AMERICAN SNIPER (review)

By Clay N Ferno

Bradley Cooper stars in the Clint Eastwood directed American Sniper. A sure-shot for Oscar winner, with a total of six nominations, this heartbreaking war picture astounds with it’s scale.

From hearing the sniper’s heartbeat quicken to the plucked the heartstrings on the home-front, the true life story of Navy Seal Chris Kyle’s life brought to the big screen may be a crowning accomplishment for both Cooper and Eastwood. The story unfolds between tours as ‘The Legend’ returns
home and Kyle is forced to adjust to civilian life and the effects of
the thousand-yard stare of a true American hero.

Sienna Miller costars as Taya Kyle — Chris’ wife forced to stay at home and raise kids while her husband — the greatest sniper in the world — agrees to multiple tours fighting the War in Afghanistan.

Eastwood and Cooper were highlighted in two of my favorite films of last year, Jersey Boys and Guardians of The Galaxy. These movies, one a musical and the other a comic book action romp could not have been more different a movie than we are given with American Sniper.  

Sniper marks the first time these strong leading men worked together, and markedly this is a very serious film and shift in tone for both.

As a director, Eastwood has been taking audiences on a more introspective and serious ride in his later years with movies set in the present day like Million Dollar Baby, Gran Turino all the way back to Mystic River to name a few. He’s taken on the horrors of war with period pieces Iwo Jima and to some extent in J. Edgar.

By basing this film on the autobiography of Chris Kyle (American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History – with Scott McEwen & Jim DeFelice), the realism is ramped up to such intensity that only seeing the film in theaters will do it justice.

From the accuracy of the SEAL sniper training to the small moments at home where men can not express feelings or emotion about doing their job abroad will chill you to the bone.

You might not notice it at first, as you follow Chris’s lecture from his Dad about there being three kinds of people in the world — “sheep, wolves and sheepdogs”. From this instilled sense of honor to protect his younger brother on the playground, to be the protective sheepdog for God, Family and Country defines Kyle as a character. Cooper occupies this officer’s uniform not only with reverence but with a Texan drawl and resolute determination that makes you root for him.

What creeps in on you as you attach yourself to Chris Kyle’s psyche is what it means for the decisions he has to make as “Overwatch”, sniping near and faraway enemies as Marines patrol the streets below. He’s saving Marines. He’s the sheepdog. He’s a soldier doing his job. The feelings about sniping children holding IEDs (improvised explosive devices) are stuffed down. Way down. You are maybe leaving this movie with your own conflicted feelings about war and children and guns and violence and explosions.

As war films go, this movie had a similar affect on me as I felt when I first saw the gore portrayed in Platoon. As a G.I.Joe child of the ‘80s, Vietnam was something my parents and uncle never recovered from. Watching American Sniper, I’m reminded we’ve been involved in a Middle Eastern war for most of my adult life. I know soldiers and am lucky enough to call them my family members and celebrate their return from war. Others aren’t so lucky, least of all the other men my family members and friends have left behind.

American Sniper is a war film by genre, masterfully acted and directed. Our hero is so great at his job sniping that jihadists have a $180,000 bounty on his head by his final tour. He takes risks, goes into situations dangerous to him and his men — all bound by duty.

His life and his wife and his family are the chorus to the narrative, while pregnant with their first, Taya is on the phone with Chris halfway across the world as he stares into his rifle crosshairs. What almost becomes a phone sex time quickly turns to Taya compelling Chris to call his Dad. His younger brother Jeff (Keir O’Donnell) has been enlisted as a grunt to fight on the ground. When they later meet on a tarmac for a brief encounter, Jeff congratulates The Legend on his success but is psyched that he himself is going home. “Fuck this place, man.” And Chris, not understanding what it might be for a regular soldier over there also shows a slight hint of emotion and glad his little brother is making it home safe.

American Sniper does have a scary antagonist in Mustafa (Sammy Sheik).

Mustafa is a Syrian gold medalist sharpshooter enlisted to fight the Americans. This Spy vs. Spy tale is almost too good to be true as a work of fiction but what makes it scarier is that this is based on a true story. Mustafa is Kyle’s foil, a real life Moriarty with the same skills fighting for the other side.

Stateside for Chris Kyle after surviving the war is as we have mentioned, challenging at the very least. He nearly takes out a neighbors dog for play nibbling one of the kids at a barbecue. Through some work with his wife and the V.A. hospital, Chris finally gets some help.

I’m immediately buying this book and another ticket to American Sniper. If Eastwood left anything out from the book I’d be surprised. I’m fascinated by the man Chris Kyle and absolutely floored by the art created here based on his life.

“Hooah” is the battle cry SEALS used in training as an affirmative. Hooah, sirs. This is a modern classic to be revisited by patriots, filmmakers and soldiers for years to come.