Oscar season is once again upon us and should we be grateful? Don’t get me wrong, this is the time of year where the chances of seeing a truly excellent film are high. Some studios and distributors delay a film’s release in order to achieve Academy recognition and all the benefits that a win can do for the talent involved (not to mention box office revenues).
But more often than not it feels there’s a formula or checklist to the winning films in recent years. This includes: being based on a true story, a protagonist confronting their inner demons, the struggle to do right and what they believe in against adversity, a bit of racism, American / social guilt, helping the frail or disabled, the main actor undergoing a physical transformation for the part and an ending that sticks with the audience for days to come. Indeed there’s even a term for these movies – Oscar bait’.
So with that in mind I am sceptical of any film that comes out this time of year. Once again I must reiterate that we get some truly excellent movies during this period, but most seem to adhere to a recipe to please academy voters.
American Sniper is a film that was below my radar until last month. It is based on the true story of Chris Kyle (Bradley Cooper), a US Navy SEAL who served four tours of duty during the Iraq war. During his time he racked up a total of 160 confirmed kills (and nearly 100 more probably kills), making him the most deadly sniper in American military history.
The film begins with a tense sequence in Iraq where he has to make a decision to shoot a child who may endanger his fellow troops. We then jump back to his childhood and the film briefly chronicles his moral and religious upbringing, then to his adult life and his decision to join the SEALs at the age of 30. He meets his wife Taya (Sienna Miller), becomes a father, serves his four tours and deals the aftermath of leaving the war behind and adjusting to civilian family life.
So for starters this is mostly an all-American film but isn’t preachy. Chris is from Texas and dreams of being a rodeo star. He is a cowboy whose call to adventure is a cause to fight for good against the evil in this world. So it’s little surprise that Clint Eastwood chose to direct this (although Steven Spielberg briefly flirted with it). This is no Unforgiven (1992) but you have to admit that he has directed some brilliant films over the years and can get believable emotions from his cast and shoot some terrific action scenes, soundtracked in this film mainly by the sounds of gunfire.
This is his best directed film in years and held my attention throughout. Some moments are brutal and intense, but there doesn’t seem to be an overall pro or anti-war message to the film. Chris seemingly joined the SEALs blindly and stubbornly as he was brought up on a code of God, country and family’. This stubbornness may be seen as patriotic but in action it is incredibly damaging to himself and his family.
Chris is portrayed as a manly man, but with most action films of the last decade or so there is always emotional consequences to the hero’s actions. He earns the nickname legend’ on the battlefield which aids his fellow troop’s morale. As the film states, winning is psychological’. He later resents the title as he becomes the most wanted man in Iraq and is weighed down not by the guilt of his kills, but by the solders he couldn’t save.
What this film is good at showing is the after effects of men at war. Chris suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and finds it hard to adjust to life back home. He is haunted by the evil that he has witnessed, can’t open up and is paranoid. He finds the best way to deal with it is to get back to the fight and when he does decide to come home, it truly is an emotional moment.
As the film progresses we see the pain in Chris’s eyes as he attempts to deal with it. He is more distant and in denial after each successive tour. This is where Cooper shines but he never goes full breakdown. He has been Oscar nominated twice before, but I doubt this will be his winning performance. I did find it a bit distracting that the more troubled he is, the bigger his beard gets.
We convincingly see the effects on his wife Taya as Sienna Miller really shows off her acting skills, struggling not only when he is away but also to bring her husband back when he’s home. There is good chemistry between them as their relationship goes up then down. Indeed she is the heart of the film.
It may seem a bit of a shame then that most of the other characters and actors play second fiddle and are largely forgettable, except for a few moments. Some of the villains, including an Iraqi former Olympic medallist turned sniper, aren’t fleshed out and as such seem two dimensional fodder. The people of Iraq just seem to be there and that’s it. But then again this is Chris’s story and Cooper’s movie.
We do see the bond of brothers in arms in the battlefield and when Chris is home he find a sense of solace towards the end as he helps disabled veterans, seemingly making it obvious to the audience that these men lost a lot fighting for freedom and came back broken.
I really enjoyed the film but had a few issues. Like True Grit (2010) I had trouble understanding some of the southern accents and missed some seemingly important dialogue. Secondly the physics of shooting a sniper rifle seemed ignored but this is a Hollywood film, hence the cheesy use of bullet time.
However my biggest issue was with the ending, once the story had come full circle.
SPOILER ALERT
The only time we see a date on screen is at the end and it seemed needless as it rightly led me to believe that something bad would happen. Chris is murdered by one of the veterans he was trying to help. We then have real life footage of his service and when the credits roll there is no music, a technique used in Game of Thrones and 24, when shockingly a main character dies. We aren’t told what happened to the solider that killed him, and as such there is no sense of closure or justice for the audience: which may have been intentional in order to achieve a haunting ending but it seemed like an easy shock tactic. That being said for those who knew about his demise, then the ending may seem poetically tragic as he finally overcame his demons.
END OF SPOILERS
That being said this is a good film. The direction and acting was fantastic and the action scenes are tense and the overall pace doesn’t sag. More importantly it isn’t preachy and doesn’t have much of a sense of American guilt for invading Iraq.
I have had difficulty giving a final verdict mainly due to the ending, but it does stick with you and as such this is a powerful film about war and the individual struggle of the solider.
Overall Verdict: A moving film showing not only the horror of war but the struggle in returning to normality once it’s over. A great performance by Cooper and co., but if they were going for Oscar glory then I think they have missed their target.
Reviewer: George Elcombe