+ Best War Movie of the Year
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| The mythical poster for Clint Eastwood's American Sniper |
American Sniper is the grand biopic war movie of real life US sniper Chris Kyle, 'the most lethal sniper in US history', with 255 kills, 160 of which were officially confirmed by the Department of Defense, from 4 tours in Iraq in the 2nd Golf War.
Kyle is an easy-going Texan rodeo cowboy, who has been brought up on some stern values of three types of people and right and wrong, as 9/11 happens and changes his ambitions: He signs up for the US Army and becomes a US Navy Seal.
Oscar-nominated co-producer/star Bradley Cooper (The Place Beyond the Pines (2012)) has arguably his most difficult role to date here; he has gained lots of muscle weight to portray the singularly minded, strong but human Kyle, who will go to extreme lengths to protect his 'sheep', that is, his co-soldiers and family.
American Sniper hooks you straight away with its heady first scene, or repels you to dislike it throughout and perhaps even to go home and post infuriated critique about it somewhere online, as many seem to have done, and gotten more than their due notice for, I think.
The filmmakers dare to serve Kyle's complex, many-layered story in a straight-forward manner, which drives the viewer to look closer at the man without reducing him to either a patriotic slogan or a block of weeping meat.
A pivotal part of the film, which many people fail to notice and consider, is the mythical quality that Kyle came to carry some time into his soldiering. 84 year-old (!!!) master director Clint Eastwood (Gran Torino (2008)) has worked with this difficult, intangible entity of the American cultural mythical power before, as in his great films Flags of Our Fathers (2006) and J. Edgar (2011), and you could well argue that his own career as an actor is infused with mythical energy and entangled in the organic fabric of US cultural myth as well. In Sniper, this power gets conveyed through Kyle's rising fame as a US icon in a dark time of despair, as the nation and world backed or opposed the problematic second Iraq war and the war on terror in general. Eastwood or Oscar-nominated screenwriter Jason Hall (Paranoia (2013)), who adapted his lean, to-the-point script from Kyle's autobiographical 2012 book, did not make this status up, and their including it in the film doesn't mean that they cultivate the mythologizing without question, - but it was impossible to tell this story without the side of Kyle's effect on the American culture as a whole, his getting hailed and shaped into a national icon of strength and devotion, a patriot, a war hero, - in the midst of his personal trials.
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| Sienna Miller in a harrowing scene from Clint Eastwood's American Sniper |
The story of Chris Kyle is an extraordinary one, and Eastwood and Hall naturally don't feel any need to add great amounts of storyteller's razzle-dazzle onto it. Perhaps this is the reason why Eastwood isn't Oscar-nominated as director for it, - or perhaps it is because he already has won 4 Oscars. No matter what, he clearly deserved a nomination for American Sniper in my opinion.
Fresh face actress Sienna Miller (Foxcatcher (2014)) gives a strong performance as Kyle's wife, and Jonathan Groff (Looking (2014-)) is good in a short supporting role.
Sniper has an amazing and intense sound and music universe, although surprisingly, it has no credited score. It runs 132 minutes, but is tightly edited and never runs long.
During it development, directors David O. Russell and Steven Spielberg were attached to direct it, before they both departed and Eastwood finally ended up doing it: It is a rich, complex and moving experience, a very masculine and poignant film, very much Eastwood, - at his best, - and I think we should be happy that it ended up being him directing it.
If this film has somehow escaped you until now, go see it in a cinema immediately, because this one will stand the test of time with the very best.
Related posts:
Clint Eastwood: 2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
The Changeling (2008) or, The Christine Collins Story
City Heat (1984) - Eastwood and Reynolds wrestle dispassionately in Benjamin's messy period affair
Tightrope (1984) - An undervalued Clint Eastwood sex killer thriller (actor)
Any Which Way You Can (1980) or, More Monkey Business! (actor)
The Beguiled (1971) - Intense, erotic Civil War kammerspiel thriller (actor)
Coogan's Bluff (1968) or, Dopes and Hippies, Beat It! (actor)
A Fistful of Dollars (1964) or, Killer in a Poncho (actor)
Watch the trailer here
Cost: 58.8 mil. $
Box office: 428.1 mil. $ and counting
= Huge hit
[American Sniper is mostly a US phenomenon, where it has had first a spectacular limited release and then a similarly incredible wide one: Besides being Eastwood's most successful film to date and the 3rd highest-grossing film of 2014, it is also the highest grossing war film in the US ever. (If adjusted for inflation, it is bested by Saving Private Ryan though.) It has made 319 mil. $ in North America currently, which is more than all the other Best Film nominees of this year combined!]
What do you think of American Sniper?
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