REVIEW: American Sniper (2014)

Runtime: 132 Mins
Rated: R
What To Expect:  Not Eastwood’s best, but more than watchable, superb action scenes

I won’t bother getting into the political background of this movie, not just the war itself but the protagonist’s life and career, which is a controversy within itself.  There’s no point in that.  Instead I’m just going to look at this as a war movie.  If you got a war movie, I’ll take it, don’t care which theatre it was from or whatever.  War movies are good, at least good war movies, and you can count on Clint Eastwood to probably get it right.  Clint got it right here in what is probably an unremarkable movie for him, a filler movie, but damned worthy for us, the viewers.

The late Chris Kyle was the most lethal sniper in U.S. history with 255 probable kills.  Not in world’s history mind you, that honour goes to Simo Häyhä, a Finnish sniper who killed no less than 505 (!) invading Reds during the Winter War – a theatre we really don’t see enough of in movies.  Mental note: I would also have liked to have seen a movie about Carlos Hathcock, another infamous commie-killer who took out almost 100 VC in ‘Nam.  Anyway, with Kyle we head to Iraq, where his bodycount rises high.  This is more or less a biography laced with action and (sorta limited) commentary on PTSD.  After all Kyle must take out children raised as fundamentalists armed with explosives and what not.

I didn’t really dig the PTSD subtext in this movie, which by its nature includes a lot of rote narrative about the damage extending to the immediate family, re-adjustment to society etc.  Especially when it isn’t exactly sophisticated or compelling – I don’t think Eastwood gets it, or at least doesn’t care.  There’s quite a bit of it in the movie too, although it’s not really offensively slow or boring.  There’s also in my eyes somewhat a lack of actual ‘sniping’ action, I expected much more duel action with the chief antagonist, instead there are basic combat scenes with Kyle in support, which is realistic but more general than expected.  That is to say, Kyle is often shooting suppressive like a madman much more often than he’s being a ghost, such is the intensity of their situation.

The good stuff here is that this movie is an old-fashioned war movie.  Eastwood’s combat scenes are impressive.  Every camera is mounted on something and stabilized, which allows us to relax and involve ourselves with shoot outs that are heavy and have consequence.  It’s an efficient movie too, for all its bungled attempts to spin a PTSD yarn, its paced well and refreshingly free of sentiment.  The title character is a manly man of few words and pillow talk with a confused wife, for example, is dismissed with contempt. Finally, Bradley Cooper puts in possibly the best performance I’ve seen from him.  Cold and distant without being wooden or absent, often you really don’t recognise him.

The Hurt Locker is slightly better, and some might find this a bit dull, but I love me some Eastwood, a generous eight…