Clint Eastwood's American Sniper tells the story of Chris Kyle, the most lethal sniper in U.S military history. Chronicling his early life as a young boy to his four tours in the Iraq war, American Sniper presents a rather engrossing portrait of a man living on the edge. For those paying attention, many critics have cited American Sniper as a "Red State" movie which I find quite frankly laughable. Make no mistake, Chris Kyle is a man who grew up in Texas, a good ole boy, but to attack this movie for having any type of political agenda is incredibly stupid. In fact, one of the film's best attributes is its apolitical nature; the film isn't interested in saying "War is Bad" or any other half-ass, obvious statement, instead it focuses on the effect war has on the man, how it shapes him and changes him forever. I'd go as far to argue that American Sniper exposes those individuals who tout their own agenda, with the fim being the best example in recent memory of how some film critics manipulate a film's attentions in an effort to support their own agenda. That being said, American Sniper's greatest strength is its ability to capture the mindset needed to be successful as a military sniper. Overall it does it rather subtlely too, at least compared to most other films of its type, showcasing the loss of morality that goes hand and hand with being a soldier. The film doesn't set out to expose Kyle as a monster with a death streak, but someone who is able to cut-off the emotion necessary to do his job. American Sniper skillfully deconstructs the dehumanizing nature of being a soldier. One can't talk about American Sniper without bringing up Bradley Cooper, who delivers a subtle, nuanced performance that captures the war raging in the mind of this man. This is without question Cooper's best performance to-date, as he completely transforms into his character. American Sniper is far from a perfect film, suffering from some of the typical hollywood tropes of over-sentimentality and on-the-nose sequences, but overall I was rather impressed with the films portrait of post traumatic stress, never drowning the viewer in the negative, but presenting an honest depiction of what many soldiers sacrifice.
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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