
Year: 2014
Rated R
Rating: * * * Stars
Cast: Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller, Ben Reed
I once read a review on an earlier Clint Eastwood movie called Mystic River. In it, a well known critic sited his work as a product of quote unquote, "meat and potatoes" film making. I suppose it meant that he's not overly elaborate and more straightforward in his storytelling ways. Well, Clint's newest and most tiring endeavor American Sniper, has that affinity. It's like his own Flags of Our Fathers but with much better acting or Lone Survivor without the splurge of blood and guts. "Meat and potatoes" film making? Sure why not. "Meat and potatoes" film making with a large glass of wine? Okay, I'll give you that one.
Clocking in at a running time of 133 minutes, "Sniper" is after all, wholly about the red white, and blue. When I mean blue, I mean depressing. This is the only movie I've been to where when it was over, you could literally hear a pin drop in the audience. No one said a darn word as they exited the theater. War is hell (obviously).
Director Eastwood and writer Jason Hall (his screenplay for "Sniper" is heads and tails above the one he wrote for 2013's dreadful Paranoia) fashion a crisp, easy-to-follow story line that takes you through the short life of Chris Kyle (played by Bradley Cooper). What's largely on screen is based on Kyle's autobiography titled, American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History. In the movie, he starts off as a once promising rodeo rider from Odessa, Texas. After injuring his arm, he instead forgoes his rodeo career to serving his country overseas. You see, when he was a kid his dad taught him how to shoot (and shoot accurately) animals like quail and deer. Kyle takes these skills with him later on in life and eventually becomes a killing machine for the U.S. military. As a sniper who gets the nickname "Legend", Kyle racks up over 100 assassinations during four blistering tours in Iraq. The film depicts him coming home in between these tours and becoming incredibly distant with his kids and his wife (Taya Renae Kyle played by Sienna Miller). He's present in body but not in spirit. He even has flashbacks that eventually trigger a loose cannon temper inside of him.

Thespian prowess and believable locations aside (California can surely look like Iraq if the set design is sufficiently done and it's done well here), American Sniper still has flaws. They are to a degree, only minimal. I didn't buy the courtship between the Cooper and Miller characters. It was probably a classic love story in real life but movie-wise, it just seemed underdeveloped. I also felt misconstrued by Kyle's brother's character (played by Keir O'Donnell) who filters in and out only to never have a median in the plot development. He fights in the war just like Chris but his only scene concludes where he tells him, "f**k this place". I'm not sure what he meant by that to be honest. "Sniper" doesn't explain what happens to Jeff Kyle. We never hear from his bewildered soldier ever again.

Written by Jesse Burleson
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