Comments on 'American Sniper'

We went to see Clint Eastwood's 'American Sniper' on Saturday afternoon.  The movie stars Bradley Cooper as Chris Kyle and Sienna Miller as his wife Taya Renae Kyle.

Movie Poster for 'American Sniper'

The screenplay by Jason Dean Hall is based on the autobiography 'American Sniper' written by Chris Kyle.  Kyle became known as 'the most lethal sniper in U.S. history' during his four tours of duty in Iraq during the Iraq war.

Growing up in Texas, Kyle's father instilled the belief that there were three kinds of people: 'sheep', 'wolves', and 'sheepdogs'.  Chris definitely aspired to be a sheepdog -- protecting the sheep from the predators.  His father also taught Chris how to shoot and hunt.  The 1998 U.S. embassy bombings by al-Qaeda in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam led him to join the Navy and become a Seal.  He meets Taya Renae in a bar near the Seal training base.  Three days after their wedding Chris leaves on the first of four deployments to Iraq.  Much of their marriage is told through telephone calls -- often while Chris is in the middle of battles and skirmishes and Taya Renae is either pregnant or coping with raising their son and daughter with an absent father.  

Following his final deployment and discharge Chris finds redemption working with wounded warriors of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts.  In early 2013, he was murdered by one of the veterans he was trying to help.

Despite the chaos of war Eastwood is largely successful in clarifying the action sequences which pulse with adrenalin fuelled bravado.  He is less successful in depicting the stateside intervals between deployments and following Chris's discharge when he is uncommunicative and jumpy, suffering from PTSD.  Bradley Cooper and Sienna Miller are both excellent in portraying the struggles of a long distance marriage often tattered by the incomprehensible gulf between the violence of battle and the anxious wait at home.
The almost entirely male supporting cast is convincing -- though largely undifferentiated -- as a collection of brothers in arms, aloof commanders, and Iraqis caught between the ever shifting allegiances of the war.

Banner for 'American Sniper'