Yes, support the troops, but this ?

Rating: 5/10 (20 February 2017)

I could only watch the first half an hour of this. Where in Gran Turino Eastwood crafted a fine film, in Sniper I was left feeling put out. The child killing scene is obviously supposed to highlight the evils of Jihad but he brings it in too early. I was initially reminded of the NAZI's employment of child soldiers at the end of WW2 but then Eastwood drops a sniped enemy soldier into the frame in a way that was just wrong. Do soldiers really seem so casual about death in this way? I doubt it. Where Clint made some really good points about violence in Outlaw Josey Wales and the Dirty Harry films, here, this comes across as a propaganda film. And make no mistake, I am aware of our current war (being British) and this could have been a worthy effort. But better, more thought out propaganda (not to mention entertaining) films were made in WW2. I support the difficult efforts of both American and British soldiers as well as Iraqi soldiers currently winning against Daesh in Iraq, but they deserve better than this. To be fair this is a film aimed at the American market that could be difficult for a Brit to understand.