WASHINGTON – “Aim small, miss small.”
The key to assessing “American Sniper” lies in those four little words.
On one hand, the quote is directly ripped from Mel Gibson’s “The Patriot” (2000), signaling a 2014 war flick that’s more patriotic than groundbreaking, especially compared to recent predecessors such as “The Hurt Locker” (2008) and “Fort Bliss” (2014).
On the other hand, the quote speaks to Clint Eastwood’s precision approach, directing with clear eyes, bated breath and disciplined scope that’s sure to hit the bullseye.
Thankfully, the latter wins out, as Eastwood crafts an intense tale of U.S. Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, who confirmed 160 kills over four tours in Iraq. That makes him the most lethal sniper in U.S. military history. Your gut reaction to that statistic will determine whether you cringe or cheer at the thought of seeing “American Sniper,” but the execution makes it another Best Picture Oscar nominee for Eastwood, who does his best work since “Mystic River” (2003) and “Million Dollar Baby” (2004).
SPOILERS BELOW:
For a film about sniping, it’s only fitting that “American Sniper” has received much media sniping.
Opponents complain that Eastwood provides an overly sympathetic portrait of Kyle, who wrote in his book, “A lot of people, myself included, called the enemy ‘savages.’ … I only wish I had killed more.” Thoughtful opposition pieces argue: “We got Iraq wrong in the real world. It would be nice to get it right at the multiplex.” This feeling may explain the 73 percent on Metacritic, the 74 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and the 76 percent on IMDB. It may also explain why the Hollywood Foreign Press snubbed it for a Best Picture nomination at the Golden Globes.
Kyle’s widow, Taya, defended the film against such criticisms during her red-carpet appearance at the film’s D.C. premiere at the U.S. Navy Memorial.
“He was not a hateful person. He was just a man doing his job,” she tells WTOP. “There were people that were going to kill his brothers or Iraqi civilians, and he had a choice to make. Either he lets that happen, or he takes on the price of taking somebody else out. I think we should all take it to a personal level and imagine what that must be like, if you had your family standing there, and I was running at them, would you just let me do that? Or would you try to stop me any way you could?”
Whichever side you fall in this debate, what a fascinating case study on the state of today’s political reaction to art and entertainment. Progressive viewers are all too eager to slam Eastwood, whom they last saw talking to a chair for Mitt Romney at the Republican National Convention, while conservative viewers are all too eager to slam films such as “Selma,” “The Butler” or “Fruitvale Station.” Hate to break it to you: Every film has an agenda. It’s up for us to judge the effectiveness of the execution and the fairness in heart at which it is achieved.
Thus, the AFI Awards named “American Sniper” one of the Top 11 Films of the Year; the Directors Guild of America named Eastwood one of the year’s Top 5 directors, and the Oscars nominated it for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor (Cooper). Count myself in this category, admiring Eastwood’s masterful filmmaking craft and Cooper’s transformative performance.
Through the use of subjective camera (P.O.V. shots), Eastwood places us directly in the shoes of Kyle and keeps the tension at fever pitch. Like Jimmy Stewart staring through the telephoto lens of Hitchcock’s “Rear Window” (1954), Eastwood draws us into Cooper’s perspective, forcing us to hold our breath as we engage in his moral dilemmas and become complicit in his deadly actions.
We then carry the weight of those decisions back with us for the subplot: Kyle’s interactions with his wife (Sienna Miller) and two kids. Screenwriter Jason Hall has no interest in making “Enemy at the Gates” (great sniper flick), where we stay entirely in the battlefield, nor in making “Act of Valor” (mediocre sniper flick), where the SEALS’ personal lives are poorly drawn compared to the action. Instead, Hall’s script unfolds on two very different fronts: the war front and the home front.
Cooper is riveting in both, showing a playfulness with Miller in their blooming romance before sporting the thousand-yard stare of combat. Eventually, the A-story and B-story merge into marital strife fueled by survivor’s guilt, post-traumatic stress disorder and a compulsion for redeployment.
WTOP asked Cooper how Miller compares to his other recent Oscar-nominated co-stars, from Jennifer Lawrence to Amy Adams.
“Right up at the top,” Cooper says of Miller. “She’s a dexterous actress, ridiculously talented, beautiful, full of energy, and her work ethic is unparalleled.”
Cooper’s work ethic is just as impressive. The actor packed on 40 pounds before strapping on the flannel shirts and belt buckles to become his Texas character.
“I got myself into the mental, emotional, spiritual, physical, vocal space before I showed up,” Cooper tells WTOP. “You just have to become the character first, and then the character goes into whatever situation the story calls for.”
The result is Cooper’s best dramatic role to date, continuing a maturation that has shifted from side-splitting lowbrow comedies such as “Wedding Crashers” (2005) and “The Hangover” (2009) to artful “dramedies” such as “Silver Linings Playbook” (2012) and “American Hustle” (2013).
Surprisingly, Cooper says, working with David O. Russell is not so different from Eastwood.
“David is a very intuitive director and so very musically minded, and so is Clint Eastwood. It’s all about rhythm,” Cooper tells WTOP. “I love to work that way. It’s fast, it’s efficient and it’s also full of vitality.”
If Webster’s defines “vitality” as a “capacity for the continuation of a meaningful or purposeful existence,” that’s precisely what Eastwood wrestles with here: the purpose of our war existence. “American Sniper” doesn’t so much glorify this existence as to ask, “at what price?”
When the end credits roll with home-movie footage of Kyle’s funeral procession, caused by a fellow veteran at a gun range, we mourn the irony of an endeavor where a few brave souls volunteer to protect the rest of a nation, then upon completion of that task, return home to kill each other.
As Eastwood said in is his previous Best Picture winner “Unforgiven” (1992): “It’s a hell of a thing killing a man. You take away all he’s got, and all he’s ever going to have.”
★ ★ ★ 1/2
The above rating is based on a 4-star scale. See where this film ranks in our Fraley Film Guide. Follow WTOP Film Critic Jason Fraley on Twitter @JFrayWTOP. Follow @WTOP and WTOP Entertainment on Twitter and WTOP on Facebook.
