{"id":1476,"date":"2015-02-22T16:41:49","date_gmt":"2015-02-22T21:41:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=1476"},"modified":"2026-10-10T11:10:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T15:10:12","slug":"american-sniper-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=1476","title":{"rendered":"American Sniper-2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

American Sniper-2014<\/strong><\/p>\n

Director Clint Eastwood<\/strong><\/p>\n

Starring Bradley Cooper<\/strong><\/p>\n

Scott’s Review #223<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"American_Sniper_poster\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Reviewed February 22, 2015<\/p>\n

Grade: A-<\/strong><\/p>\n

American Sniper (2014), directed by Clint Eastwood, is a war film told from the viewpoint of a soldier- or a sniper.<\/p>\n

A character study, if you will.<\/p>\n

Starring Bradley Cooper as Chris Kyle, deemed the deadliest marksman in U.S. military history, he has 255 kills.<\/p>\n

The film begins pre-9\/11 as Kyle views coverage of the 1998 U.S. Embassy attacks and enlists in a grueling training program to become a Navy SEAL sniper.<\/p>\n

Flashbacks show Kyle as a child, taught by his demanding father to hunt deer and shoot a rifle. He is eventually sent to Iraq following the 9\/11 terror attacks, and the film continues to showcase Kyle\u2019s military career and multiple tours of duty, ending years later.<\/p>\n

Sienna Miller plays his wife, Taya.<\/p>\n

I am not sure the controversy American Sniper has stirred is warranted. I see the film simply as a very good mainstream action movie.<\/p>\n

Yes, it has overdone Americana machismo and Texas swagger, but it is an Eastwood film! This masculinity is at the heart of many of his films.<\/p>\n

I do not view the film as politically charged.<\/p>\n

The film leans neither Republican nor Democratic and seems to take a middle-of-the-road viewpoint.<\/p>\n

It is a tale of a war hero, but it questions the wars fought and the casualties involved, both American and otherwise. Sure, Kyle is a good ol’ red-blooded American, but as he and Taya watch the 9\/11 attacks on television, they are watching CNN, not Fox News.<\/p>\n

His close military buddy asks, “Why are we here?” referring to Afghanistan, and Eastwood implies a question about what this is all about.<\/p>\n

I hope audiences keep this in mind.<\/p>\n

One concern I do face as I ponder the film is whether American Sniper will send some audience members back to a time when the world was fearful of Muslims and at risk of the recent ISIS terror situations; I hope that people are smart enough to realize that NOT<\/strong> all Muslims are terrorists.<\/p>\n

Only a minuscule portion is evil-inspired.<\/p>\n

The major terrorist in American Sniper, known simply as The Butcher, is despicable, but plenty of other Muslims are innocent and victims of The Butcher’s brutality.<\/p>\n

I love how deep the film is.<\/p>\n

Cooper is as resilient as the troubled sniper. He is portrayed as human, a nice, all-American guy. He wrestles with the choice of shooting a woman and a young boy who died at the risk of them carrying a bomb and killing members of his squad- he does not want<\/strong> to kill them, but rather is excellent at his job.<\/p>\n

He is a perfect shot.<\/p>\n

In the heat of the moment, under extreme pressure, he must ask himself, “Should I pull the trigger and end their lives”? “What if they are innocent pedestrians?”<\/p>\n

He becomes, in a sense, addicted to his duty of going overseas to Iraq and Afghanistan and justifies his service as “protecting Americans”.<\/p>\n

This leads to a troubled personal life as Taya grows frustrated with his frequent tours of duty, which he readily accepts. He has Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder but refuses to acknowledge this.<\/p>\n

He almost kills the family dog in a fit of uncontrolled rage; he temporarily confuses sounds from an auto shop as military warfare.<\/p>\n

My admiration for Bradley Cooper’s acting grows with each role I see him in. He is a marvel.<\/p>\n

From recent dynamic performances in American Hustle (2013) and The Place Beyond the Pines (2012) to this role, I am convinced he can play any part successfully and convincingly.<\/p>\n

He has sure come a long way from The Hangover (2009).<\/p>\n

American Sniper (2014) is an enormously creative and commercial success and deserves to be. Layered and character-driven, it is worlds above the typical male-driven action film.<\/p>\n

Oscar Nominations: 1 win-<\/strong>Best Picture, Best Actor-Bradley Cooper, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Sound Editing (won)<\/strong>, Best Sound Mixing, Best Film Editing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

American Sniper-2014 Director Clint Eastwood Starring Bradley Cooper Scott’s Review #223 Reviewed February 22, 2015 Grade: A- American Sniper (2014), directed by Clint Eastwood, is a war film told from the viewpoint of a soldier- or a sniper. A character study, if you will. Starring Bradley Cooper as Chris Kyle, deemed the deadliest marksman in … Continue reading American Sniper-2014<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,158,192,12213,206],"tags":[2307,765,12856,12859,12855,12858,12857,8401,5748,8508,12212,4739],"class_list":["post-1476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2014-films","category-bios","category-dramas","category-iraq-war","category-war-films","tag-bradley-cooper","tag-clint-eastwood","tag-cory-hardrict","tag-eric-close","tag-jake-mcdorman","tag-keir-odonnell","tag-kevin-lacz","tag-kyle-gallner","tag-luke-grimes","tag-madeleine-mcgraw","tag-navid-negahban","tag-sienna-miller"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1476"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1476\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24759,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1476\/revisions\/24759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}