A Veteran Works to Break the ‘Broken Hero’ Stereotype

WASHINGTON — Chris Marvin began to believe veterans might have an image problem when he went out to his mailbox one morning and found a check from a wounded veterans charity for $500.

“I didn’t know them,” said Mr. Marvin, 35, a retired Army helicopter pilot who broke his legs, an arm and bones in his face in a crash in Afghanistan in 2004. “I didn’t ask for it. I started to wonder, what is this for?”

“It really started to bother me,” he said. “I didn’t need charity. I needed a new sense of purpose.”

To Mr. Marvin, he was being stereotyped by what he believes has become the dominant image of veterans on television and in Hollywood today: the “broken hero,” as he puts it, “who once did incredible things but is now forever damaged and in need of help.”

Regardless of one’s view of the film’s politics, “American Sniper” has succeeded in getting “important topics out there while we are still producing a product people want to see,” said Bruce Cohen, a producer on “Silver Linings Playbook” and “American Beauty” who has been working with the White House to encourage film and television executives to include veterans in their work.

Though it came out before his seal-of-approval program began, Mr. Marvin said “American Sniper” would have met its requirements.

“It wasn’t just a hero story,” he said. “He was a real man in war, dealing with a lot of very real things.”

“It sparked a lot of conversation,” Mr. Marvin added. “It was a way for the public to see the back and forth between home and war that so many vets went through. And it created a good conversation around combat and morality. Those are good things.”

The New York Times