Highly touted Oscar contender that might indeed steal some statutes this year!

Rating: 9/10 (16 January 2015)

I have been following the story of the sniper Chris Kyle, the Navy Seal credited with over 150 kills of the enemy combatants in the Middle East for quite some time. I knew that eventually there will be a movie made about his life, but I didn't expect to be so soon and with such a high profile director and cast. When I first heard that Clint Eastwood was interested to direct this project, I became doubly exited. I have a lot of respect for his work as an actor, who comfortably, in a twilight of his life, made a successful transition to become a film director. Eventually when it was reviled that Bradley Cooper will take upon himself the titled role, I was confident that the movie will turn out well. Cooper for his role needed to bulk up a bit and took Texan accent classes to be able to portrait Chris Kyle's life, in what eventually would end up as "American Sniper" the movie. The whole film is based upon the book by Jason Hall and Chris Kyle spanning the period from childhood going all the way up to his training and 4 tours in Iraq, all the way to his unexpected (spoiler alert) death.
The fact is that Chris Kyle was always a controversial figure. To some he was a hero and a patriot of the highest caliber, to others he was an enemy who had a bounty put on his head in the amount of $20.000. Even known American politician Ron Paul got in to hot water by controversially stating comment about Kyle's life in motto: "Who fight with a sword dies from it". However the opinion about the man himself, the fact is, that his life story does work as a movie and the "American Sniper" receiving many Oscar nominations this year including Best Film and Best Leading Actor for Bradley Cooper is the best testament of that.
The first thing that you notice about this film is the fact that it is 2 hours and 13th minutes long. This time allowed Eastwood to develop the story without rushing through important moments of Kyle's life, starting from his childhood, going through his bull - rodeo riding, all the way through his enrollment at the age of 30, on to the Navy Seal training regiment and his 4 tours in Iraq. Of course as with most military veterans the adjustment to a normal life becomes a problem. Many veterans suffering from PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) which Kyle was trying to help and by doing so helping himself.
The way the story is constructed in the movie is that Eastwood concentrates on the central conflict between the two world class snipers. One of them being Kyle, the other is a Syrian based terrorist who has Olympic pedigree in rifle shots, who fights on the side of the insurgents in Fallujah, a city in the Iraqi province of Al Anbar which has been a terrorist hotbed of insurgency. As US Marines conduct door to door search Kyle is their eye in the elevated position, that protects them in case of problems. This creates a legendary celebrity like status among his fellow soldiers.
Watching "American Sniper" another Oscar worthy movie with similar subject comes to mind titled "Hurt Locker". Specially the fact that soldiers have a difficulty in adopting to their life back in the civil circumstances and that makes them want to come back to the battlefield, because only there they feel like they are really alive.
Personally I felt "American Sniper" was bit too long and lack the emotional impact which I expected from the material presented here. Don't understand me wrong it is still a great film. All the performances are very solid, starting from Bradley Cooper, who not only transform physically, but also has the natural charisma and likability of a leader on display. I am not sure however if this is indeed his best performance. Sienna Miller seems to be on a row and to some extent being type cast again by playing his wife, being also casted as a wife of Mark Ruffalo's character in the "Foxcatcher", another highly Oscar touted movie this year. There were scenes in "American Sniper" which I felt were unnecessary or simply too long, but they were not distracting enough to take me out of the cinematic experience. On personal note I was really proud to see one of my Ivana Chubbuck Studio acting buddies Evan Gamble, whom I work with in the past, getting an opportunity to have a small speaking role with Bradley Cooper. All in all this highly touted Oscar contender might indeed steal some statuettes this year and rightfully so, I just wish that it would have been at least 15 minutes shorter, which would help to speed up the tempo of the film.
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