Eastwood has taken on war films before with Flags of our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima. Eastwood is obviously pro-soldiers, but with American Sniper he also demonstrates that he's pro-war, sickeningly patriotic and borderline offensive. In fact, it's almost like 'Dirty' Harry Callahan has directed American Sniper himself.
In American Sniper, Bradley Cooper plays Chris Kyle, a real life Navy SEAL sharp shooter. The story is based on the Autobiography by Chris Kyle and chronicles his life and legend where he is reported to have over 150 confirmed kills in his career as a SEAL. The movie opens in the midst of battle where Kyle is about to make his very first confirmed kill. From there the movie jumps around with a series of flash backs to get you up to speed on the background of Kyle from childhood to how he ended up as a America's most deadly sniper. After the flashbacks, the movie takes you from one gruesome battle situation to another highlighting some of the more noteworthy kills of his career; all while trying to hold down a family, marriage and his own sanity.
Sienna Miller's Taya Kyle is arguably the flimsiest character of all. Originally, she is portrayed as a strong female character who isn't going to take anyone's crap and then she falls for Chris Kyle's charm and suddenly she's a stay-at-home mum who is at Chris' beckon call. She allows Chris to go back for a fourth tour and she continues to make inconsistent decisions throughout.
However, I have to admit that few do character drama better than Eastwood and and he is heavily invested in Chris Kyle's flawed war hero. The most interesting scenes come away from the war zone and are back in America. Watching the Kyle's deal with Chris' post traumatic stress is sometimes remarkable, and often emotional. Most of this comes from Bradley Cooper's terrific turn as the main protagonist.
But I am never going to get on with a film that is this politically dodgy and is this heavily flawed, and there's a voice in the back of my head that tells me that the American audience are going to lap this up and that makes my skin crawl.
First of, let me just make clear that I think anyone that serves for their country is a brave and remarkable person, but I object when someone is heralded for killing people. The taglines are as follows: "150 kills made history" and "The most lethal sniper in U.S. history". Chris Kyle should be celebrated for willingly fighting for his country, being a leader and helping veterans after his four tours of Iraq. He should not be celebrated for killing people, no matter who they are. Yet he is. The film is full of people calling him 'Legend' because of his kill rate, it's sickening.
Sadly, Eastwood chooses to focus on this and he smears his grubby, offensive hands on this piece of propaganda. The film holds very masculine ideals that it expects most males in America to hold. It doesn't question this. It embraces it. Especially in the scene where the Chris Kyle and his father are going for some good old American hunting at the start of the film and then Kyle takes his own son at the end of the film. Eastwood loves the tradition, old-fashioned American values and, in turn, he makes a film that would belong in the 20th Century rather than the 21st. Kyle, himself, didn't care about the people that he killed, he was only worried about the people he couldn't save - his own.