“American Sniper” was an unstoppable force when it was released in 2014. Appearing first in a limited number of theaters, the war drama directed by Clint Eastwood earned massive amounts of positive buzz from word of mouth. Audiences loved it — and it went on to gross over $350 million in America and nearly $550 million worldwide.

Depicting the life of the late Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, “American Sniper” was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

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Despite its achievements, not everyone was a fan of the film. It humanized a man who had taken many lives during his time overseas, and some people were incensed and claimed it was pro-war propaganda.

One person was so angry at Eastwood’s movie that he’s now choosing to make an anti-“American Sniper” film, titled “Iraqi Sniper.”

Egyptian director Amr Salama, who is debuting the film “Sheikh Jackson” at the Toronto Film Festival soon, told The Hollywood Reporter his movie will tell the “other side of the story of ‘American Sniper,’ the story about the villain.”

The character he’s referring to is an Iraqi sniper whom Kyle hunts throughout the film (the character was also mentioned in Kyle’s memoir by the same name). “He’s the hero in my film,” said Salama.

Although his movie has a working title that riffs off Eastwood’s smash hit, don’t expect similarities. Salama does not think highly of the picture starring Bradley Cooper (pictured above). “I hated it,” he said. “That was my inspiration –– I hated it so much that I wanted to work on a different version of that story.”

He added, “I’m trying to make an anti-war film, whereas ‘American Sniper’ was pro-war.”

“I’m trying to make an anti-war film, whereas ‘American Sniper’ was pro-war.”

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For someone who didn’t like “American Sniper” very much, Salama sure is piggybacking off the success of the movie. Not only is the working title a play on Eastwood’s, but get this: The director claims the same actor who played the Iraqi sniper in “American Sniper” will take the lead in his film.

“The same actor who played the sniper in ‘American Sniper’ — Sammy Sheik — is attached to my film,” he said.

There’s nothing particularly new about making war movies that humanize both sides of a conflict. Eastwood, in fact, already beat Salama to the punch. The filmmaker released “Flags of Our Fathers” and “Letters From Iwo Jima” in 2006, and the movies told two sides of the same vicious battle during World War II.

The difference is that Eastwood’s endeavor was a lot less incendiary — he didn’t make the films while America was in the midst of the war he was depicting.

Related: Eastwood on Political Correctness: ‘We’re Killing Ourselves’

The problem with Salama’s project is less about the character it covers (he can tell whatever story he wants, however misguided it may be) — and more with the motivation for his picture, which is based on a phony narrative pushed hard by the mainstream media and critics who targeted “American Sniper” when it achieved its success.

It was not a pro-war movie. It was a pro-soldier movie. People were incensed it dared to tell the story of the type of veteran so often forgotten about in this country and culture.

“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 a kind of anti-war [message],” Eastwood told THR in 2015 about his film. These were comments they conveniently ignored when announcing “Iraqi Sniper.”

Screenwriter Jason Hall concurred with Eastwood’s analysis and thought criticism was misguided and based on personal bias. “People see the movie poster, and it’s got a guy and the American flag, and they know Clint Eastwood — the ‘Dirty Harry’ guy and the Republican convention guy — directed it. So they think it’s some jingoistic thing. I would challenge that in a big way,” Hall told Time magazine in 2015. “The movie isn’t about whether we should have been in Iraq or not. It’s about how war is human. I hope every time a politician decides to send us to war, maybe they saw this movie and know the cost of it.”

Not everyone bought into the generic attacks on the movie.

Related: Clint Eastwood: The Word ‘Hero’ Is Overdone

“Eastwood uses the key aspects of Kyle’s life with determined purpose. He doesn’t seek to arouse us with the slaughter amid which the celebrated sniper spent so many of his days –– the massacred civilians, the dying SEALs choking on their own blood — but to make us think about it. It’s not a pretty picture, but Eastwood has made a powerful film out of it,” wrote Reason critic Kurt Loder, an Army veteran.

Kyle Smith, the former film critic for the New York Post and another Army veteran, also saw the film as a thoughtful humanization of soldiers not discussed nearly enough today. “Cowboys, adventurers, joyriders — these are exactly what our best fighting men are not. They suffer merely to be alive, when so many brothers lie in boxes draped with flags. ‘American Sniper’ does honor to them.”

Related: Clint Eastwood Is Making Another Patriotic Movie

“American Sniper” was Eastwood’s best film since “Unforgiven.” In the same way that his final western was a deconstruction of its genre, “Sniper” was a deconstruction of the war movie. Eastwood, a self-proclaimed libertarian, is no pro-war artist. He is a veteran himself and used “Sniper” to share an honest depiction of war, veterans, their families, military leadership, and so much more.

“American Sniper” was Eastwood’s best film since “Unforgiven.”

People like Salama were infuriated because it shunned political correctness. It told the story specifically from Kyle’s perspective. If it had gone out of its way to demonize Kyle and then showed a few heroic Middle Eastern combatants — it likely would have walked away with the Best Picture Oscar and gotten pats on the back from the mainstream media. It also would have made a lot less money.

“Iraqi Sniper” is a terrible idea, and its inflammatory nature is the least of its problems. It’s an example of a false narrative created around a deeply thoughtful film about war and veterans. It’s also a flick that wants it both ways –– it wants to piggyback on Eastwood’s success yet vilify the man at the same time.

Just as with “American Sniper,” the paying viewer will be the judge in the end. It won’t come down to the politically biased media or critics. It will come down to box office, so let’s just wait and see how close “Iraqi Sniper” gets to the massive haul of “American Sniper.”

(photo credit, homepage and article images: Warner Bros.)