Hero or villain? Clint Eastwood's American Sniper puts Chris Kyle in the cross hairs

Everyone involved with last week's most popular movie claims it has nothing to do with politics. Really, star actor Bradley Cooper stressed over and again in interviews, it doesn't. Director Clint Eastwood's American Sniper simply explains the "plight" of the soldier, he told the Daily Beast, providing a "character study".

But this was no ordinary soldier. This was the late Chris Kyle, the much-mythologised "deadliest sniper" in American history. And regardless of what Cooper wants, his movie has become political.

Before he was shot to death at a Texas gun range by a veteran he was helping adjust to life at home, Kyle - who claimed he killed 150 people while working as a sniper in Iraq - oozed conviction and charisma. He wore big boots. He spoke with a languid Texas drawl. He wrote a best-selling memoir. He made millions. And he stirred controversy just about everywhere he went.

The conversation that now shadows the release of American Sniper, which collected a record US$105 million in the first weekend of its release in the US, has been no different. After days of nationwide screenings, the film was subject to widespread praise among conservatives for depicting an American soldier at his best and condemnation among some liberals who question the admitted pleasure Kyle took in killing and dehumanising Iraqis.

And then there were the tales Kyle told about himself, which came under increasing suspicion after numerous journalists tried - and failed - to corroborate them. Among them: Kyle once said he shot dead two armed Texas thugs who wanted to steal his truck. He said he travelled down to New Orleans and killed 30 bad guys in the chaos following Hurricane Katrina.

And he also falsely claimed he punched out former Minnesota governor Jesse "the Body" Ventura after Ventura, a former special forces operative himself, disparaged the US Navy Seals.