Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 (2024) - Costner's glorious cinematic passion project needs your theatrical support now

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Star-filmmaker Kevin Costner is the lone man in the wild west on this sparse poster for his Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1

Along a river in the open desert range landscape of Arizona, settlers attempt to start a new life with a town called Horizon, but the surrounding Apache natives don't welcome their advance. In Montana horse trader Hayes Ellison meets beautiful prostitute Marigold and soon have to flee the mining town with her following the murder of local hood Caleb Sykes.

Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 is written by Jon Baird (National Parks (2022, executive producer)) and co-writer/co-producer/co-star/director Kevin Costner (Dances with Wolves (1990)), with Mark Kasdan (Silverado (1985)) contributing story elements. It is the first in an epic 4-part film series devised by Costner.

If Costner succeeds in making and releasing 4 epic Horizon westerns, it is quite a feat, especially since the first one has not landed to the audience reception one would have hoped for but rather to widespread indifference, regrettably. Costner is an incredible character in the film world with both towering highs (Field of Dreams (1989), Dances with Wolves (1990)) and stupefying lows (Waterworld (1995), The Postman (1997)) in his long career. This western mega-project will be one for the history books, IF he succeeds.

Horizon moves along with what may be termed a 'luxurious' pace, somewhat akin to a fine TV-series, because it means to tell its multi-character tale over the course of not 90 minutes but rather something like 720 minutes (4 x 180 minutes). For those willing and able to appreciate fully immersing in an epic narrative, it is a luxurious treat to get into a work such as this. Horizon is a gift for every western lover out there, and one that demands to be seen on the big screen. Fabulous American landscapes are captured magnificently (by cinematographer J. Michael Muro (Parker (2013))), and the score (by John Debney (Luck (2022))) thunders appropriately up and down as suspense wanes and accelerates. 

The impressive production has a fine cast behind Costner in the ten gallon hat: Sienna Miller (Live by Night (2016)), Sam Worthington (Lansky (2021)), Danny Huston (Succession (2019, TV-series)), Abbey Lee (Caprice (2018)), Michael Rooker (Fairfax (2022, TV-series)), Elizabeth Dennehy (Hancock (2008)), Jamie Campbell Bower (The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (2013)) and Charles Halford (Joe Bell (2020)) all give full, engaged, commendable performances. A large Native American cast also lend authentic feeling and insight into the film's fabric.

There's plenty to admire and become taken in by in the first part of Costner's opus magnum, and I will surely be ready to enjoy Part II as it releases in a good month's time.

Related posts:

Kevin Costner: Molly's Game (2017) - Chastain is luminous in Sorkin's great true-crime debut (co-star)

Man of Steel (2013) or, Superman v Zod: Sunset of Destruction (co-star)

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 

Open Range (2003) - Costner impresses with fabulous classic western

Thirteen Days (2000) - Electrifying Cuban Missile Crisis thriller (actor/producer)  

The Postman (1997) - Costner's colossal apocalyptic turkey 

Dances with Wolves (1990) - Costner's triumphant, simpatico western

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: Reportedly 100 mil. $

Box office: 17.2 mil. $ and counting

= Too early to say

[Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 premiered 19 May (Cannes Film Festival, out of competition) and runs 181 minutes. Development of Horizon reportedly began in 1988. Costner has allegedly injected 38 mil. $ of his own money into the making of the film and reportedly also pays for marketing on top of this, possibly, although the details are hazy. Shooting took place from August - November 2022 in Utah. The upcoming Part II has been shot, and shooting of Part III is seemingly taking place right now. Whether all three remaining parts will see their day of release is unknown. The film opened #3, behind holdover hit Inside Out 2 and fellow new release A Quiet Place: Day One, to an 11 mil. $ first weekend in North America. The film's foreign numbers look abysmal so far. The film has one market yet to release in: Germany on 22 August. Costner returns with Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 2 (2024), also as an actor. Miller also returns in that film; Worthington returned first in The Exorcism (2024). Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 is rotten at 46 % with a 5.60/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1?

High-Rise (2015) - Wheatley gets lost in strange societal critique adaptation

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Glamorous stars assemble on this kaleidoscopic poster for Ben Wheatley's High-Rise

A new resident in a 1970s high-rise attempts to find his place in its closed, class-divided inner society.

 

High-Rise is written by Amy Jump (A Field in England (2013)), adapting High Rise (1975) by J.G. Ballard (The Burning World (1964)), and directed by great English filmmaker Ben Wheatley (Down Terrace (2009)).

The film feels like the fevered deliriums of a deranged Brit about 1970s class society and its people. The pace is strangely uneasy, rushed from the get-go, but this is no great narrative that sets an agenda. 

For periods the strange film is nightmarish, but more often it is just remote and unengaging as it tumbles along and feels oddly archaic, as if what 40 years ago was a terse work is now - here - for inscrutable reasons staged in its original 1970s period, but completely without context. The unreality is mixed with a feeling of pretentious indulgence, when the characters of the almost incomprehensible film continue to abide in violence and smoking in ridiculous numbers of shots. Not unlike the recent Filth (2013), High-Rise is a late adaptation of an English work of dark and acerbic grain, which loses millions as a commercial product in itself and is a solid bummer.

 

Related posts:

Ben Wheatley: 2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

A Field in England (2013) or, Shit and Thistles 

Top 10: Best drama-thrillers reviewed by Film Excess to date 
Kill List (2011) - Wheatley's jaw-breaking, great genre-mixer

 

Watch a  trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 6.1 mil. £, approximately 8 mil. $

Box office: 5.3 mil. $

= Huge flop (returned 0.66 times its cost)

[High-Rise premiered 13 September (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 119 minutes. Shooting took place from June - August (2014) in Northern Ireland, including in Belfast. The film opened #39 to a 79k $ first weekend in 79 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #37 and never grew in theater count, grossing 346k $ (6.5 % of the total gross). The film's biggest markets were the UK with 2.8 mil. $ (52.8 %), Portugal with 1 mil. $ (18.9 %) and Russia with 645k $ (12.2 %). Wheatley returned with Free Fire (2016). Tom Hiddleston (Thor: Ragnarok (2017)) returned in Crimson Peak (2015). High-Rise is fresh at 60 % with a 6.50/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of High-Rise?

Foxcatcher (2014) - Fine performances in Miller's strange true-crime sports drama

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+ Best Pennsylvania Movie of the Year + Best True-Crime Movie of the Year

Its three great, striking-looking stars in matching tracksuits against a dramatic painting of a hunting eagle sets a stark tone on this poster for Bennett Miller's Foxcatcher

Olympic gold-winning wrestler Mark Schultz is approached by a weird, eccentric multi-millionaire named John du Pont, who wants to create the national wrestling team around Schultz at his Pennsylvania mansion.

Foxcatcher is written by E. Max Frye (Amos & Andrew (1993)) and Dan Futterman (In Treatment (2010, TV-series)), based on a true story, and directed by great New-Yorker filmmaker Bennett Miller (Capote (2005)).
Miller succeeds in creating a really strange atmosphere, which also remains tense, and at times feels grotesque. We are kept intrigued by this highly curious story by his direction and fine performances from the three male leads and Sienna Miller (21 Bridges (2019)). Steve Carell (Evan Almighty (2007)) has a very odd first major dramatic role in du Pont.
In the end it is somewhat unsatisfying that Foxcatcher, - which is the mysterious name given to du Pont's wrestling team, - doesn't illuminate more of du Pont and Schultz: Where they both victims of abuse as children? Does du Pont violate Schultz? Perhaps out of a lack of certain real-life proof these questions remain unanswered, leaving Foxcatcher a fascinatingly strange film but also one with a frustrating degree of benightedness to it.

Related posts:

Bennett Miller: 2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V] 

2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
Moneyball (2011) - Miller makes compelling baseball movie history 
Capote (2005) - The writing of one of the 20th century's finest non-fiction crime novels comes to life 

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 24 mil. $
Box office: 19.2 mil. $
= Huge flop (returned 0.8 times its cost)
[Foxcatcher premiered 19 May (Cannes Film Festival, in competition) and runs 134 minutes. Miller acquired the rights to the story in 2010 and began development with Gary Oldman as the first choice to play du Pont. Shooting took place in Virginia and Pennsylvania, including Pittsburgh, from October 2012 - January 2013. Subsequent to the events shown in the film, du Pont spent almost 15 years in prison before dying there at age 72 in 2010. The real Mark Schultz supported the making of the film, was then incensed by it, and then retracted his critique, calling it instead "a miracle." The film opened #24 to a 270k $ first weekend in 6 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #13 and in 759 theaters (different weeks) and grossed 12 mil. $ (62.5 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 2.5 mil. $ (13 % ) and France with 1 mil. $ (5.2 %). The film was nominated for 5 Oscars, winning none: It lost Best Actor (Carell) to Eddie Redmayne in The Theory of Everything, Supporting Actor (Mark Ruffalo (Apartment 12 (2000))) to J.K. Simmons in Whiplash, Director to Alejandro González Iñárritu for Birdman, Original Screenplay also to Birdman and Makeup and Hairstyling to The Grand Budapest Hotel. It won the directing award at Cannes, was nominated for 3 Golden Globes and 2 BAFTAs, won an AFI award and an Independent Spirit award and many other honors. Miller is still just scheduled to return with A Christmas Carrol for troubled Annapurna Pictures. Carell returned in Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (2014); Channing Tatum (The Hateful Eight (2015)) in 22 Jump Street (2014); Ruffalo in The Normal Heart (2014, TV movie) and theatrically in Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015). Foxcatcher is certified fresh at 88 % with a 7.89/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Foxcatcher?

Factory Girl (2006) - Miller is great in Hickenlooper's wronged cultural reprimand

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+ Shooting Star Actress of the Year: Sienna Miller

Imitating Andy Warhol's pop-art-style, this is an intriguing poster for George Hickenlooper's Factory Girl

Edie Sedgwick is an extraordinarily beautiful, wealthy young woman, who comes to New York in the mid-1960s and gains the interest of the city's leading artist Andy Warhol, whose 'Factory' she becomes a part of, and which ends up causing her early demise.

Factory Girl is written by Captain Mauzner (Wonderland (2003)), with story elements from Simon Monjack (Two Days, Nine Lives (2001)) and Aaron Richard Golub (Proud Iza, short (2008, executive producer)), and directed by George Hickenlooper (Grey Knight (1993)).
It is a tragic story of 'damaged goods' from out west, in the form of Sedgwick, who could not live with the great pressure of the big city jungle and who, moreover, was exploited by superficial, egocentric Factory 'artists'. The story is brought to vivid life with flashbacks to her sexual abuse-shaped childhood and an outstanding performance by Sienna Miller (American Sniper (2014)) in the title role. Guy Pearce (Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (2010)) is also good as the coolly distanced Warhol, who was a real prick towards Sedgwick. Hayden Christensen (Free Fall (1999)) is snugly to look at as the obviously Bob Dylan-shaped character; who makes love to Sedgwick before a fireplace in the film's only clichéd scene.
Factory Girl also has good supporting performances from Mena Suvari (Apparition (2019)), Beth Grant (Natural Disasters (2008)) and more. It is a small, sad and fine film.

 

Related posts:

 

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

Miller reminisces with fellow Factory Girl cast member Jimmy Fallon about the film many years later on his talkshow in a video here

Cost: 7 mil. $
Box office: 3.5 mil. $
= Huge flop (returned 0.5 times its cost)
[Factory Girl premiered 29 December (USA) and runs 99 minutes. Katie Holmes was set to star as Sedgwick but got pregnant and dropped out. Shooting took place in Toronto, Ontario, in New York, Connecticut and Louisiana from December 2005 - February 2006. Lou Reed and Bob Dylan were incensed with the film. It opened #46 to an 87k $ first weekend in 3 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #23 and in 336 theaters and grossed 1.6 mil. $ (45.7 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 964k $ (27.5 %) and Italy with 225k $ (6.4 %). Hickenlooper uploaded a director's cut of the film on Youtube in the fall of 2008, which was taken down due to The Weinstein Company's ownership of the footage. Hickenlooper returned with 3 documentary projects before his last feature Casino Jack (2010), the last film he made before his premature death caused by a drug overdose at age 47 in 2010. Miller returned in Interview (2007); Pearce in Death Defying Acts (2007); and Christensen in Awake (2007). Factory Girl is rotten at 20 % with a 4.7/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Factory Girl?

The Lost City of Z (2016) - Gray's grand, adventurous Amazonia epic

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+ Most Undeserved Flop of the Year + Best Adventure of the Year + Best Jungle Movie of the Year + Best Ensemble of the Year

One of the tantalizing, beautifully realized posters for James Gray's The Lost City of Z

The Lost City of Z is written and directed by James Gray (The Immigrant (2013)) and based on the non-fiction book by David Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Mayhem and Obsession (2010)).

Ambitious, adventure-seeking British officer Percy Fawcett is contracted by London's Royal Geographical Society early in the 20th century for a mission to the Amazon jungle of Bolivia to make surveys for mapping the area. This leads him on a quest for the mythical, ancient city of Z, which swallows up his life.

For every exploration and jungle-fascinated person out there, The Lost City of Z is an offering that should not be passed up. It is a grand work, an epic and a mighty good film.
Centrally stands Charlie Hunnam (Queer as Folk (1999-00)) as Fawcett. An inspiration both for Gray's visual direction and for Hunnam's performance may have been Luchino Visconti's masterpiece Death in Venice/Morte a Venezia (1971)) and Dirk Bogarde's supreme performance in it. Hunnam's incredibly well-shaped body moves with a calm grace, and his character is withheld in a remarkably composed state for most of the film. The story veers off to Fawcett's duty during WWI for a time, and in these scenes, I found myself struggling to believe in the cool composure of the man, coupled with the relatively well-looking company of soldiers he serves with in the trenches, which simply doesn't align with my understanding of the war.
Sienna Miller (High-Rise (2015)) is good as Fawcett's strong wife; Tom Holland (In the Heart of the Sea (2015)) is good and appropriately well-cut himself to be believable as their oldest son; Robert Pattinson (How to Be (2008)) is well cast as Fawcett's exploratory companion, and Angus MacFadyen (Assassins Run (2013)) brings a chill down one's spine as a wolf in sheep's clothing. The impressive cast also has Murray Melvin (Barry Lyndon (1975)) and Franco Nero (Bad Inclination/Cattive Inclinazioni (2003)) in tiny parts, and Ian McDiarmid (Sleepy Hollow (1999)) as a leader in the RGS.
Darius Khondji (Funny Games (2007)) is behind the absorbing photography. There are thrilling jungle scenes that quench the hunger for exoticism and Indians, but I found that the best scenes of the film are those taking place in the RGS in London, where Fawcett's ideas of a civilization among the South-American 'savages', which may well predate Western civilization, raises ridicule, outrage but eventually also makes for a reevaluation of the world and human beings. The epic, incredible story doesn't follow the usual three act structure, as Fawcett travels out and comes home more than once, but especially for fans of epics, this will simply be part of the treat that is The Lost City of Z. 
Gray's film stands in the territory of films such as Francis Ford Coppola's masterpiece Apocalypse Now (1980) and Werner Herzog's Cobra Verde (1987), which was also the scene for Ciro Guerra's recent masterpiece Embrace of the Serpent/El Abrazo de la Serpiente (2015). It does not achieve the great or masterful, but it is still very worth seeing and a huge undertaking impressively well done.

Related posts:

2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 30 mil. $
Box office: 17 mil. $ and counting
= Not certain yet, but looks like a huge flop
[The Lost City of Z premiered 15 October (New York Film Festival) and runs 141 minutes. Plan B Entertainment sent Gray a copy of Grann's book before it was published. Brad Pitt and Benedict Cumberbatch were considered for the lead but both dropped out for other commitments, though Pitt remained onboard with his Plan B Entertainment company, acting as an executive producer. Filming took place in Colombia and in Northern Ireland, UK, including in Belfast, starting in August 2015. The film opened #28 in 4 theaters to a 110k $ first weekend in North America, where it peaked at #10 and in 866 theaters (different weeks), grossing a disappointing 8.5 mil. $ (50 % of the total gross). The international performance was similarly underwhelming; the 2nd and 3rd biggest markets where France with 2.5 mil. $ (14.7 %) and Spain with 1.8 mil. $ (10.6 %). The film enjoyed the luxury of a release in China, its 4th biggest market at 1 mil. $ (5.9 %), a highly unimpressive turnout. The film has yet to open in Australia (24 August), South Korea (21 September) and Argentina (28 September). It looks like it is continuing Gray's long history of flops (none of his 7 films have been theatrical hits), which makes it quite a gamble that Pitt has chosen Gray to direct his coming starring sci-fi movie Ad Astra. The Lost City of Z is certified fresh at 87 % with a 7.4/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Lost City of Z?

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009) - Sommers tries to fire up Hasbro's second, less interesting movie venture

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A sexually suggestive, fire-and-ice-color-schemed concept define this character-filled poster for Stephen Sommers' G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

A team of international, secret super-soldiers, the G.I. Joes, get their work cut out for them, when a new so-called nanomite weapon gets stolen by its very evil, Scottish manufacturer.

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, based on the Hasbro comic strip series which began in 1942 and the G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero action figure toyline (1982-94), is written by Stuart Beattie (I, Frankenstein (2014)), David Elliot and Paul Lovett (Four Brothers (2005), both), with Michael B. Gordon (300 (2006)) and director Stephen Sommers (The Mummy (1999)) contributing story elements. 
The completely idea-vacuumed Joe universe only becomes less engaging from the fact that is consists of an enormous ensemble of characters who are all one-sided and colorless. Channing Tatum's (Stop-Loss (2008)) cheating 'hero' characters takes the cake. Marlon Wayans (The Ladykillers (2004)) and Byung-hun Lee (The Influence/In-peul-loo-eon-seu (2010)) have charm and improve matters some.
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is a huge-budgeted monstrosity; SPOILER in its almost constant barrage of mostly CGI-based action, the scene of the destruction of the Eiffel Tower of Paris was, to my eyes, a spectacle. But it can't change, however, that this is a braindead dud.

Related posts:

2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 175 mil. $
Box office: 302.4 mil. $
= Big flop
[G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra premiered 27 July (Tokyo) and runs 118 minutes. The film had been in development for about a decade and only moved into production following the success of Hasbro's first feature franchise, Transformers (2007). Shooting took place from February - June 2008 in California, including Los Angeles, the Arctic, the Czech Republic, including in Prague, in Tokyo, Japan and Paris, France. The film opened #1 to a 54.7 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent its first 4 weeks in the top 5 (#1-#2-#3-#5) and grossed 150.2 mil. $ (49.7 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were South Korea with 15.9 mil. $ (5.3 %) and the UK with 10.3 mil. $ (3.4 %). Roger Ebert gave the film 1.5/4 stars, translating to a star harder than this review. The film was nominated for 6 Razzie awards, winning one for Sienna Miller as Worst Supporting Actress. Though the huge-budgeted movie didn't recoup its costs theatrically, it undoubtedly sold plenty of tie-in merchandise. In its first week of home video release in North America, it grossed 40.9 mil. $ from sale of 2.5 mil. discs. A 2013 sequel, G.I. Joe: Retaliation, was also critically panned but made more financially smart, grossing 375 mil. $ on a 'mere' 93 mil. $ budget. G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is rotten at 35 % with a 4.6 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra?

American Sniper (2014) - Eastwood conveys an American man and myth in electric masterpiece

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+ Best War Movie of the Year

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.

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 V] 

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?