Wednesday, 1 April 2015

Film Review - American Sniper



Shoot To Kill
 
Film: American Sniper
Cast: Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller
Directed by: Clint Eastwood
Duration: 2 hrs 12 mins
Rating: * * *

Based on the autobiographical book by Chris Kyle, one of the deadliest sniper in the U.S. military, American Sniper is a patriotic film directed by Clint Eastwood.  Kyle is credit with more than 160 killings during the four times that he toured Iraq while the war on terror was in progress.

Since this is a very personal account, the politics of it may be questionable but once you accept that this is one side of the story, it is a story that is well told.

Born and brought up in Texas Kyle (Bradley Cooper) is as patriotic as they come. With a knack for hitting the target, he enlists in the army after a series of terrorist attacks in Africa. As a SEAL, he meets his to be wife Taya (Sienna Miller) and he is summoned to Iraq right in the middle of his wedding.

His first targets are a woman and a young boy who try to attack a marine convoy and from there, there is no turning back. Sitting on rooftops, his job is to provide the ground soldiers with cover and he does that very well.

There is a fair bit of on field action, which primarily portrays the soldiers in good light and most of the local residents are either double crossing agents or bad guys. Perhaps that is what Kyle came across during his encounters. Much like what we saw in The Hurt Locker, being in the middle of the action almost becomes an obsession. While it celebrates the heroics of a soldier on the duty, it also laments about war and its final outcome. 

Published in The Navhind Times on 18th January 2015


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