I wanted to like it, but Clint Eastwood...

Rating: 5/10 (27 December 2014)

As someone who read American Sniper, and admired the mentality of Chris Kyle, I really wanted to enjoy this movie.
But unfortunately the narrative was sometimes stubbornly chronological and lurched rhythmically forward like a kid learning to drive a stick shift. Cooper did a great job portraying Kyle and the efforts of him and his co- star were pretty much the only thing that saved this film.
The halting pace was bad enough, but whenever the writer or Eastwood departed from the truth, they did so in a way that made Chris Kyle look... kinda bad or reckless. Shooting a kid who was attacking troops (he never did that, or at least never had to), Disobeying an order and exposing the position of his team by taking a shot at a glimmer of light from 2100 yards that he determines is an enemy sniper. Its just disappointing that a film will glorify his accomplishments while downplaying his abilities in weird ways, and then saying he had "a gift", which Kyle denied and said he finished middle of the pack in sniper school. He also calls his wife in the middle of a firefight and says he's quitting the military. I think he'd be a little irritated by that. Also, the Marines are portrayed as babyfaced wide-eyed teenagers and i think kyle would be irritated by that as well, since he gave them so much credit in his book.
At one point two women in the theater started cracking up and said "ITS A DOLL", and I noticed that the baby that bradley cooper was holding was basically a toys-r-us doll and he was trying to stop her from crying. it was really bizarre. yikes.
all in all i gave it a 5 because the acting was top-notch. clint eastwood really boxed out anyone who would've done a good job with this story. so disappointing.