Spot on target over sniper loneliness

INTENSE combat, domestic disquiet and sad irony are the grim touchstones of American Sniper, a film about a latter-day patriot and believer in truth, justice and the American Way whose larger-than-life story - in the assured hands of director Clint Eastwood - is easily the stuff of legend.

As it happens, Legend was the moniker given to Chris Kyle, a sharpshooter in the Navy SEALs whose four tours in Iraq yielded a record number of kills and a …