When the character can't overcome the legend

Rating: 6/10 (19 January 2015)

Clint Eastwood's "American Sniper" put me in the same kind of mood "Lone Survivor" did this time last year, in that I was reflective of why so many Americans, myself included, rush out to the multiplex to see a new war movie. The answer, from what I gather, is fairly simple, in that most Americans have very little conception as to what occurs overseas, and that mediums like books and films are our windows to the frontlines of combat. With war films based off true events, factual accuracy is always debatable, and the persistent fact checking often circles itself enough to the point where you don't know what to believe; nonetheless, if the combat and the human stories are done correctly, along with the presence of a clean structure, you will feel a war film and that's just about as good as anything.
"American Sniper" is destined to be the audience favorite of the next few weeks, and to be fair, it's easy to identify why; if you're someone who hasn't seen a lot of war films, or even if you have, this particular film packs a serious punch. A lot occurs in a little over two hours, and images and sequences many won't be used to will likely upset viewers and provoke feelings and attitudes that aren't usually provoked, even when watching a war film. At the end of my showing, over eighty people walked out in stone-cold silence; it was one of the most somber and telling signs I've ever witnessed exiting a movie theater. Everyone, regardless of their opinions, had just witnessed something that had them at a loss for words or an inability to speak their opinions as the credits rolled.
The film tells the story of the deadliest sniper in United States history, a Texas native by the name of Chris Kyle (played by Bradley Cooper), who enlisted in the Navy SEALS following the 1998 bombings of the United States embassies. He was eventually drafted into the Iraq War following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and went on to earn the name "Legend," for his prolific body count and his persistent loyalty to his squadmates. However, back home, as one would expect, his Taya (Sienna Miller) feels his absence, struggling to raise children and maintain their home, especially when every time Chris returns home, he is burdened by nudging thoughts of discomfort and an inability to readjust, which makes him want to return to the frontlines.
The film keeps one foot in Iraq and the other back in Texas, showing the contrasting lifestyles and the effects each one has on Kyle has a person. Iraq has him in a mood that is constantly alive, working to protect and operate as cleanly as possible, where back home shows him burdened by the thoughts of his current disloyalty and his persistent thoughts of war, as he clearly starts to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. A great scene in particular has Kyle staring at a Television set during a party, with thunderous explosions, helicopters, and combat being heard at deafening levels, leading one to believe he's watching coverage of the Iraq War; a brief pan around to show us his point-of-view shows the television set is turned off.
Eastwood keeps "American Sniper" grounded in humanity when it comes to showing the scenes involving the after-effects of each of Kyle's four tours in Iraq, but neglects to develop him as a person. A critical structural flaw in the film occurs within the first half hour, where the scene from the teaser trailer - showing Kyle with his crosshairs on a suspicious woman and her child as they harbor a grenade towards U.S. soldiers - remains a teaser in the feature film, with Eastwood cutting away from the action as it's about to unfold to show Kyle's life as a child before returning back to said scene to witness the outcome. During the time where Eastwood and writer Jason Hall expands on Kyle's upbringing and eventually enlisting, significant father/son moments and true motivations are simplified, resulting in a rushed treatment of the founding years of the character's life. On top of that, Eastwood corrupts the suspense he conjured from the trailer of the film by interrupting such a tense scene in the feature film, taking us out of an environment and interjecting us into several others when he should've kept us grounded in one.
Furthermore, the character of Chris Kyle remains largely a vapid caricature, characterized only by such buzzwords as "legend" or "amazing," never giving us the tender, more human side to the man that the film has initially suggested. What we largely get are combat scenes that are sometimes gripping and other times spatially incoherent or certain scenes that lack emotional leverage because they spell things out through the use of dialog or obviousness (IE: Kyle's face staring into the television as he witnesses one of the World Trade Center towers collapsing into rubble). While Cooper may be giving us one of the strongest performances of his career, effectively achieving the combination of unsettled and fragile, Hall's writing greatly shortchanges Sienna Miller's character, who is resorted to nothing more than being a wife who constantly calls her husband in either frustration or sadness and doesn't become her own central identity.
Nonetheless, there's a real overload of content here in terms of how much the film shows and how deep it's willing to go in certain situations. Eastwood and Hall do their best not to leave a stone unturned, and Cooper follows along nicely, creating a character who can be fearless at times and unsure and self-critical at others. "American Sniper" will please a great deal of audiences, but serious issues with the film's structure and depiction of its titular character should not go unnoticed despite the film's ability to captivate and illicit emotions.