American Sniper

Director: Clint Eastwood
Year: 2014
 Resonance Rating: 3.5 ripples (out of 5)

American Sniper opens with an awful moral choice: Chris Kyle (Bradley Cooper) is a Navy Seal and sniper covering his fellow troops from a rooftop in a war-torn, rubble-pile of a city in Iraq. He spots a woman and a young boy walking out of a building. They shouldn’t be there but they’re not necessarily doing anything wrong - yet. He sees the woman hand the boy a high-powered grenade. He sets the boy in his site and places his finger on the trigger. His partner warns him that he’ll be “fried at Leavenworth” if he’s wrong. He asks for visual confirmation on the ground or alternate viewpoints. No one can confirm. If he doesn’t pull the trigger and the boy is there to kill, he will watch perhaps dozens of his fellow troops die. What will he do? The film almost begs: what would you do?

The film is, in its entirety, about difficult choices regard roles in society, particularly as they pertain to “good and evil” and “wolves, sheepdogs and the sheep”. I put these in quotes out of respect for the fact that they are philosophies and have a way of dividing audiences sharply. I make no statement about their correctness at this juncture, instead looking squarely at the film.

Before the initial moral question of whether or not Chris will pull the trigger on the boy is answered, Director Clint Eastwood flashes back to Chris youth. We see him raised in rural Texas by a strong-willed father who teaches him to hunt deer at an early age. Chris has the gift of a sharp eye and a steady finger. As he kills his first deer he is scolded by his father to never leave his gun in the dirt. Immediately afterward, we see Chris’ younger brother, Jeff, being beaten up on a playground by a larger bully. Chris protects his brother and beats up the bully. Their father tells them there are three types of people in the world and he will not tolerate a wolf (predator/bully) nor a sheep (weakling). The boys accept this, though Chris’ steel in this acceptance is markedly different than Jeff’s shame for being beaten up.

The film goes on to follow Chris’ path as a failed rodeo star, lover and eventually, upon a burst of patriotism and pride, becoming a top-notch Navy Seal. Just as he settles down with his wife, Taya (Sienna Miller), the events of 9/11 elevate his unit to combat. He and the rest of his unit are ready to rush in with the familiar “Hooyah” (and it’s nearby military neighbors “Oorah” and “Hooah”) bravado of the Seals.  The conflict between what he feels is his duty, his fate and his responsibility are the messy stew of the final 90 minutes.

The film is messy for me, emotionally, as I see the conflict of war and those brave warriors (or sheepdogs) who engage in it versus the blood-thirsty wolves they are sent to fight, only wearing different colors. To be clear, calling it messy is in fact a high compliment as presenting war as a romantic, violence porn or simple black and white, good versus evil is the worst misstep in respect to the complexities of the actions. Eastwood and Cooper are careful to present Chris with the right amount of doubt about his own ability, mission and what all of it means all the while needing to be in a position of split-second reaction because a moment’s doubt is what gets one (or many) killed in war.

Chris faces many things that challenge him on his path:

·      a wife who needs him to be a husband and father at home – not just physically but, increasingly as Chris’ exposure to war increases, mentally.

·      a shadow of himself in a gifted Syrian sniper named Mustafa who hunts Chris while fighting for the opposition in Iraq.

·      A brother who loses his taste for the war quickly, causing Chris to question his own presence.

It is a testament to the power of personal storytelling that Chris is able to continue his path as a sheepdog even when the mission and his personal need to be a leader in it becomes increasingly questioned. How much must Chris shoulder? Does he have a hero complex due to the worship of the other soldiers? The tally of how many he has killed is a scorecard to some, but uncomfortable knowledge to Chris. This isn’t hunting deer. The shades of grey are spreading. And, perhaps worst of all, he can’t turn it off anymore. He is more comfortable in the theater of war than he is in the relative comforts of his home with his family.

Again, with an expanded field of 10 nominees, American Sniper deserves a spot in that discussion, though I think it would be a mistake to grant it the Oscar. Cooper’s careful, angst-ridden performance probably will earn him a nomination, too [ED: written prior to Academy announcement] – though that field is growing awfully crowded. What makes a film great and ultimately the best of the year will be the work of the Academy and hotly debated leading up to and after the Big Show early this spring. As this is, perhaps, the strongest crop of films in a single year to come about in a decade (2004’s group, the last time Eastwood was nominated, was a very strong field as well – though 2010 also brought a wonderfully diverse and powerful bunch to the screen), I look forward to the discussion.    

Resonance Rating: 3.5 out of 5