Checked out Bradley Cooper’s and director Clint Eastwood’s new Iraq war movie American Sniper. And it’s a fairly to very good movie though your personal ability to like the movie may be tinged by your personal view of the war. It shows a warts-and-all boots-on-the-ground movie that spends it’s time being direct about itself and not pushing its own opinion on you. If you see the things the soldiers do as inherently wrong or right, that’s what you bring to the table, in my opinion.
It does have an opinion about Chris Kyle, the real sniper with the most confirmed kills (160+) in American military history. They portray him as a defender of the homeland and of his military buddies… and maybe a little less favorable of the Iraqi soldiers (and insurgent civilians) he’s there to kill. It’s an interesting performance that kind of tells the old story of how (in this case) four voluntary tours of duty in Iraq can really mess with you when you come home (in between tours and when he’s finally done). The war turns him from a decent man into a disassociated, shell-shocked man who doesn’t seem to want to ask if all his kills were done for right or for wrong (he is sure he’s right which is either the Texan navy seal in him or his own mind trying to convince itself).
Bradley Cooper’s performance here is fantastic – yes, he put on 40 pounds of man meat (and grew a beard) for the film… but it’s his Texas drawl, the haunted look in his eyes when home, and the focus when he’s in Iraq that really make this his best performance. You lose the smarmy or comedic guy he usually plays. He’s just gone – lost in the part. It’s a great performance backed by a solid script.
The combat scenes are suitably intense – not overly hollywood-ized (for the most part) – with some specific scenes being some of the most suspenseful things I’ve seen (scenes uncomfortably involving power drills). There is a through-line about an enemy sniper (a Syrian sharpshooter who placed in the Olympics) that feels like a Hollywood addition but maybe it’s true… (the guy is so secretive and deadly, a soldier comments that he’s a real Kaizer Soze). It becomes somewhat of a duel between the two snipers, though it’s not SO much a sniper duel as to feel like Enemy at the Gates.
The movie has some weird moments of emotional disengagement though… and it’s a little abrupt in places. They show a 9/11 scene where everyone is traumatized and then it cuts to a wedding where it doesn’t seem like the previous scene happened. There’s two big finale moments (which I won’t spoil) at the end that both fall flat. If you know how this guy’s story ends, I’ll just say that it presented as a quick one sentence statement that comes only after about ten ominous seconds of screen time. This kind of thing lands with a thud.
Overall, it’s a pretty good bordering on great movie that I recommend. Regardless of whether you are pro or anti Iraq or somewhere in the middle, the movie will give you something to experience in your own way. As a presentation of the man it’s there to either honor or simply portray, it’s well served by a good script, solid direction, and an excellent performance.
Score: 87