American Sniper is a semi-biographical film, which explores the tours of duty of American Navy SEAL sniper, Chris Kyle, who is played by Bradley Cooper (The Hangover, American Hustle). When the film opens, we see Kyle preparing to shoot an Iraqi woman and her son, since he seems to believe they’re carrying explosives. He is warned, if he makes a mistake, he will be sent to Leavenworth Prison.

Next, the film jumps back and begins to explore a little bit of Chris’s childhood and religious upbringing. The movie really doesn’t dwell on this too much, as it quickly jumps forward to the point, where Kyle attempts to join the army and begins training to become a Navy SEAL. We also get to see how Kyle met his future wife, before witnessing the 9/11 attack on the news, which motivates Kyle to fight for his country.

On the day Kyle and his wife get married, the boys receive the news that they’re going to Iraq. After this point, we flash back to the scene, which was shown in the very beginning. While taking a risk, Kyle makes the shot and kills the small Iraqi boy. Instantly, the boy’s mom picks up the explosive and attempts to hurl it towards American soldiers. Of course, a quick shot from Chris keeps the Americans out of harms way.

After this, we begin to explore the tour of duties that Chris endured. Since he ended up serving four individual tours, he returns home several times and has two kids, a boy and a girl. On the battlefield, Chris makes a name for himself, which causes the Islamic radicals to place a bounty on his head. Of course, an intense rivalry emerges between Chris and an enemy sniper.

Will Chris be able to walk away from the army? Or will he be able to bring down his rival, before returning home?

Review


American Sniper could’ve and should’ve been an emotional roller coaster, which explored the repercussions of the battlefield. However, we’re left with an incoherent kill-fest and nothing more. Although the film attempted to hide many aspects of Kyle and his tours, it still did his character no favors. In fact, the movie character ended up coming off as an unemotional simpleton, who only wished to kill.

It became very hard to root for Chris, or any of the characters for that matter. The acting was flat and the writing was done in a way that made the man a bore. As for the other characters, they were shown very little, since we were jumping from one scene to the next, without any glue piecing them together. In fact, the movie wound up feeling like a colleague of scene and not a movie, as a whole.

The film attempted to lead us up to a climatic ending, but the dusty helicopter scene was hard to watch. All in all, much of the story felt embellished and Chris Kyle could’ve been served better, if the film had focused more on the dramatic impacts of war and less on the silly showdown between two ruthless snipers. At the end of the day, the film deserves a 5 out of 10.