American Sniper
2014
***½
Director: Clint Eastwood
Cast: Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller, Max Charles, Luke Grimes, Kyle Gallner, Sam Jaeger, Jake McDorman, Cory Hardrict, Navid Negahban, Sammy Sheik
United States Navy Seal Chris Kyle became a legendary sniper during his four tours of duty in Iraq. This biographical drama portrays Kyle as a conflicted man who is at ease protecting his brothers in arms, but like a fish out of water during the rare moments at home with his wife and kids. Clint Eastwood's film is consistently gripping, but it walks a fine line between thought-provoking realism and patriotic propaganda. On the one hand, Eastwood depicts the horrors of the battle and the terrible decisions Kyle must make in a blink of an eye. On the other hand, he turns the protagonist into a bona fide war hero. Eastwood does not question the legitimacy of the war, he merely shows that nothing compares to the intimacy a group of men develop in a combat situation. Bradley Cooper gives a strong central performance. Jason Hall scripted from the book American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History by Chris Kyle, Scott McEwen, and Jim DeFelice.
