An eye sights down the length of a long barrel, finding, framing, locking onto a target. In Clint Eastwood’s “American Sniper,” Bradley Cooper bulks into the role of Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, avowedly the most accurate and determined of American military snipers. More than a bravura hero, he was a bestselling memoirist of high braggadocio, as well as a murder victim of a veteran he hoped to help, who allegedly killed him on a shooting range after his return from four tours of duty in Iraq. A complex figure, but one simplified (refined? Made less complex?) through the screenplay by Jason Hall, a project set aside by Steven Spielberg and adopted by Eastwood. Select, obtain the target, capture with deadly force: an exaggeration of what a visually direct, understated filmmaker like Eastwood does with his subjects. Sharp physical filmmaking; a superb performance by a stewing Cooper; morally ambiguous storytelling. With a keen Sienna Miller as Taya, Kyle’s wife back home. 132m. Widescreen. (Ray Pride)
Ray Pride is Newcity’s film critic and a contributing editor to Filmmaker magazine.
His multimedia history of Chicago “Ghost Signs” will be published soon. Previews of the project are on Twitter and on Instagram as Ghost Signs Chicago. More photography on Instagram.
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