IT is not surprising perhaps that some of the most heated public debates in the United States have been fuelled by films or, for that matter, other products of the popular culture. After all, for most Americans - and for audiences in Western countries - movies, and not novels or plays, are what passes today for "culture" in terms of what shapes their values as individuals and as a society.

So what are we to make of American Sniper - the newly-released Oscar-nominated film directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Bradley Cooper as Navy Seal sharpshooter Chris Kyle - which continues to do big business at the box office as it approaches its third weekend in theatres and was expected to pass the US$250 million mark over the Super Bowl weekend?

The film's success means that millions of Americans are demonstrating their respect for the legacy of the deadliest sniper in US history who has been portrayed by cultural conservatives as a great patriot and war hero while being bashed by liberal critics as a hate-filled killer and a racist.