Director of massively successful Iraq war movie American Sniper says ‘I was not a big fan of going to war in Iraq or Afghanistan’

American Sniper director Clint Eastwood has said that the film, about legendarily lethal marksman Chris Kyle and his tours in Iraq, is anti-war.

In an interview with students at Loyola Marymount University School of Film & TV in Los Angeles, he said of the film: “I think it’s nice for veterans, because it shows what they go through, and that life – and the wives and families of veterans. It has a great indication of the stresses they are under. And I think that all adds up to kind of an anti-war [message].”

He said that he himself was also opposed to war:

I’ve done war movies because they’re always loaded with drama and conflict. But as far as actual participation … it’s one of those things that should be done with a lot of thought, if it needs to be done. Self-protection is a very important thing for nations, but I just don’t like to see it. I was not a big fan of going to war in Iraq or Afghanistan, for several reasons, several practical reasons. One, Afghanistan, the British had never been successful there; the Russians had 10 years there and hadn’t been successful … Iraq, I know, was a different deal, because there was a lot of intelligence that told us that bad things could happen there, and we’re never sure how that ended up, whether it was pro or con. [But] I tend to err on the side of less is best.

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He also admits that he “glorifies” the sniping itself, but then shows that Kyle has “got some regrets in there. And that’s just the way it is. I think it’s anti.”

American Sniper, starring Bradley Cooper as Kyle, became hugely popular, especially in the US where it grossed $341m. Part of its success was due to successful marketing at America’s military communities – there are 1.5 million soldiers on active duty and 22 million veterans, and the film played particularly strongly in areas with concentrations of military personnel.

It eventually grossed $517m worldwide, and became the highest-grossing war movie ever, overtaking Saving Private Ryan; it was also nominated for six Oscars. Its release ran concurrently with the trial of Eddie Ray Routh, who was found guilty of murdering Kyle on a gun range in February 2013, and sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.

Elsewhere in the talk, Eastwood reminisces about his break into acting, including a failed spell at Universal when – amazingly, considering his iconic performance in A Fistful of Dollars and elsewhere – he was considered unfit for westerns. He also described crashing into the Pacific in a military plane in 1951, after he was drafted into the army: “Found out many years later that it was a white shark breeding ground but I’m glad I didn’t know that at the time or I’d have just died, just had apoplexy or something.”

Another anecdote has him and Steve McQueen mulling over whether to take roles in Apocalypse Now – he considered the role that Martin Sheen eventually played, while McQueen fancied Kurtz as it involved much less filming.

Eastwood said he was taking a short break from film-making after directing Jersey Boys and American Sniper back to back, but alluded to a new project as well as his long-gestating remake of Judy Garland drama A Star Is Born.

I talked about [A Star Is Born] for a while with Warner Brothers people and we’re still playing with that idea, but the problem at the beginning I thought they were more infatuated with just the idea of the casting. They were talking about having Beyoncé in it, and she was very popular, but she also is very active and is hard to get a time scheduled so we never could get that worked out. We’d get a time schedule from all of the activities that she has so that picture never came into being. But I’m still playing with the idea, then also I’ve got one other thing I’m looking at that’s interesting.

The full transcript of Eastwood’s interview can be read at the Hollywood Reporter.