Movie Review - American Sniper: a flawed war movie slightly redeemed by Bradley Cooper's performance

WARNING - this review contains a few Spoilers.

I suppose there are several ways to look at ‘American Sniper’; an Award-nominated biopic, based on the memoirs of former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle (played here by Bradley Cooper); a solid yet unspectacularly-made war movie set during the US-led invasion of Iraq during the past decade; one soldier’s perspective of that conflict; a film centered on a particularly strong lead actor; or a biased account that allows little room for political or moral reflection.  All of these are true, but how you feel about the film will ultimately depend upon how you feel about the Iraq Invasion, and whether you can put your feelings aside - or embrace them - enough to care about the central character.

First of all, without going in to too many details, I’ll have to admit that my feelings about this war are negative - I never believed it was justified, and even now the consequences are continuing to make themselves known.  I believe that this is an issue that any war film about this conflict should address.  Ironically however this film almost succeeds in sidestepping that, due to it being told mainly from the perspective of Kyle.  A few scenes early on give an idea that, whilst not a saint, Kyle was a decent man, instilled with pretty black-and-white ideals about good and evil from his strict (read: child beating, as one scene infers) father.  He enlists in the Navy SEALs out of an apparent desire to protect the people of his country after watching TV reports of terrorist bombing of a US Embassy in another country.  At this point there’s no context given to the attack, who carried it out or why - the report simply states that the perpetrators clearly hate America.

Cooper plays Kyle in an un-showy and compassionate manner. 

Then follows your standard grueling military training montage, interspersed with a scene where he meets his wife Taya (played by Sienna Miller).  But before their wedding there is a scene where they watch, in horror, the attacks of September 11th 2001.  Jump to their wedding, which is overshadowed by his unit being told they are shipping out to war.  The film then jumps to Kyle’s first tour in Iraq, part of the Military’s attempts to put down an insurgency in the city of Fallujah.  During his first mission, providing cover for an advancing unit of Marines, we witness the first of his more than 160 kills; despite the fact they are quite harrowing, these are presented as justified because Kyle has to protect his comrades above all else.  At this point it might have been easy to depict Kyle as an almost heartless killer, but the scene that follows it depicts him reflecting on his decisions and actions - these weren't easy for him.  Some might argue that this scene could have taken more time, but the fact it is there at all is welcome.

After this the film shows scenes from his tours in Iraq interspersed with scenes at home with his wife and family.  Sometimes the editing feels a little sloppy, as jumps between the two settings can feel so abrupt as to disorientate the viewer from a scene involving military to a scene with his family.  During these scenes we see Kyle trying to be a good husband and father, whilst quietly brooding over the war.  We get obligatory scenes where his wife, distraught at seeing reports of US personnel being killed in Iraq, begs him to stay, and at one point even threatens that if he goes for another tour she and his children won’t be waiting for him when he gets back.  Although Miller does her most with the role, sadly the film doesn't give her enough to make her decisions clear - especially as she is apparently struggling with her husband being at war.

Sienna does as much as she can with the little the film allows her in the role of wife Taya.

I suppose this is the cost of basing the film so much from Kyle’s perspective - on the other hand, his motivations to continue the tours are clear.  The film repeatedly tells us that he wants to keep his fellow US service personnel safe, but an added plot about an Insurgent sniper gives this motivation even more clarity (than it arguably needs).  The scenes of war are effectively shot and suitably tense, but this film becomes too one-sided in its portrayal of this conflict - which is its greatest flaw.  For example, when one of Kyle’s squad members begins to question what they are all doing in Iraq, he is clearly at odds with Kyle’s outlook.  When this same person is (somewhat predictably) killed in conflict, after his funeral Kyle tells his wife that he died before being shot, but because of his views.  To me this is the point the film crosses the line from Kyle’s own view, to making a very jingoistic and sweeping commentary on how people view the US ‘involvement in any conflict: you’re either on the US side, but if you even have a differing opinion then you should be as good as dead. 

This view point might have some basis if there was some moral high-ground, but - even though the film completely side steps the murky political motivations that led to it - the attitude of Kyle and many of his fellow service personnel is, well, racist to be frank. All of the resident population of Fallujah are referred to as ‘savages’; yes, we witness some evil men in the insurgents do despicable acts, but it unfair to label an entire nation because of their actions.  This attitude might have made sense also if the film allowed a depiction of the soldiers growing more and more weary of the conflict - as other war films (not just about this particular conflict) have done; but by focusing on a ‘mission’ to find and neutralize the Insurgent sniper, Kyle and his squad seem to be given sufficient motivation to continue fighting a pretty un-nuanced ‘good fight’.

Although it doesn't excise this view point, when you consider who directed the film – Clint Eastwood – it’s arguable that he has framed the conflict, and Kyle’s actions, in the manner of the genre in which he made his name: the Western.  Many of those films are marked by a straight-forward sense of good and evil, white hats versus black hats, savage Indians versus stoic frontiersmen.  Indeed, that word is applied to the people of Iraq – they are the savages to whom the ‘Cowboys’ of the US military (indeed, it is mentioned early on that Kyle aspired to be a Cowboy) must fight to bring to order.  Of course, this view point is not the right one to take about the Iraq conflict – but appreciating how Eastwood possibly projected this on to Kyle’s memoirs is one way of accounting for how the film treats the subject.

You might argue that when a film handles the Iraq War so insensitively that there could be nothing to redeem it, for me it is Kyle, and Cooper’s performance, that goes some way to rescuing it.  Cooper has bulked up impressively for the role, and he manages to play Kyle in a surprisingly nuanced way.  He brings out the humanity of the role, ensuring that Kyle is never portrayed as a complete saint, just an ordinary man with very straight-forward views about good and evil, yet deep down the weight of his self-imposed mission to protect people clearly affects him.  A scene later on where he comes close to having to shoot a child for picking up an RPG and aiming it at US Marines shows the stress each decision to make a kill must have had, and Cooper portrays this very well.

Ultimately, Kyle is considered an American hero, and while the film fails in a balanced portrayal of the conflict he fought in, this is unsurprising - to suggest otherwise would tarnish his standing.  It seems odd then that, despite wanting to be respectful to Kyle and those who served in the US military during that was, so little is made of the plight of many of the veterans suffering the effects of injuries and PTSD after it.  Despite scenes depicting Kyle’s new-found mission to ‘save’ these former soldiers, more could have been done to highlight this: regardless of whatever political stance on the Iraq Invasion, it is an injustice that so many people that fought through it and survived it are still suffering.

In the end we are left to reflect on Cooper’s portrayal of a man, dubbed a legend by those who served with him, who was apparently a simple, decent human being - concerned with the well being of those in his care, and a man who loved his family.  The most powerful part of the entire film are the shots of real footage from his funeral procession and memorial during the end credits.  After the final scene, depicting Kyle’s last moments at home with his family, these give the film a real gut-punch ending.

...and when you've done talking about controversial depictions of the Iraq War, there's still the issue of the fake babies that the internet is raging over...