Cast: Bradley Cooper does a great Chris Kyle impersonation. No, sorry. That had attitude. I'm unfairly associating his Oscar nomination with Jake Gyllenhaal's lack of one. Cooper is good in this and gives as much depth to the character as the script will allow. Sienna Miller is one of those actresses I have a hard time remembering and I'm not sure that will change after this. All the military guys are played by "that one guy from that show". People like Jake McDorman and Sam Jaeger have the right square-jawed look for this.
Plot: Chris Kyle (Cooper) is a cowboy who decides to join the military a little latter in life after news of a terrorist attack inspires him. Shortly after that, 9/11 happens, then the Iraq War. He gets deployed and quickly distinguishes himself as a sniper, getting the nickname "The Legend". The movie oscillates between his tours of duty and his inability to find peace while at home. There's an enemy sniper who acts as his Moriarty in order to give the plot some sort of direction. Back at home, his wife struggles with him being gone, and he always feels like he should go back to Iraq where he can do more. In other words, it hits all the beats you need it to. I think Clint Eastwood really respects Chris Kyle's patriotism and wants to honor that, which he does. I do think the movie lacks a message though. Kyle was a damn good soldier, he loves America, and he gets purpose out of protecting his brothers. Other than informing the audience that this man existed and turning his accomplishments into the beats of a Hollywood movie, I don't understand why this needed to be made. I'd even go as far as to say that his death probably motivated the movie being made even though it has NOTHING to do with the movie.
Elephant in the Room: They didn't use real babies, did they? Good god, no they didn't and it shows. I noticed the use of dolls more than once, but there's a particular scene, sadly one of the most dramatic, in which the fake baby is distracting. I thought it was just me noticing it until I heard giggles from other corners of the movie theater. Had that scene gone on any longer, I'm pretty sure the whole theater would've broken out in laughter. I don't remember the last time a single thing took me out of a movie so completely.
To Sum Things Up:
This movie is a little too "America: fuck yeah!" for my tastes. Kyle's entire motivation seems to be "America, because America". I have no idea why he feels that way or what maintains it for him. He just decides to be a Seal and that's it. I'm scared to even look up the accuracy of the movie because it is aggressively arranged to play like a movie. The dialogue, more in the beginning, and especially when he first meets his wife is back and forth, trading lines that could only exist in a movie. The villains are painfully thin and it over-relies on the audience saying, "well, we're at war with them so they must be bad"...
...Sorry. After a $90 million weekend, this is going to be my big "I just don't understand why it's so popular" movie of the year, so I'm already trying too hard to knock it down. It's a good movie. Cooper does a great job recreating Chris Kyle. The war scenes are very effective and there's a lot of moments of genuine tension. Almost immediately, it's clear that they aren't about holding any punches regarding what he has to do in Iraq (Think: the trailer for the movie). There's clearly an audience for it and they aren't wrong to like it. I'm going to get exhausted battling all the hyperbole about it though. I can already tell.
Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend
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