One of the more over-lauded films of the year (six Academy Awards, including Best Adapted Screenplay?!), American Sniper, Clint Eastwood’s second directorial release of the year, recounts the storied military career of the most lethal sniper in U.S. history. Chris Kyle (Academy Award nominee Bradley Cooper) is credited with 160 official kills through four tours of duty.
Upon returning home, Kyle finally regains his footing by helping other veterans struggling to readjust to life outside of war. Kyle’s life, as adapted by Jason Hall, is partly structured as a cat and mouse game with deadly enemy sniper, Mustafa (Sammy Sheik) when in-country and an inner struggle to be present for his wife, Taya (Sienna Miller, also currently appearing in Foxcatcher), and their two children. As constructed by Eastwood and Hall, American Sniper has little new to say about war or its effects on the men and women charged with protecting us. Some military scenes offer one-dimensional soldiers that might as well be in a movie called Frat War.
The best war sequences all involve Kyle doing what he does best. The intensity of the sniper moments far surpasses the generic “war never ends” message already seen in films like Kimberly Peirce’s Stop-Loss. American Sniper also contains the most unintentionally funny scenes of the year due to its inexplicable use of the most unrealistic babies in major cinema.
The accolades showered upon Cooper feel more expected than earned, as he has been better than this (see either of his previously nominated performances), but that sentiment sums up this good, far from great, film.
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