American Sniper

In three words; Emotional -  Unbalanced - Strong

Review;

Based on true events American Sniper tells the story of Chris Kyle, a decorated army soldier. The screenplay has been adapted from Kyle's book American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History. Much like my previous review (Foxcatcher) I knew nothing about Kyle and the background for this interesting and emotional story. My lack of knowledge made the film even more entertaining. But should a true life film, which shows such brutality, be entertaining?

Kyle was deployed to Iraq on a number of tours where he was responsible for protecting his colleagues by killing potential threats which come from all manner of different people. The film does not hold back from the extremes of war and it's important that such themes are explored in cinema. What I believe the mistake is in American Sniper is the balance between the scenes of war and that of Kyle when he is State side.

Clint Eastwood is certainly a fine director and the tone of the film is captured with grace and quality by cinematographer Tom Stern, a mainstay of Eastwood's work. Throughout the film we see the affect of war and all the killings he has made on Kyle's character. For me the war scenes were too heavy in contrast to that of his home life. Bradly Cooper plays the part very well and is certainly worthy of his third consecutive Oscar nomination. Yet in order to get to the depths of the character the screenplay should have focused on Kyle and his family.

I did enjoy the film yet the actions scenes were overtly used. It would be a far more challenging film to make without the use of filming the war scenes. I would have liked to have seen the story told from Kyle's wife's point of view. Played by Sienna Mille I think she was underused, her performance is excellent yet her screen time is limited. Overall this is a strong and powerful film yet it is off balance which is somewhat of a let down.

Verdict;
3 out of 5