AMERICAN SNIPER | Film Review (NO SPOILERS)

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Title: American Sniper
Director: Clint Eastwood
Starring: Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller
Originally Released: 2014
Running Time: 132 mins / 2 hrs 12 mins

Premise. A 'bio-pic' of Navy Seal and the US's deadliest Sniper, Chris Kyle.

Thoughts going into the film: To be honest, I didn't have positive thoughts, whilst Clint Eastwood has the ability to be a fine director, he slacks at times and with this subject matter I was scared it would be right-wing patriotism captured on film. I was also put off by the fact that the case surrounding Kyle's death is occurring today, around the release of the film. A bit ill-timed, in my opinion.

Thoughts immediately after: Not as bad as I thought, but still, Oscar nominee, really?

The Film: The film started out strong. We begin in media res with Kyle  on his first tour in Iraq, about to undertake his first official kill. A flashback introduces us to the why and the how he ended up in this position, which was a very clever and impacting technique. From there on the film fell a little flat. Kyle served four tours in Iraq and we're shown each, whilst gaining about five minutes of his home life. Because of this the audience is prevented from learning anything more about him or his family life, meaning we get zero sense of character development from any other character. The only arc we get with Kyle is his growing anguish with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, this itself is again only a marginal point in the film and was quite poorly done. It substituted character development for numerous action scenes, some of which, I found redundant. Some of the action scenes are thrilling and thought-provoking, and they are some of the better directed moments. The audience almost see the life leave some people's eyes, examining this level of horror that war creates. The cinematography and sound were the better points in the film, leaving this dusty, murky and shaky vision of war in the forefront of our minds.

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The Cast: Bradley Cooper portrays Kyle with a profound distance, and with his ever-growing facial hair comes Kyle's decent into PTSD. Whilst Cooper has been lauded by many for his performance in this, I just find it very good, perhaps not Oscar-worthy. I've not seen Nightcrawler, but it definitely seems Gyllenhaal deserved the nomination over him, and most certainly, David Oyelowo. I am a fan of Cooper, he's a decent actor and seems like all-round, nice guy, but his distance was a little bit stale for me. Sienna Miller was rather forgettable. At the beginning she was portrayed as quite a sassy, out-spoken character, but slipped into the subdued, doting housewife. And whilst I understand this is based on real people, it just felt jolting and a bit bizarre. She was likeable and then instantly forgettable.

Final Thoughts: American Sniper on the whole is a good film, but it is nothing particularly special.  The film dealt too much with a broad narrative and a sheer lack of direction, I find myself asking, what was the point of this film? To show the horror of war? To document the life of Chris Kyle? Why does an audience need to see that? I agree with a depiction of war that conveys its brutal reality, whether its aim be for documenting the life-risking nature of soldiers, or that war is fundamentally evil. However, this film offers neither, the one aspect that I felt was profound was Kyle's struggle with PTSD, and then it was suddenly dealt with and he becomes this doting father and husband. There are far better films that deal with such themes.
Another issue was its complete lack of depth in character, we deal with binaries and binaries alone, there is no grey area that war essentially is, and with that we get hardly any exploration into the psyche of any character. Overall, the film felt like Call of Duty: The Movie. Whilst the action scenes were eventful, a barrier is created distancing the audience from characters, the only reason people could feel emotions is perhaps because this is a true story. We get moments where the film and Cooper are verging on really good, but these are too few and far between.

★★½