No recent film has generated so much buzz, or controversy, as Clint Eastwood’s paean to today’s military soldier, American Sniper.  Based on the book written by its subject, Chris Kyle, Eastwood’s movie does a nice job of representing why someone would choose to go to into the military (it certainly isn’t for everyone, including Kyle’s brother) and how that commitment can intensify over time, bonding someone to their colleagues forever.  Despite the depicted chaos and sacrifice entwined with military service, this movie can certainly qualify as a recruiting poster.

A few hardy souls have questioned whether “sniper” is a term we should honor, and I concur.  Whether or not a sniper is an honorable figure depends wholly upon which end of the rifle he or she sits.  Since Kyle is a sniper for us, taking out insurgents who only wish to maim or kill our brave soldiers, he is a hero.  But the other sniper, the one known as “Mustafa” (Sammy Sheik), is a devil because he is shooting our guys.  It isn’t unpatriotic to question whether shooting someone who never sees the bullet coming is immoral, especially if one has lost someone close due to a sniping. Actually, the movie never really grapples with whether the practice is “fair” or not; it is simply a wartime circumstance and our sniper is protecting our assets.  Its finest moments regarding sniping occur when Kyle doesn’t actually press the trigger.

Kyle (Bradley Cooper) is portrayed as a fully-rounded soldier, not just a sniper — the film’s title really doesn’t do him justice.  Kyle is portrayed as a man who really doesn’t find himself until he commits to the Navy SEAL program and dedicates his life to defending the USA against our enemies, and until he commits to Taya (Sienna Miller), a woman who catches his fancy and with whom he begins a family.  Bradley Cooper and Sienna Miller are both excellent in their portrayals, bringing profound depth to two people trying to cope with the demands of Kyle’s chosen lifestyle.

And here is where the movie falls a bit short for me.  Kyle is clearly suffering from a disorder when he returns from his fourth tour of service, and his tension is palpable. While Jason Hall’s script details this quite nicely, Eastwood’s film clears it up within about ten minutes, just in time to introduce the tragic conclusion to Kyle’s story.  The film runs 132 minutes already, but Kyle’s recovery is simply too quick, too clean, too easy.  Eastwood’s film suitably honors our men and women in uniform, risking their lives in the Middle East, but it doesn’t give the same attention or commitment to those troubled souls who have trouble to adapting to life after their service.  The last act of the film is vague and incomplete, if not rushed, to get to the sad ending.

American Sniper is a good film, one of Clint Eastwood’s better efforts of late, which brings home quite powerfully what service in Iraq is actually like.  It shows just how much people like Chris Kyle, Biggles (Jake McDorman), Marc Lee (Luke Grimes) and others risk and sacrifice to defend our way of life and avenge our losses from acts of terrorism.  It eschews an overview of the war to instead focus on how combat affects the people who enter it.  It is a beautifully done character study of a man who died quite unnecessarily, a man who was greater than the title of the book and movie that have made him famous.  ☆ ☆ ☆.  7 February 2015.