What do you expect
when you go and see a Clint Eastwood film? A washed out filter with a colour
palette consisting of muted greens and greys? Gritty male characters with
emotional issues? Maybe a scene that stands out for being particularly brutal
but never gratuitous? All of the above for sure. What about some CGI effects
that are so bad you actually laugh out loud? Sound familiar? No, so you can
imagine my surprise during American Sniper when my eyes were met with some
laughable CGI effects that were, in my opinion, totally not needed (the scene
in question was a rodeo, is it that hard to hire a stunt man?) Fortunately
enough this was probably the only bad thing I have to say about American Sniper
but it has stuck with me because it was that bad that I keep replaying the
obscenity of it over and over in my head.
I was a bit dubious about seeing this to be honest. In general I don’t really
enjoy war films. I’m a pacifist and anti-war and usually find that with a lot
of films in this genre the protagonists are made out to be heroes and war is
glossed over as some kind of guns-blazing-glory that should be celebrated and
honoured. What American Sniper did so wonderfully was highlight the true horror
of what war really is, and through the intense POV shots we sit with Chris Kyle
(Bradley Cooper) and experience every intense, gut-wrenching and terrifying
moment first hand. As one would expect from an Eastwood film there are scenes
of intense barbarity but it never feels too over the top or out of place, the
scenes merely serve to reiterate the hell that war zones actually are.
American Sniper also takes us away from the battlefield and portrays the
difficulty of adjusting back to normal family life when one has witness such
unspeakable evil. And this is where Cooper shines. Anybody who has ever met a
regular all-American patriot can account for the accuracy of Cooper’s portrayal
of Chris Kyle. Those well rehearsed with current feminist debate will know that
a key issue at the moment is the way men are forced to be detached from their
emotions in order to be a ‘real man’ (whatever that is) and Chris Kyle is the
embodiment of this phenomenon – always polite and respectful but hellbent on
maintaining a heroic façade instead of talking about and dealing with his
emotions at the risk of compromising his masculinity. It is an issue that many
veterans still suffer with and by depicting it cinematically Eastwood has
perpetrated potentially life saving discussion. Cooper is excellent as we see
him literally regress and become a shadow of the man he once was by keeping
that stiff upper lip, only to eventually progress and combat his PTSD by openly
confronting his disorder.
The film has been slated for being anti-Muslim but of course it was going to
be, the story is told from the perspective of a conservative patriot from Texas
who loves his country. They are devils in his eyes and so of course this is how
they are portrayed in the film. Similar can be said about the way the ‘bad
guys’ suffer from a lack of character development – Kyle doesn’t see them as
people he sees them as targets and as such they have no need for in depth
background exploration. I did find it a bit off-putting that the key villain
was so hot though; I found it hard to hate him!
It has also been dubbed as anti-American
and this again I have to disagree with. There were definitely a few ‘MURCA!’
moments of course, it couldn’t be an American war film without them, but what
American Sniper does so wonderfully is it strips away the glory and the heroes
and shows these men for what they really are: real people suffering real
physical and psychological trauma for the sake of fighting the freedom of their
country. In some aspects, the way American Sniper breaks down the war situation
into such a brutal reality actually made me respect those who choose to serve
their country much more than any film that glorifies the situation.
American Sniper is a much-needed exploration of the real abhorrence of war both
on tour and at home and the tragic repercussions that war related injuries,
both physical and mental, have on veterans and their families. It reiterates
the truth that there are no war heroes, only victims. Battle is not a game of
Call of Duty but a very real and traumatic event that leaves long lasting scars
that may eventually take you long after the fight is over.
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