There have been a lot of films over the years about the War on Terrorism and the toll our soldiers went through during their deployment in Iraq and Afghanistan after the attacks on the World Trade Center. I reviewed one of those films just a few days ago, The Hurt Locker, which examined the reasons why someone would voluntarily redeploy after gaining their release to return to their family. Just a few years after that film won Best Picture at the Oscars, Clint Eastwood tackled a very similar topic, this time in the form of a biopic. While many of the themes are the same between the two films, they are still very different pictures. The ending, for those who are unfamiliar with the true events, is a gut punch that catches you off guard, especially in how out of left field it comes and how casually Eastwood portrays it. It’s so abrupt that it almost derails the film. Fortunately, everything leading up to it is so strong. It was a deliberate choice that not everyone will appreciate.
This is the story of Chris Kyle (Bradley Cooper), a Texas-born ranch hand and rodeo cowboy who enlists in the Navy after seeing footage of the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings on television. He qualifies for special training and becomes a sniper with the U.S. Navy SEALs. Shortly afterwards, he meets Taya Studebaker (Sienna Miller) at an Irish pub in San Diego, and they soon are married. When the September 11 attacks happen, he is sent to Iraq.
His first kills in the line of duty are a woman and a young boy who are attacking U.S. Marines on patrol with a Russian-made anti-tank grenade. This leaves him shaken by the experience but earns him the nickname “Legend”, something that is further strengthened by his many subsequent kills. The film follows him through several missions, including the hunt for a nefarious terrorist known as The Butcher, who later issues a bounty on Chris. It also follows Chris home after each tour or duty as he returns to Taya, witnesses the birth of his children, and deals with the aftereffects of his time deployed. His experiences in Iraq have taken a toll on him, emotionally, and threaten to tear apart his family as, even when home, he cannot leave the war behind.
We have seen plenty of films on the subject of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The subject has been seen in the movies going back almost to the beginning of cinema with films like The Best Years of Our Lives among many others. There’s also the infamous scene in Patton when the general assaults a soldier suffering from it, calling him a coward. The amazing television series China Beach dedicated its final season to the soldiers, doctors, and nurses in Vietnam as they acclimated back into civilian life. Miles Teller would star in Thank You for Your Service in 2017, another film about the exact same subject. The topic of PTSD was on people’s minds as soldiers were coming home from Iraq just as it was during Vietnam, Korea, and the two World Wars. With that public conscience came movies that wanted to help us comprehend what our loved ones were dealing with, perhaps even empathize with them when we didn’t have our own experiences in which to correlate.
What makes American Sniper so special is that it isn’t a fictional account based on many people’s experiences but an adaptation of one man, based on his autobiography, dramatizing what he went through. It is a unique viewpoint from a man who looked at those around him as people he was tasked to protect. This mentality was the reason he kept going back again and again into Iraq even though he had a wife and young children he kept leaving behind. His wife couldn’t understand this obsessive need and it was tearing her apart to see him returning after each tour of duty, more and more changed by his experiences.
But even though he grows more jaded the more kills he racks up, he still is a human being, capable of strong emotion when his task goes against his best instincts. We see this when he shoots a man carrying an RPG. A moment later a young boy picks the RPG up, preparing to fire it off himself. Chris knows his duty tells him to shoot the kid, taking one life to save many, but he is begging the kid not to do it, not to force him to shoot him. Fortunately the kid drops the RPG and flees but Chris would have shot him dead otherwise, despite his feelings. These kinds of mental conflicts wear a person down and threaten to dehumanize him.
The moral gray zone can be very divisive to audiences, especially when it comes to shooting children. We can argue over whether the troops should have been there at all despite what happened on September 11th. We can argue that we were in the entirely wrong country and that Afghanistan was where we should have been, too. This film is not about that. If you want that, Fahrenheit 9/11 or any number of other documentaries are more up that alley. This is more about the emotional toll that war had on individuals and their families.
It’s also about protecting those around you, extended out far more than just your fellow soldiers. When Chris finally does come home at the end of his final tour of duty, he is frustrated because he is still stuck in that protective mode. Fortunately for him and his family, a thoughtful doctor suggests a way to pivot that into a productive venture without having to redeploy yet again. His suggestion is to visit the VA hospital and use his time and influence to help save veterans stateside. This gives Chris a purpose and satisfies his need to be a protector.
Clint Eastwood has a passion for war pictures, whether that be showcasing the battlefield or focusing on the war inside a person. He would use this to great effect in his duology of Flags of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima. Those films humanized the soldiers in that Pacific theater while not casting judgment on either side of the war. American Sniper, on the other hand, does cast judgment. Unlike The Hurt Locker, there is very little sympathy shown for the people of Iraq. The sole exception is a family who is brutally slain for speaking with the American soldiers. Instead, the Iraqi people are mostly shown as brutal killers, including the children. This isn’t softened in any way by scenes of native Iraqi citizens who are not terrorist. It’s a missed opportunity in the script that stands out like a sore thumb in an otherwise competently made film.
Bradley Cooper continues to dominate in yet another Oscar-nominated performance. For this film to work, we have to believe in the journey his character takes. We understand why he signs up for the Navy, and then he sells us on why he keeps returning, putting his life and his family on the line for his country and his men. More importantly, though, we believe in the changes that happen to him as a result of his deployment. It is critical that he doesn’t oversell that emotional damage. That is one of the major flaws in the Miles Teller film, Thank You For Your Service. In that film, there is a lot of yelling, violence, and emotional, tear-filled breakdowns. Here, it is much more subtle. Certain sounds catch his attention, causing him to tense up, even though he knows he is not in Iraq anymore. When a dog gets too playful with a kid, he steps in quickly, going into soldier mode and almost harming the dog. We understand his mindset without it being oversold.
Ultimately, this film is so successful because what we are seeing represents a real person. Instinctually, that elevates the picture over something that we know is fictitious. That’s also why the ending is so devastating. The tragedy that this film ends on is brutal, yet Eastwood has elected not to show it on camera. Instead, we get some pre-end credit text informing us of what happened. That is simultaneously effective and frustrating because of its abruptness.
The War on Terrorism is a touchy subject. It seemed like everyone had an extreme opinion about it in one way or the other. Some blamed President George W. Bush for that war, especially after certain details began to come out about what really happened and why. Whether you felt we should have been in Iraq or not, that doesn’t affect how this film will play. It doesn’t take sides. Instead, it is a personal story about one man’s experiences over there and how that affected his life, his marriage, and ultimately his death. It’s a powerful film that doesn’t get talked about nearly enough anymore.
Academy Award Nominations:
Best Picture: Clint Eastwood, Robert Lorenz, Andrew Lazar, Bradley Cooper, and Peter Morgan
Best Actor: Bradley Cooper
Best Adapted Screenplay: Jason Hall
Best Film Editing: Joel Cox and Gary D. Roach
Best Sound Editing: Alan Robert Murray and Bub Asman (won)
Best Sound Mixing: John T. Reitz, Gregg Rudloff, and Walt Martin
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Release Date: December 25, 2014
Running Time: 132 minutes
Rated R
Starring: Bradley Cooper and Sienna Miller
Directed by: Clint Eastwood
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