Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper follows Chris Kyle from a Texas childhood spent hunting deer to four tours in Iraq, where he became the deadliest marksman in U.S. military history. Bradley Cooper plays Kyle. Sienna Miller plays his wife, Taya. The film runs 133 minutes and received six Academy Awards nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Cooper.
Trailer, via Warner Bros. UK & Ireland.
A Ranch Hand Who Enlists
The early scenes lay out Kyle’s path without much fuss. He learns to shoot from his father, works as a ranch hand and rodeo cowboy, then comes home early to find his girlfriend with another man. After the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings, he joins the Navy and qualifies for the SEALs.
He meets Taya Studebaker at an Irish pub in San Diego.
They marry. Then the September 11 attacks send him to Iraq, and the film’s central mission takes hold: protect his comrades.
The Duel With Mustafa
Kyle’s first kills are a woman and a boy who attacked Marines with a Russian-made RKG-3 anti-tank grenade. He is visibly upset. Later he earns the nickname “Legend.”
The film’s most effective thread is the duel with Mustafa, a Syrian Olympic medalist sniper working for the insurgents. Mustafa pins Kyle down while The Butcher kills a father and son who had offered to lead the SEALs to al-Zarqawi’s second-in-command. The insurgents put a bounty on Kyle.
- Four tours of duty in Iraq
- 255 kills, 160 officially confirmed by the Department of Defense
- Mustafa, a Syrian Olympic medalist, as the opposing sniper
- The Butcher, al-Zarqawi’s second-in-command, killed in a shootout
What the Home Front Costs
The film is at its best when it stops shooting. Kyle returns for the birth of his son, distracted by memories and by Taya’s worry. He leaves for a second tour, makes chief petty officer, and grows more distant when he comes home to a newborn daughter. On the third tour, Mustafa seriously injures Ryan “Biggles” Job, and the unit evacuates.
Eastwood and writer Jason Hall, working from Kyle’s memoir with Scott McEwen and Jim DeFelice, keep the family scenes plain. Miller does the heavy lifting with little screen time. Cooper carries the rest.
A War Film That Won’t Leave the War Behind
American Sniper drew generally positive reviews and some controversy over how it portrays the Iraq War and Kyle himself. Both reactions are fair. The combat set pieces are clean and tense, and the Mustafa thread gives the film a spine. The politics stay mostly offscreen, which is a choice, not a neutral act.
The film’s real subject is what Kyle cannot put down. When he finally returns home, he finds he cannot leave the war behind. That is the part that lasts.
The Numbers Behind American Sniper
- Premiere: AFI Festival, November 11, 2014
- Limited release: December 25, 2014
- Wide release: January 16, 2015
- Runtime: 133 minutes
- Worldwide gross: over $547 million
- Academy Awards: six nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Cooper
- Score: 7.3 of 10
American Sniper is a solid, well-built war film with a performance at its center that holds the whole thing together. It is Eastwood’s highest-grossing film. 7.3 of 10.
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