AMERICAN SNIPER
Warner Bros.
Reviewed for Shockya by Harvey Karten. Data-based on Rotten Tomatoes.
Grade: B+
Director: Clint Eastwood
Screenwriter: Jason Dean Hall, from Chris Kyle’s book
Cast: Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller, Luke Grimes, Max Charles, Jake McDorman
Screened at: Warner Bros, NYC, 11/21/14
Opens: December 25, 2014
When you go to a war movie, you want to root wholeheartedly for the Americans. Fighting Hitler? USA! USA! But when you’re dealing with controversial fights such as our role in Vietnam, you can’t be blamed for being conflicted. Remember that our armed forces are in a foreign land and are being resisted by the local people. We’d do the same if the enemy were on our shores. So when you see American Seals shooting women and children, and even when taking aim at Iraqi fighters (who undoubtedly consider themselves The Resistance), you might be some squirms coming on in your theater seat. At least, that’s the feeling I got in watching Clint Eastwood’s “American Sniper.” Recall that George W. Bush’s decision to go to war in that Middle Eastern country because of Saddam’s alleged but nonexistent weapons of mass destruction may have been more responsible than any other factor for the Democrats’ capturing the White House in 2008.
Nonetheless, because of Bradley Cooper’s superlative acting and Eastwood’s flawless direction, “American Sniper” is an entertaining piece of work if not necessary one that will leave you with a black-and-white feeling that we’re the good guys and they’re—as the SEALs called them—savages. The Arabs come across, maybe, as sinister, because that’s the way our side portrays those who join groups like Al Queda. But to them, no doubt the Americans are strange creatures as well.
If you read the book “American Sniper” by Chris Kyle, you’re aware that the war in Iraq is told from Kyle’s point of view. Portrayed by Bradley Cooper, who bulked up with an additional forty pounds to give him a look of chunky good health, Kyle is shown knocking off the enemy without missing a shot, ultimately responsible for 165 credited kills, though his real numbers could be one hundred higher. Though the men in his SEALs platoon are not particularly differentiated from one another—after all we see only Kyle at home in California—director Eastwood is able to evoke the psychological dimensions of the war. As we all know, when soldiers go into battle, they don’t necessarily think of how they’re doing it for their country but are actually fighting for one another. (Nonetheless, Kyle at one point believes that if the Iraqi enemy is not eradicated six thousand miles away, they will somehow take the fight to San Diego.)
Kyle, who is nicknamed “Legend” because of his phenomenal success behind the big guns, is shown first as a child, whose father teaches him the manly art of hunting, praising him for an exceptional shot that brings down an animal. Whatever it takes to be a successful sniper—whether a steady arm, a more focused eye, a psychological makeup that dismisses fear—Kyle had it as no-one else among our fighters had.
In the opening scene, one that for cinematic purposes does not take us immediately to his childhood, perches on a rooftop with the heavy responsibility of deciding whether a woman and her small boy are fighters. He determines that the kid is about to toss a grenade at the Marines, at which point Eastwood flashes back to Kyle’s Texas boyhood where among his macho achievements is participating in the rodeo.
While some may wonder why so much time is spent on his marriage to Taya (Sienna Miller), such exposure is needed to delve into Kyle’s psyche, to see the difference between his initial flirtations in a bar where Taya at first notes that she would never date a SEAL (arrogant) through the segments in which Taya complains that her husband, who chooses four tours of duty, is not “at home” even when he is with her and their two children.
You might dismiss the contact battle scenes as depicting either a shooting gallery or a video game, but they are effective, particularly given the pauses between each kill, the horror at the loss of some American soldiers, and the threat of having your head shot off at any instant. Tensions peak while we in the audience watch Kyle making the decision whether to fire at someone on the ground who appears innocent but may be ready to pick up a grenade or a bazooka.
Kyle is a gung-ho guy who could have remained relatively safe just behind the lines, hiding on rooftops but who soon enough volunteers to join the men in kicking open doors and threatening inhabitants, some of whom are secretly fighting the Americans. The most satisfying scenes find the men taking down top Al Queda terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and his right-hand man, the Butcher. We are introduced to Mustafa (Sammy Sheik), himself a sniper but one fighting for the enemy side.
Technologically bizarre are the phone calls that Kyle makes to his wife Taya while in the midst of battle, allowing her to hear every boom of a grenade and every crack of a rifle, though they are six thousand miles from each other. In the old days, a wife might have to wait weeks for an article of postal mail to reach home from the front. In the story’s great irony, Kyle, having killed 165+ of the enemy, is felled himself by a fellow Marine, not by friendly fire but by an emotionally disturbed PTSD Marine whom Kyle is trying to help.
Rated R. 132 minutes. © Harvey Karten, Member, New York Film Critics Online
Story – B+
Acting – B
Technical – A-
Overall – B+
