American Sniper

You can almost hear the chorale of chanters reacting to Clint Eastwood's latest film American Sniper with "Oorah! USA! USA! USA!". The project, co-produced by, and starring Bradley Cooper, serves as a biographical depiction of Chris Kyle, known as "the most lethal sniper in U.S history".

Chris Kyle (Bradley Cooper) is a Texan that aspires to be a famous rodeo cowboy, but following the 1998 attacks on U.S embassies in Africa, Kyle enlists in the Navy, where he trains to become a SEAL. A competent marksman, Kyle becomes a sniper and after 9/11 is sent into Iraq on his first tour of duty. Before he leaves, Chris marries Taya (Sienna Miller), and after serving his duty, returns home in time for the birth of their son.

After making a name for himself as a deadly sniper, and motivated to serve his country and protect his family, Kyle returns for second, third and fourth tours, racking up over 160 confirmed kills. But each time that Kyle returns home, he seems dislocated and different from how his family remember him, which puts his life on the home-front in jeopardy.

Clint Eastwood has often been described as politically conservative in his direction, yet some of his more recent films such as Million Dollar Baby and Gran Torino have not only focused their attention on underdogs, or long-forgotten veterans, but have managed to depict a variety of perspectives that motivate the audience to reflect. However, in American Sniper, the view is all too clear, Chris Kyle is a hero, serving in a war against evil. There's barely a single Iraqi who's not portrayed as an extremist, or associated with one, and any effects of the war are only seen on Kyle or the U.S soldiers, mainly on the homefront after their return. The elderly woman sitting next to me in the cinema repeatedly mumbled "shoot them" and "boom! yeah" as Kyle knocked them back on-screen, which was not only distracting, but proves that this film is aligned to a one-sided audience. The film is based on Kyle's autobiography and it's clear that Jason Hall's script is paying tribute to Kyle's service through his own eyes, but I would have hoped that Eastwood could have broadened its ideological scope.

Hall's dialogue, which I'm sure is a reflection of Kyle's book, is clever, well-written and delivered through an astounding performance from Bradley Cooper. Sienna Miller perfectly conveys the anguish and frustration that Taya Kyle would have been going through, and a solid supporting cast portray the numerous soldiers and veterans. The film is well shot by Eastwood's go-to cinematographer Tom Stern, and aside from a few dodgy CGI explosions, I was totally immersed in the action. It's perhaps not as engaging as Kathryn Bigelow's two similar features The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty, but nonetheless, American Sniper places the audience right in the middle of a war zone and to great effect.

This is a well made, but very one-sided war film that manages to be affecting in many ways, as long as your patriotic, American sensitivities are highly-tuned. It pays tribute to a man that was undoubtedly worthy of recognition, but ultimately I was left a little disappointed by Eastwood's efforts.