American Sniper (2014)

"There are only three kinds of people in this world: wolves, sheep, and sheep dogs." -Chis Kyle's father.

*spoilers* obviously

These is no doubt that anyone who sees American Sniper will be changed and should either engage in productive introspection on the nature of the material presented or, should they be more social, attempt to engage others in spirited and productive discussions of the tale presented.  I am of the opinion that the worst outcome for all involved in the production of this film would be unproductive shouting that degenerates into white noise, and changes nothing. -This is the likely outcome, and that makes me a little sad.

My little blog is only a movie blog and so I will keep my review mostly focused on the actual film, and its lower score reflects that the copy that I watched was of poor quality in addition to my opinions on its merit.

First and foremost, I admire the acting work of Bradley Cooper.  He was extremely convincing.  Second, Clint Eastwood understands shot selection, pacing, transitions, and cuts extremely well. Mr. Eastwood and I seem to agree that using a handheld camera does not automatically make a shot more authentic.  Additionally, I am a fan of jarring and chaotic scenes that give a better sense of true chaos, but a lot of times war and action films will use this technique to avoid hassle ie time, money, editing, location shoots et all.  Clint Eastwood does gritty right.  I liked it.

But, I do have a critique that I won't hold this against him. The ending to American Sniper through me for a serious loop.  I am not sure exactly when production started on this film...but obviously the real Chris Kyle died in 2013, which may have been too late to change a lot of the film.  My guess is that upon Chris's untimely demise the decision was made to use as much if not all of the original film as possible and tack on the ending. I think there is a chance that the last shot of his wife staring at him with sad eyes was redone or purposefully orchestrated to end the film on a moment of sadness This would hopefully soften the blow to the audience of Chris's untimely passing in the next frame. -I still felt this was technically strange, thematically off putting, and abrupt, but I completely understand.

Now to the messy part of my review.  I distinctly understood this film to take and proclaim an extremely simplistic universe view.  I don't mean geopolitical or psychological...those these are also true...but in a pure sense.  ie There are always only 2 options. They are with us, or against us.  They are american or they are not.  They are a terrorist or they are not. Even my quote at the top is a simplification to the idea that there are only three kinds of people. There is no nuance. None.  There is no grey. There is black and white; good and bad. I fully pin this overarching pervasive message on the book- which was written by Chris Kyle along with ghostwriters Jim Defelice and Scott McEwen. It may be that they in fact believed in simplified world and present their vision on paper.  I do not hold this view and believe nuance and ambiguity to be a strength. This would be a difficult book for me to read and it was a strange film to watch.

The previous opinion is going to contrast with the fact that I found the directing acting choices of the film deliberately attempting to buck with the narrative in order to humanize our character and his story. My understanding after watching the film is that Bradley Cooper and Clint Eastwood's Chris Kyle looses his warrior mentality and fighting edge the moment he allows even a hint of ambiguous thought cloud his military clarity.  This is an interesting artistic statement. Is a simplistic worldview required to maintain an edge and stay alive under extreme pressure situations?

In short, I do not personally hold to an assortment of views and statements presented throughout American Sniper. I sincerely hope that those that see the film do reflect on its premises accordingly. But the acting (3.8), directing (3.5), foley effects (4), and stunts (4) are excellent.     -4 out of 5 for Bradley Cooper in the lead role.

On a scale of pin up gals on the side of WW2 bombers to skull cross bones with lightning bolts on tanks in Iraq, I give American Sniper 3.42 out of 5 stars.