You are a sniper, peering through a high powered scope in war torn Iraq and the scene above appears in your crosshairs. At one end of the block, is a small band of insurgents and the other a US military convoy. Do you pull the trigger? This sets the tone for the American Sniper, starring Bradley Cooper as Chris Kyle, the man known as the deadliest sniper in US history. Veteran on both sides of the camera, Clint Eastwood has crafted a solid outing but what you get from it puts you in both Chris Kyle's and Clint Eastwood's proverbial flawed shoes. That's because as humans, we wish ourselves and our actions to be viewed in the best light possible. The omissions from and embellishments to Kyle's memoir in Eastwood's adaptation serve to paint Kyle as a Golden Boy as we watch his rise through the ranks and declination of humanity via Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Granted, Kyle's biography of the same name contains many of it's own omissions and embellishments, with both being the subject of a lot of controversy. Racism and conspiracy theories only scratch the surface of the problems that people have with Kyle's book and Eastwood's adaptation.
All in all, I found it to be a good film. It was acted, produced and written well, biased as it may be. THAT readers is what it's all about. BIAS. How you view American Sniper is dependent upon who YOU are and what YOUR values, views and experiences are. Pictures are infinitely more powerful than words and Chris Kyle's "legacy" now comes with a dramatization to assist in the skewing of the already influential. American Sniper, both book and film explore what Chris Kyle did and why he did it. There is public (and somewhere private) record of this. While the details can be argued what stands separately is Kyle's character and what he believes in. It is THAT which is up to you, the reader/viewer to decide if what he believes in is bullshit or not. At least based on YOUR perspective.
Interested in some differences between the book and movie but haven't experienced both? Slate.com's Courtney Duckworth breaks down Fact vs Fiction. Meanwhile, you can peep some highlights here...
No comments:
Post a Comment