American Sniper

It’s been a long time since a film has angered me more than American Sniper. So imagine my surprise when I sit down to write this review and discover the film is up for six (SIX!) Academy Awards next month.

Brought to us by Clint Eastwood, American Sniper tells the real life story of Navy SEAL Chris Kyle (Bradley Cooper) and how he became a legend in the US Armed Forces by notching up 160 confirmed kills during his four tours of Iraq.

After merely a hint into the complex childhood that Kyle faced – he picks fights with people in his school for bullying his little brother and living in fear of what his father may do if he didn’t – the film fast-forwards to Kyle ditching his bizarre aspirations to be a modern day cowboy to go serve his country in the army instead.

From there it’s a rather monotonous back and forth between Kyle shooting potential and known terrorists in Iraq and the struggles of adjusting to a quiet, happily married life with his wife, Taya (Sienna Miller).

I’m not one to be offended easily but American Sniper’s story left me feeling uncomfortable for a number of reasons. I tried to pinpoint exactly what it was with a friend afterwards, upon which he asked me was it war I had issues with, or was it the killing of children and women? Well to an extent, yes it was – but then I love Star Wars, a movie where the evil Empire uses its Death Star to obliterate a vastly populated planet so I’ve got to draw a line somewhere. But I think most of my issues lay with Clint Eastwood and his approach to the movie.

For a start the story was so hideously one sided, even for an American made military film about the tired and needless conflict in Iraq. Besides one uneasy moment involving a child trying to hold a rocket launcher, there wasn’t one incident in the film where Kyle was perhaps shooting or mistreating innocent people.

Call me cynical, but I don’t think one can go into a war zone; notch up the amount of kills Kyle had and not get it wrong somewhere. Perhaps that was the case in his own memoirs, but in the movie you got the impression all Iraqi civilians (women and children included), were killers wanting to throw grenades and shoot AK-47s.

Furthermore the supposed ‘antagonist’, this silent, elusive rival sniper hell bent on killing Kyle throughout the film got no dialogue and the obsession between both men as their rivalry grew fails to materialise coherently.

These elements, compounded with a vomit inducing closing credits, left a really bitter taste in my mouth. Shame really, because the cast worked well with the script they had, and Cooper at least tried to ham-fistedly balance the Texan redneck element of Kyle’s personality with a bit more of a conflicted psychological edge.

Clint Eastwood’s directorial duties have been on the wane for years now, actually can’t remember a truly remarkable film he’s made since Gran Torino in 2008. Though the run down, gritty streets of Iraq are recreated to startling effect, the film’s visual feel lacks in comparison to like minded films such as The Hurt Locker or even Black Hawk Down, also failing to match up to those films’ intensity. Or even this review for that matter ...

It’s a daft thing to say when you’ve spent years writing film reviews, but it’s a really silly thing to get so worked up about a film. Not one to often go against the grain; no really, trolling isn’t in my programming, but don’t believe the pre awards hype and avoid this patronising, soulless, sexist, overlong, patriotic, nonsense.

Andrew Moore