unable to relax, unable to connect, unable to be “normal”. Watching him try and fail to be present with his wife and children is more painful than any of the war sequences because that is where the real damage is.

And then there is the ending. If you know, you know. It does not come with a dramatic explosion or emotional monologue. It ends quietly, realistically, and with a punch to the chest. It makes you sit with the reality of a man who could survive everything except peace. It is one of those final moments that lingers, whether you liked the movie or not.

American Sniper was one of the most talked-about films of the 2010s. It was nominated for six Academy Awards and sparked debate in every direction. Was it too sympathetic? Too simplistic? Too political? That conversation is still alive today, and watching or rewatching it now feels like opening a wound that never fully closed.

So why watch it before it leaves Netflix? Because films like this deserve to be seen and talked about. Because Bradley Cooper’s performance alone is worth two hours of your time. And because it is rare for a blockbuster to be this emotionally raw and morally uncertain.

Netflix will remove American Sniper on June 21st. Watch it while it is still here. And be ready to feel a lot more than you expect.