Nobody comes back from war unscathed

Rating: 8/10 (14 January 2015)

What it's like to be a soldier in a modern war? What is the price of military glory? For those, who want answers to these questions, two ways are opened - direct experience or experience mediated by the art of cinema. The more talented movie makers, the more authentic experience they can mediate through their art to public. The "American Sniper" is exactly such kind of art.
Bradley Cooper is as convincing as an actor can be. You don't feel him acting, you just see person, which Cooper impersonates before you. You see his emotions, deeply hidden, but glimpsing from the depth. And there are choices, Kyle made. Choices, about which we, civilians, even don't want to think about. We are mostly living in imaginary world, hiding from horrors of reality. Well, soldiers can't hide from it - they must face it or they'll die. They must make choices, horrible, inhuman in terms of civilized behaviour. And many of them became broken, actually losing their humanity in the process.
The phrases, Chris said - about common people, behaving as usual like there is no war there; that he can't allow himself to be home, while others are still fighting; about military brotherhood - all of them are so recognizable. That's exactly same words, which you can hear from Ukrainian soldiers here. Even dehumanization of enemies (calling them "savages", etc.) is understandable - otherwise it would be hard to justify to yourself terrible things you are doing (there is ingenious episode in the George Orwell's "Looking back on the Spanish War" where he recalls that he refrained from shooting at "Fascist" partly because of a small detail, which humanized his foe:"I had come here to shoot at "Fascists"; but a man who is holding up his trousers isn't a "Fascist", he is visibly a fellow-creature, similar to yourself, and you don't feel like shooting at him").
This reality they meet, these choices they made - all of it bring soldiers farther and farther into the web of war. And nobody comes back from war unscathed. You can't just go home from war - it will follow you. The things, you've seen, the choices, you've made - they will haunt you wherever you are. If this movie will help others to realize what sacrifices soldiers are really making out there - behind the borders of usual life - what price they are paying, then cinema art is worth its invention.
Wonderful movie from Clint Eastwood - 8 out of 10.