American Sniper - Review
Starring Bradley Cooper and
with a running time of 2 hours and 15 minutes Director Clint Eastwood tells the
story of Navy Seal Sniper Chris Kyle aka "American Sniper," aka “The
Legend”, the most lethal sniper in U.S. military history with his roof top mission
of protecting his fellow soldiers in Iraq. The film is also about how he and
probably many others like him who returned home in spite of an abundance of
healing love of family and friends could not help them leave the war behind.
War, even for the most honorable, noble and decent men and women still quietly
ravages their very being. Sometimes manifested with the more obvious clinical
symptoms of PTSD and other times stealthy quietly with the numbers of 110 over
70. Their veins, their minds and their souls get unintentionally twisted and as
result even the slightest sound or look or face or noise can all too readily
put them back in places they thought they had left behind.
Initially the film starts out
with a pace so fast it felt as if Eastwood wanted to tell Chris’s story in
leaps, bounds and giant spades. Also, Bradley Texas accent early on seemed at
times hard to understand. But around the 60 minute mark the film settles down
quite well to create a genuine raw and realistic atmosphere of human tension,
human grit and a truly unnerving depiction of all the dirty aspects of war.
This films makes it clear war has never been nor will it ever be glamourous
work.
In a lot of ways Eastwood draw
upon his basic theme in his Best Picture winning film “Unforgiven”. To take a
quote from that central character William Munny, “American Sniper reminds us
here as well that “It's a hell of a thing, killin' a man. Take away all he's
got, and all he's ever gonna have”.
American Sniper is many
things. As a theme of war, it is blunt, effective and troubling. From a human
perspective it also about confidence, intensity and emotional vulnerability.
From Chris Kyle’s personal story it is about family, Texas, gun culture and
Christianity. Ultimately, the film is a tribute to his warrior sacrifice and a
lament for war.
The politics of the Iraq war in this film are entirely absent, which is a bit of political statement in its
own right. No mention of any politicians are ever invoked. But in the end the
film is about a man’s life as well a tale of countless many other lives of good
people who went to war to do the right thing.
My one minor issue with the film is with the Iraqi fighters
they fought. Eastwood does not make much effort to make them anything beyond just
being the bad guys. I get they were the enemy, but a few scenes could have been
given to tell their perspective – their story on why they believed they needed
to fight against the Americans.
Technically, some of the fire
fights chorography were truly haunting and brutal to watch with extended battle
scenes that seem to last far longer than anyone could ever imagine that all the
while were probably true in every bloody moment.
Bradley Cooper richly deserves
his Oscar nomination as best Actor here as he manages to throw away that
natural charm of his without suppressing it completely. He rather adroitly
manages to be both tough and sweet, a loyal friend and husband and honorable
but no saint.
American Sniper is not the
very best movie I have seen this year but it certainly felt like one of the
better films I have seen nonetheless. And with a level of intimacy of Chris
Kyle’s personal story that I really felt, I enjoyed this latest Eastwood effort
very, very much.
3 - 3/4 Stars
