It's always difficult to get the truth out of somebody. Even if it doesn't matter. Sit down with your buddies for a quiet night of beers and professional sports, and ask them about that night a couple days later. They will all remember how the evening went down in a different way. It's human nature. We're hard-wired to interpret events. Several critics got angry at AMERICAN SNIPER for doing this, claiming it falsely represented the life of a U.S military trained homicidal redneck. Who the fuck was Navy Seal Chris Kyle, exactly? The proud executioner he portrays himself to be in his memoir? The tormented hero interpreted by freakin' Bradley Cooper? I'm pretty sure not a soul on the internet knows, but AMERICAN SNIPER is just an afterthought of a potential truth, and it's also a lackluster war movie.
Chris Kyle (Bradley Cooper) was an all-American Texas boy. He was taught to shoot at a young age by his father, he was good looking, athletic, rather smart and had little difficulty with whatever he felt like doing. He was an alpha. Kyle also happened to love his country very much. After 9/11, he ran into a recruitment center and was immediately scouted to become a Navy Seal. He ended up going to Iraq 4 times and racking an all-time record of confirmed kill as a sniper. Chris Kyle is a legend in the American army. A legend that collected enemies and bounties on his head during his deployment in war zones. AMERICAN SNIPER is the heavy dramatization of Kyle's exploit, filtered through the directorial lens of an old and curmudgeon-y Clint Eastwood.
There is some good and some bad about AMERICAN SNIPER. It's nowhere near as bad as its detractors can say, but it can get pretty stupid at times. When I say the movie is heavily dramatized, I'm referring to the use of villain figures that rival the silliness of pro wrestling heels. There are two guys Chris Kyle "feuds" with per se: an al-Qaeda operative aptly named The Butcher (Mido Hamada) who enforces the Sharia with a banged up DeWalt, and a silent, unnamed sniper that lives to kill American soldier. So much that when he doesn't have anything to do, he spins a bullet on a coffee table, dreaming of the next American he's going to kill. I don't think AMERICAN SNIPER needed a freakin' feud in order to be interesting. I'm sure there are a hundred interesting stories in Chris Kyle's memoir that weren't told *.
* Another unwittingly funny detail in AMERICAN SNIPER is that Chris Kyle actually calls his fiance during firefights. It looks so easy, it's like he was at the grocery story and called her because he wasn't sure which toothpaste brand to watch. '"Hello hon, I'm on a rooftop, watching a genocidal warlord drill through a child's face. What are you doing right now?
Chris Kyle (Bradley Cooper) was an all-American Texas boy. He was taught to shoot at a young age by his father, he was good looking, athletic, rather smart and had little difficulty with whatever he felt like doing. He was an alpha. Kyle also happened to love his country very much. After 9/11, he ran into a recruitment center and was immediately scouted to become a Navy Seal. He ended up going to Iraq 4 times and racking an all-time record of confirmed kill as a sniper. Chris Kyle is a legend in the American army. A legend that collected enemies and bounties on his head during his deployment in war zones. AMERICAN SNIPER is the heavy dramatization of Kyle's exploit, filtered through the directorial lens of an old and curmudgeon-y Clint Eastwood.
There is some good and some bad about AMERICAN SNIPER. It's nowhere near as bad as its detractors can say, but it can get pretty stupid at times. When I say the movie is heavily dramatized, I'm referring to the use of villain figures that rival the silliness of pro wrestling heels. There are two guys Chris Kyle "feuds" with per se: an al-Qaeda operative aptly named The Butcher (Mido Hamada) who enforces the Sharia with a banged up DeWalt, and a silent, unnamed sniper that lives to kill American soldier. So much that when he doesn't have anything to do, he spins a bullet on a coffee table, dreaming of the next American he's going to kill. I don't think AMERICAN SNIPER needed a freakin' feud in order to be interesting. I'm sure there are a hundred interesting stories in Chris Kyle's memoir that weren't told *.
Hello, I kill Americans. It is my passion and my living.
What's funny is that both guys actually existed, but they're been reimagined and repurposed in order to create the villains Clint Eastwood wanted them to be. Another important detail is that they don't speak English. None of the Iraqis do. It's a telltalte sign of how confused the movie is between its desire for realism and its desire to create strong drama. If you re-imagine two soldiers into these James Bond villain figures, make them talk. Make them interesting and engaging. You've already messed with the integrity of the original events, might as well go all out. That or you stick to what had been written by Chris Kyle. Otherwise, you just took your audience for imbeciles.
I don't believe that AMERICAN SNIPER was as denatured as it was made to be. In fact, I think the movie reflects fairly well the feeling of moral crusade Chris Kyle felt he was on. So what if the bragging, tough guy parts have been left out of the movie? Is it so bad to rewrite your main character in order to make him a tad more loveable? I'm sure Bradley Cooper didn't portray Chris Kyle the way he really was, but people forget that there often are millions of dollars at stake in these productions and directors and screenwriters are going to do whatever's necessary in order to make their project a financial success. I didn't take the moral seasoning of AMERICAN SNIPER personally at all.
One thing I thought the movie did admirably well, though and possibly better than any other movie from memory is explaining PTSD. It's a merely afterthought in AMERICAN SNIPER, but I've literally never had it explained to me in a way that I could immediately empathize with the subject. It's all sound-based. You're going to hear a sound in one scene, related to a horrific image (i.e The Butcher's drill) and in a following scene where Chris Kyle is back in America, you'll hear the same exact sound in another, benign setting and you'll cramp up with fear just like Bradley Cooper on screen. PTSD is like that invisible barrier between returning soldiers and other people, but AMERICAN SNIPER is the first piece of art, really that offered a peek through it.
So, is AMERICAN SNIPER a good movie?
It's not bad. It's heavy handed at times, and has its fair share of stupid moments, but it's a strong production. I could enjoy it in spurts whenever Clint Eastwood didn't put his Vince McMahon pants on to try and milk the feud between Chris Kyle and the two Iraqis. Unlike other candidates for the Academy Award for Best Movie, it's not transcendent art. It doesn't make a strong statement about war, but it does make one about PTSD. I'm not going to be mad at you if you don't watch it, unlike for WHIPLASH and BIRDMAN, but it's an interesting attempt to humanize one of the most polarizing figures of the war on terror, even if it obviously doesn't care one bit about being politically truthful.
So, is AMERICAN SNIPER a good movie?
It's not bad. It's heavy handed at times, and has its fair share of stupid moments, but it's a strong production. I could enjoy it in spurts whenever Clint Eastwood didn't put his Vince McMahon pants on to try and milk the feud between Chris Kyle and the two Iraqis. Unlike other candidates for the Academy Award for Best Movie, it's not transcendent art. It doesn't make a strong statement about war, but it does make one about PTSD. I'm not going to be mad at you if you don't watch it, unlike for WHIPLASH and BIRDMAN, but it's an interesting attempt to humanize one of the most polarizing figures of the war on terror, even if it obviously doesn't care one bit about being politically truthful.
* Another unwittingly funny detail in AMERICAN SNIPER is that Chris Kyle actually calls his fiance during firefights. It looks so easy, it's like he was at the grocery story and called her because he wasn't sure which toothpaste brand to watch. '"Hello hon, I'm on a rooftop, watching a genocidal warlord drill through a child's face. What are you doing right now?
