A neutered Hurt Locker

Rating: 7/10 (8 February 2015)

Back then, I really loved Hurt Locker, for its depiction of hopelessness, randomness of death (remember Guy Pierce dying in the first 15 minutes?) and the detailed portrayal of human feelings through action. I truly believe it deserved the Oscar and I truly felt the obscenity of war watching it.
Now American Sniper is sort of the same, great direction, great acting, famous director, story about the war in Iraq. However, it has no balls. The Jihadi are all the same, mindless faceless barbarians attacking and killing from hate alone. The Americans are all nice guys with a life back home, protecting each other. The lead actor is a walking cliché: the Texan who is taught by his father to believe in God, shoot and protect the weak and goes to war when he sees a bomb attack at an American embassy abroad. Basically all characters are cardboard.
Within minutes you know that it will all going to be a propaganda piece. This movie lets every American redneck have a picture of Chris Kyle on the wall above their bed and to want to kill some "Hajjis". Eastwood defended his film as antiwar, but I call BS. The hero of the film went to Iraq 4 times and the movie kind of lets the viewer believe he would have returned if it weren't for this wife and children nagging on him. The only antiwar piece in the entire story is in that one line of text at the end of the film.
Now, I don't know what Chris Kyle wrote in his book, nor do I know if the depiction of his character was accurate in both book and film. But if this film was supposed to be antiwar, it failed miserably.