“American Sniper” Top Film of 2014: Triumphs over The Hunger Games Mockingjay Part 1; Stirs questions on PTSD, firearms

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After getting six Academy Award nominations including best picture, "The American Sniper" has added another item on its roster of achievements after landing on the top spot of the highest grossing film of 2014. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay lands on the second spot and The Guardian of the Galaxy on third. The film required $58 million to produce and earned $337.2 million in the US topping Mockingjay who only had $336.9 million domestically. The film made a total of $500 million worldwide. Bradley Cooper who played the lead role even got his third Oscar nomination due to this movie.

The movie had its fair share of controversies after stirring political debates about the effects of the Iraq war to war veterans and the soldiers of the military. The author of the movie, Navy Seal Chris Kyle died in 2013 because of a gun shot from a fellow veteran, Eddie Ray Routh, 27. Routh was suffering from PTSD and shot Chris Kyle and another friend near Dallas last February 2, 2013. Chris Kyle is a well-known advocate who help war veterans cope with PTSD and other war disorders.

Trials on the "American Sniper" shooting commence on Wednesday, March 11. An insanity defense will be used by Routh's representatives and prosecutors are not going to seek for death penalty.

Cooper on the other hand says that Kyle's memory and life story did not leave him.

"After that, you're more aware of everything," he said of the experience of crawling inside the mind of the military's deadliest sniper, Chris Kyle. "He didn't really leave me."

The actor packed 30 pounds of muscles, perfected a Texas twang and had to learn to shoot a .300 Winchester Magnum Rifle to relive the character of the most lethal sniper in the US.

Jeff Goldstein, executive vice president and general sales manager of Warner Brothers also shared his feelings about the movie.

'Who would expect a drama to have this kind of enormous success? It shows it doesn't matter when a movie comes out of its ordinary storytelling and hits the public in a very personal way."

"You don't have to be an American to identify with the patriotism of the story. Wherever you live and whatever your ideologies are, there are still pieces of the film you can identify with," Goldstein added.

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