STEPHENVILLE, Tex. — The trial of the man charged with killing Chris Kyle, a former sniper for the Navy SEALs, is scheduled to open here on Wednesday at 9 a.m. The blockbuster war movie about Mr. Kyle, “American Sniper,” now playing at Cinemark Cinema 6 three miles from the courtroom, will be showing at 3:40 p.m., 7 p.m. and 10:20 p.m.

The convergence of the movie, the trial and the fierce emotions that both have stirred up has set this rural town 100 miles southwest of Dallas on edge, as legal experts have questioned whether Eddie Ray Routh, 27, the mentally ill veteran accused of killing Mr. Kyle and Mr. Kyle’s friend at a shooting range in Stephenville’s Erath County in 2013, can receive a fair trial here.

But aside from the questions about the legal proceedings, something more than a double-murder trial is set to play out here this week. “American Sniper” has become a cultural moment far beyond the reach of the book, the movie or the criminal case against Mr. Routh. And just as the movie has been debated for what it says about war and warriors, the trial will dissect what war did to and for two men — one of them hailed, particularly in Texas, as an American hero, the other a fellow soldier on trial for two murders that people here are still trying to comprehend two years later.

Image Chris Kyle in 2012. Mr. Kyle’s celebrity hangs over the trial and the town of Stephenville, Tex., larger in death than it was in life. Credit... Brandon Thibodeaux for The New York Times

Mr. Kyle’s celebrity hangs over the trial and the town, larger in death than it was in life. The sign outside the Grand Entry Western Store advertises Chris Kyle baseball caps for sale. More ominously, a man called the local newspaper, The Stephenville Empire-Tribune, and told the managing editor that a bomb was going to go off before jury selection. Officials have earmarked $1 million for security in and around the Donald R. Jones Justice Center, where the trial will be held. On the first day of the juror qualification process last week, the judge excused 39 potential jurors, including 12 who said the pretrial publicity made them biased about the case.