American auteur Clint Eastwood has delivered yet another provocative work in American Sniper. A physically transformed Bradley Cooper, as legendary marksman Chris Kyle, leans into the addictive allure of the Iraq conflict and illuminates Eastwood’s latest masterpiece.
An unflinching anti-war film that is draped in the American flag, Sniper forces us into the chilling midst of modern ground level warfare. Cooper, bulked up and Texas drawled, plays real-life Navy SEAL sharpshooter Kyle, who in his unimaginable four tours of duty performed feats of heroism and marksmanship that earned him the nickname “The Legend,” among military aficionados, and a bounty on his head among the Iraqi.
Eastwood and his cinematographer Tom Stern plant us in the dust and rubble of war-torn Ramadi, while the SEALs hunt and seek and attempt to take out the savvy and wily enemy, including a brutal assassin called “The Butcher.” Kyle became a born-again (radicalized?) patriot on the morning of 9/11 and believes without question that his duty was to take out the “bad guys” who threaten his fellows and his country.
Working with the cool confidence of a master, Eastwood believes in his subject—that war is hell, that sometimes we are capable of selfless actions, and that the emotional disconnect between vets and their families is often irretrievable. Eastwood is at his best at probing the quiet moments of unconscious damage done by Kyle’s kill count.And while humanizing all the players—Iraqi sabateurs and American screw-ups alike—Eastwood reveals his main character’s unvarnished patriotism. Such patriotism is, in today’s postmodern globalist hegemony, considered sappy to the point of embarrassment. But Eastwood couldn’t care less.
If you let this director’s personal NRA-friendly politics get in the way of your engagement in this film, it will be your loss. American Sniper is a profound war film, bearing echoes of Black Hawk Down and Platoon. Throughout the film, Eastwood keeps up the pressure and tension of his twin themes: the glory of war and the senselessness of war. We watch the torture of an informant, Al-Obodi (Navid Negahban) at the hands of the Butcher, and the relentless proximity of a gifted Iraqi sniper Mustafa (Sammy Sheik) who becomes Kyle’s nemesis. The casting and interiors, all of it feels authentic.
Using his swift-paced 2 hours and 12 minutes very economically, Eastwood cuts back and forth from Kyle’s Iraq tours with the SEALS with the marksman’s courtship and marriage—Sienna Miller is perfect as Kyle’s wife Taya. With unerring composure and clarity Eastwood lays out the territory.
Kyle is an ace sniper with a record number of kills—said to be 200—incurred in the course of saving the lives of his fellows and ultimately the country he loves. Kyle is also haunted by the brutal intensity and electrifying rush of war when he returns home. He loves his wife and children, yet like so many vets he can’t wait to go back into the high-adrenaline camaraderie of house to house combat.
The chemistry between Miller and Cooper—who also co-produced the film—is sweet, easy, and believeable. (Cooper—who owns blue eyes—has transformed himself from stoner studs of the past into an astonishing cinematic force. If Michael Keaton didn’t exist, Cooper would take this year’s Oscar.) Yet Eastwood shows us only as much of their life together as we need to know. He keeps his focus on this one extraordinary man and on the extraordinary conditions of contemporary warfare.
The subject is as powerful as it gets—the heroic soldier turns his back on peacetime in order to get back into the killing fields. It all comes to an absurd and tragic end, yet Eastwood forces us to watch.
This is the way the world is—there’s no ultimate justice, resolution, explanation—nothing. Yet there are moments of true grit, humor, love and bravery. Often senseless bravery. And there are the predictable ads for the military life, and wrenching reminders of our neglect for wounded and returning vets.
American Sniper pushs us into dangerous and heartbreaking territory. You will not return unchanged. I know most of you will find an excuse to avoid this film. I will go back and see it again.
