“American Sniper” is, despite the occasional historical inaccuracy or forced thematic element, a finely made and superbly acted movie with the experienced direction of a master.
What has been said about “American Sniper,” then? There are accusations that the movie takes liberty with the portrayal of certain events. Poetic license is completely within the rights of the director. It’s certainly possible, however, that the close association director Clint Eastwood had and still has with the deceased Chief Petty Officer Chris Kyle’s widow and family may have directly affected his work behind the camera.
Kyle is painted as a hero, and fittingly at that, as by all accounts he was the definition of a selfless man, but where the movie leads the viewer astray is in the way his enemies are characterized.
Only one of the Afghan or Iraqi male characters could be perceived as inherently good. There were even several who were welcoming to Kyle and his outfit at first but were later revealed to be evil. Eastwood leans somewhat heavily on this personification of Kyle as a white light sent to destroy the forces of evil, failing to capture the ambiguity of the Iraq War in a way that 2009 Academy Award best picture winner “The Hurt Locker” did so well.
Eastwood, despite these flaws in his direction, orchestrated and interchanged scenes from both Kyle’s four tours in Iraq and scenes of him on the home front beautifully, as the brutality of war was juxtaposed so jarringly against the tranquility of home in which Kyle finds himself increasingly out of place. Much of the praise for the film can be attributed to his use of gritty realism as he pumped a sort of lifelike naturalism into the film that is so rare in Hollywood these days.
Bradley Cooper’s portrayal of Kyle was not just the performance of his career, but one of the performances of the year. It was easy to see how much effort Cooper put into the role, as his energy was evident in every round of sniper fire, fallen comrade and interaction with his family.
Not to be outdone, his female counterpart, Sienna Miller, drew up everything she had in her to play his wife, keeping up with the performance by Cooper as admirably as one could hope to. She was able to counteract Kyle’s off-and-on good nature and withdrawal from reality with an aggressive sense of optimism, and the resulting chemistry is spectacular.
At a glance, “American Sniper” is a harrowing account of the ways in which war can change a man, his family and those around him. Upon closer examination, it’s more blind patriotism than respectful admiration, but it doesn’t try to be anything else, and that’s okay.