Bradley Cooper’s performance as Chris Kyle, the Navy SEAL sniper, rings true. Kyle just wants to be a cowboy, but feels compelled to enlist when the Middle East terrorists bomb our embassies. Clint Eastwood directs an affecting story of Chris Kyle’s four tours of duty in Iraq, each one seemingly more horrifying than the last. Sienna Miller is effective as Kyle’s wife who raises his son and his daughter as the years pass while he’s away fighting. The film shows vividly the toll repeated deployments take on military families. The scenes of urban warfare explode off the screen. You can’t walk away from watching American Sniper without some deep reflection. GRADE: A
I’ll probably eventually see this one. Health issues prevent theaters these days, so i’ll have to wait for OnDemand.
If I’m not mistaken, Cooper is to play Mack Bolan in a film. I guess this might be good training.
Randy, I was impressed at how Clint Eastwood directed this film.
As my sister (a veteran who served 25 years in the Air Force) has commented, we just don’t know what we’re doing to these soldiers by sending them over and over to repeated deployments; it may take decades to assess the full damage.
There was an excellent profile of Kyle (and of the very troubled veteran who killed him) in the New Yorker a couple of months ago. I can’t find the link right now, but I’d strongly advise seeking it out.
Deb, I’ll check out that NEW YORKER profile. The toll multiple deployments make on military families is terrible.
No soldiers have ever been asked to give so much and had a Congress so indifferent to the toll of their service. It is heart-breaking. Who ever figured no draft would produce such a thing.
Patti, military service families have carried a Heavy Burden for our country. And they’re treated shabbily in my opinion.
Did you read James Fallows’s excellent piece in The Atlantic about how we simultaneously fetishize our military as “heroes” and trivialize their post-service needs (for example, the ridiculous wait times for appointments at VA hospitals). Another thought-provoking article, well worth reading.
Deb, we subscribe to THE ATLANTIC. Fallow’s is right on the money about the Double Standard toward military service people. Their treatment in the VA hospitals is well documented and in many cases shameful.
And how about that certifiable pig Michael Moore calling him a coward?
We know people whose relatives have deployed over and over again with often devastating results.
Jeff, exactly. AMERICAN SNIPER shows a vivid example of this.
George, this film has been received well in India and I’m hoping to see it in the theatres this week.
Prashant, I’ll be eager to hear your reaction to AMERICAN SNIPER.