"American Sniper"

There has been a lot of hoo haa about this movie, ranging from the subject matter, to the wide range of love and loathing for it, to the remarkable performance of the film at the US Box Office.

The film concerns Chris Kyle, a Marine who was an exceptional shot, and has the highest number of kills in US military history. It starts off with his being on duty in Iraq,and having to decide whether to kill two potential life threatening targets, a mother and her young boy. Then we jump back, and get a look at Kyle's earlier life. From being a young child and getting his first feel of a rifle, whilst out hunting with his Father, to then getting into rodeo riding.He is a very ordinary typical American, but when the events of 9/11 occur, he feels he has to do something, and so enlists.

During his number of tours in the Middle East he starts to get quite the reputation, and before long is officially classed as the most lethal sniper in US history.The film examines the effect these tours have on Kyle, both in respect of being of service to his fellow soldiers, but also when he has to make a snap judgment call, that could conceivably end an innocent persons life, if he gets it wrong. But equally he could see his fellow countrymen hurt or killed if he fails to stop someone out to do harm.
There is also the effect that the film has on his relationship with his wife, as each time when he returns home, he understandably becomes more withdrawn, and this does start to take its toll.

We have great performances from the two leads, as ever Bradley Cooper is 100% on top form, as is Sienna Miller playing Kyle's wife. As good a performance as it is, I would question whether it is worthy of an Oscar nomination. And I feel it is this nomination that saw Jake Gyllenhall so cruelly miss out on a nod for his career best work on "Nightcrawler".

The Direction as one would expect is top notch, but what I find most remarkable is that a movie of this level of attention to detail, the amount of big set up scenes and action and it is all undertaken by a man approaching his 85th year.

I have to say that I did not realise how recent the Kyle story was, and more so by the ending of the film, which I did not know about, it made it all the more powerful. In fact because the film highlighted the date, you knew there was going to be something happen, but I expected it to go in a different direction.

At 84, Eastwood still has it......8 out of 10