American Sniper Movie Review

Clint Eastwood's latest war drama realises some of its potential, but fails to reach the heights which it should...

American Sniper stars Bradley Cooper and is essentially a character study of Chris Kyle, a man the US military labelled as "The Legend". Kyle is an amazing shot, and registered the highest number of kills in US military history. While there is stuff to appreciate and admire in this 132 minute drama, American Sniper did not live up to my expectations.

War, especially the current conflicts raging in the Middle East, and terrorism is admittedly a touchy subject. However, it's also a subject with a lot of potential moral ambiguity to explore that could create a very interesting debate inter woven within this film. There is no black and white, there's multiple shades of grey, yet American Sniper turns out to be more of an "America, fuck yeah!" character piece as opposed to a commentary on conflict.

The film should've explored this debate a lot more than it did and I think its fair to say that my expectations may have hindered by viewing experience. The film does present other debates and themes which are interesting though, so it does deserve some credit. What I loved the most was when Kyle was at the centre of a huge moral decision. For example, if he sees a small boy down the end of his lens who could potentially attack his platoon, does he take the shot or not? Are the lives of 20 soldiers worth more than the life of 1 boy? It does bring about some tense sequences before the end starts to veer towards the "America, fuck yeah!" side of things.

Bradley Cooper's performance is extremely good. He is nuanced and delivers in the action sequences and the character development scenes when he is at home with his wife and children. I don't know if he deserved the Oscar nomination ahead of Jake Gyllenhaal, but that shouldn't take away from the fact that his performance in this film is pretty great.

Eastwood handles the action sequences with typical grit and realism. They never felt cartoony and they never played out like a video game. For a movie like this, the action can not seem farfetched or unrealistic and to Clint Eastwood's credit, he handled the action sequences pretty well.

But American Sniper still had issues. For me, the 132 minute runtime was too long. If the film had explored more of the themes that it could have and should have done, the runtime would have been justified. Its also a film that feels narratively discombobulated. Particularly in the first act, the film wonders from scene to scene without any build up or purpose. The film wavers from past to present, Iraq to the US without reason or purpose to the point where the film started to become procedural and disjointed.

There's stuff to credit for sure, but American Sniper was still a let down:


Rating - C+

Thanks for reading,
Matt