American Sniper (2014)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2014
	Director: Clint Eastwood (Gran Torino, Million Dollar Baby)
	Actors: Bradley Cooper (The A-team, The Hangover 1-3), Sienna Miller (Stardust, G.I. Joe), Kyle Gallner
	Country: USA
	Genre: War, Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 28.07.2015, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: A Texan wannabe cowboy Chris Kyle (Cooper) volunteers to enter the SEALS and defend his country against terrorism. He meets his wife Taya (Miller) shortly before his first tour in Iraq.
Review: The most successful (in terms of revenue) movie by Clint Eastwood to date was nominated at the Academy Awards in several categories including best Motion Picture and Best Leading Actor, but won only the award for Best Sound Editing. There was some controversy around the movie because of its very pro-American tone and indeed we quickly hear the sentence "My Country [the USA] is the greatest in the World and I want to defend it". There were also some discussions around the truthfulness of the depicted events. In fact the movie is based on a true story and adapted form the book written by the real Chris Kyle. The book is already a vision of the War by Kyle and the movie was further adapted to be more cinegenic, which is OK for me as long as you take its message with a grain of salt. American Sniper is about the effect that war has on its soldier, and how it makes them difficult to integrate a normal life when they come back. I am sure such topic has been treated in Cinema for every American war, and the example that comes to my mind is the Vietnam War in First Blood (Rambo) or Forrest Gump. This effect is described by following the military and private life of Chris Kyle from the moment of his decision to fight for his country to the meeting with his wife and the evolution of both his lives throughout four tour in Iraq. Kyle is played by a Bradley Cooper that I could barely recognize ; him who is used to play the hot guy with tight abs took 20 kilos for the movie, cut his hair, takes strong facial expressions and speaks with a thick Texan accent. A great performance. Apart from that, the movie looks good and the direction by Clint Eastwood is as good as usual, nothing more.
Rating: 7 /10