Ryan McNeil
We know more about the horrors of war than any previous generation. Where once recounts of what happens “over there” took months and years to come to light, now we learn of it almost instantaneously. The veil has been drawn back, and we all know just what we are doing to our planet, our opponents, and the soldiers who fight on our behalf. With that knowledge comes a responsibility; a responsibility that when we look to these conflicts as inspiration for art that the end result come with the utmost respect and artistic skill.
To do any less flies in the face of the knowledge we have that our ancestors did not, and to do any less disrespects the soldiers whose tales we are telling.
AMERICAN SNIPER is the story of Chris Kyle (Bradley Cooper). From an early age, Chris shows both a knack for marksmanship, and a desire to protect those who cannot protect themselves. However, as he grows into adulthood, he reaches his thirtieth birthday without having found his life’s purpose. However, after seeing the news of the American embassy attacks in Kenya and Tanzania, Chris believes he’s found his calling and enlists in the American military – specifically, training to be a Navy SEAL.
Despite being ten years older than most of his fellow recruits, Chris passes the rigorous training, and parlays his marksmanship skills into a role as a sniper. It’s during his training that he meets a lovely lady named Taya (Sienna Miller). Despite having misgivings about getting involved with a SEAL, something about Chris catches her eye and she starts seeing him anyway. Within short order, Chris earns his stripes, 9/11 happens, Chris and Taya get married, and he is deployed to the middle east to fight the war on terror.
Once there, Chris quickly becomes a known entity. His fellow soldiers nickname him “Legend” for how many enemy combatants he is able to kill – a talent not lost on the enemy as they eventually put a bounty in his head. The drug of war is something Chris soon becomes addicted to, going back into the fray for tour after tour (four in all before he’s finally ready to go home for good).
When he’s home though, things aren’t all bread and roses either since he clearly has problems letting go of things he did and things he saw. Then again, what should we expect when “a legend” tries his hand at everyday life?
In considering a film like AMERICAN SNIPER, one immediately needs to put politics aside. One needs to discard any feelings of the mission or the man, and come to it free of bias. My thoughts on America, The War on Terror, and Chris Kyle specifically are absolutely irrelevant right this moment…all that matters is what I think of this piece of filmmaking. And what I think is this;
AMERICAN SNIPER wants to be an intricate look at PTSD. It wants to show us how the military can pound every ounce of humanity out of a man like Chris Kyle and turn him into a finely tuned instrument of war. It wants us to see that when that same instrument goes home and tries to interact with the rest of us – their spouses, their children, their neighbours – that it’s impossible. However, the film never trusts us enough to see this for ourselves in the scenes with Chris and Taya. It has to spell it out for us with obvious dialogue and playing out the sounds Chris is hearing in his head.
The truth is that just the sight of Chris staring at a TV set that’s turned off would have been enough. But perhaps AMERICAN SNIPER thinks that is too subtle. Perhaps it forgets that with so many soldiers now back home, we are becoming all too aware of the signs and viciousness of PTSD. So it spells it out…repeatedly…just in case we didn’t get it the previous seven times.
Another point in the storytelling where the film dishonours its subject is Taya’s role in this whole film. We never see her except when she is tethered to Chris, we never hear her speak about anything except Chris barring one broad piece of generalization about Navy SEALS when the two first meet (a generalization that proves correct). Sienna Miller is only in this film to provide shock and awe when Chris calls home, and to illustrate sadness and stress when he’s back. We never truly see what she’s going through, what she might be internalizing, or what thoughts she might have on her lot when Chris isn’t around.
The life of a person like Taya Kyle is a deeply difficult one, but AMERICAN SNIPER isn’t interested in having any difficult conversations.
Instead, the film is too busy playing soldier. It wants to sound ominous tones when insurgents walk past, and glorify kill shots with slow-mo bullets cutting through the air. It takes all of the tension out of what should be some incredibly tense moments, and instead broadcasts its intentions with music and expression…all of which stands in stark contrast to the stressful scene that opens the film without a note of score.
Perhaps worst of all, the film classifies the world into wolves, sheep, and sheepdogs, but never pauses to consider that sometimes its the actions of sheepdogs that get the sheep killed. For a man who is supposed to be so shaped by his family and clings to that notion to survive, the concept of his extended family is given only lip service, and dropped right when it can become its most interesting.
As if all of those filmmaking missteps weren’t enough, this movie trips over its own feet in its final moments in a way I dare not elaborate on for those who might still be interested in seeing it. While I understand that real life can sometimes change the outcome of a piece of fiction, that shouldn’t preclude competent execution. What’s more, the real life events that affected the story AMERICAN SNIPER tells happened well before the cameras started rolling, so there’s no excuse to foul that end of the movie up. What might be worst of all is the fact that this moment that AMERICAN SNIPER screws up at its end ties into the most fascinating part of Chris Kyle’s story.
This scene could have given some real nuance to his character, and turned this story into something deeply complicated. But instead of taking aim at a truly poignant and tragic target, it picks up its weapon and goes home.
Yikes. Can’t say I’m surprised though. This movie never looked interesting to me to begin with. Although I did have a laugh on Twitter yesterday when someone said it was like the movie everyone was watching in Inglorious Basterds.
Excellent review, as always.
I’d never thought of it that way, but now that you mention it…
I am finding so many polarizing reviews about this one from bloggers. Those who like this, LOVE THIS, and those that don’t are tearing it apart. I will see it eventually, but your review is beautifully detailed, so I give pause…
I’m still perplexed to read about so much love for it. There are so many flaws in this film’s storytelling that I can only assume people are in a forgiving mood in these early days of a new year…
Unlike you I actually liked GRAN TORINO, but aside from that we basically fell off the Eastwood train at approximately the same stop. I had high hopes for this, being that the trailer was cut so well, but…gah. There goes my optimism. I guess I’ll still have to see it if I end up doing my Oscar run, but at least I know what I’m in for. (An aside: Clint Eastwood is one of the most interesting Republicans I can think of.)
Tangent: have you seen GOOD KILL yet? I’m really curious to see how its look at war stacks up. I know Ethan Hawke has gotten some good reviews.
See the funny thing about Clint is that I’d never really thought about how his politics influenced his art. Besides making one of the most sympathetic films about the enemy in LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA, he also told a tale that made a case for euthanasia in MILLION DOLLAR BABY. Clearly the guy is – or was – comfortable telling stories from the other side of the aisle.
This continues the losing streak for me…which is a shame because almost every film he’s tried to do lately has seemed so damned interesting on-paper.
Man, we saw two totally different movies. I didn’t find this movie to preachy about PTSD at all. Not even close to what it could’ve been. I loved this movie, to an extend that was totally unexpected. I also though Sienna Miller’s work was much more powerful than just being the crying girl on the other end of the phone. Well-written review, but I’m on the total other end of the spectrum.
I didn’t find it to be “preachy” about PTSD, but clearly that’s on its mind. There are WAY too many scenes of Chris zoning-out once he gets back home to ignore that component of the story. Thing is, it IS an important part of the story…but a component I feel needs to be handled with a bit more grace.
Sienna Miller does great work with what she’s given – but that’s my point: she’s not given much. Not *one* scene that doesn’t have Chris around.
Glad you dug it, but there were way too many flaws for me.
I don’t disagree at all with this review, though I had a slightly more positive reception to the film.
But yeah, that ending…….
I’d almost believe he didn’t find out about what happened to Chris until the last day of shooting.
I love this review Ryan. You have perfectly put my thoughts into words. Lindsay and I had all of these same thoughts, but were feeling like we were the only ones. It’s nice to know that we weren’t the only people that felt like we were seeing a completely different movie than this certified fresh movie that people were weeping at in the theaters. I found it manipulative and not particularly well made. I’d love to get your full feelings on that ending!
*** SPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERS ***
Where to begin?
For starters, there’s the lead-in to “the end” where Chris is playing bank robber with his wife in their kitchen. Watching a man whose life has been given meaning by the power a gun gives him suddenly use a gun as a toy is disgusting. This is a man whose father chided him at the movie’s beginning for dropping his weapon, so I don’t for a moment believe that he would ever lose his respect for firearms so blatantly. As if that’s not bad enough, this scene plays out in front of his children.
Chris isn’t only just losing his respect and understanding for the power of a gun, he’s demonstrating that disrespect and misunderstanding to his kids. This moment really struck me as going against everything we were supposed to feel about him after the two hours we’d just witnessed.
Moving on…
That a veteran struggling with PTSD found even one iota of solace in being part of a support network for other veterans working through PTSD isn’t just beautiful, it’s profound. It strikes to the core of everything support groups are supposed to be. That the same veteran was killed by one of those he was trying to help is completely, absolutely TRAGIC.
To fade to black there and then is wildly disrespectful, and worse, eschews a chance at paying proper tribute to this man’s life. That footage that we see of the motorcade? That should have been filmed. That should have been given as much care and treatment as the gloryshot of the bullet cutting the air on its way to its 2100m target.
It’s not the story being told that rubs me the wrong way…nor even how true it was…its how it was told. The double-dose of gross at the end of this movie embodies a lot of what was wrong with the picture on the whole…in one quick five minute piece of frustration.
Wow, Ryan, I completely agree with you on this. I was disturbed by both the way that scene was filmed, it feeling very threatening at the start to turning into a joke, as well as the content. It was bizarre for him to joke with his children with a gun and then as a frolicking seduction with his wife. The idea of him pointing the gun at his wife was deeply disturbing to me. It was not funny or cute. Also, the way the camera narrowed in on him leaving the gun on the ledge felt like some sort of NRA message that he didn’t have his gun to protect himself.
The fade to black and the sentence to sum up his murder was extremely off-putting to me as well. The wording of that sentence disgusted me – “murdered by someone he was only trying to help”. It simplifies and belittles the situation entirely. Not just his murder, but the fact the the killer was mentally disturbed from PTSD. I suppose I shouldn’t have been too surprised considering how the rest of the film handled the subject of PTSD. There was no respect at all to the death.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts with me.
Interesting review. I agree with a lot of your points, for sure – especially with Sienna Miller. All supporting characters were just background noise, when I feel like it could have been a much more community feel. However, I liked it for what it was – politics aside. I thought Bradley Cooper was quite good.
Thanks Lauren – it’s been a rough few weeks for me and this film. every time someone gets me thinking back on it, I realize something else that bothered me (hence the 300 word response to a comment above!).
I appreciate what Cooper did in this film…I just really feel like there was an opportunity for him to do even more.
Thanks for reading!