American Sniper

An extended mix of contemporary male cluelessness, declining machismo, and the search for idols. It's a real shame that Cooper's decidedly above-average acting flounders in a film where every five minutes is about something different, and individual scenes end where there should be a confrontation that could at least reveal the protagonist's questionable temperament. There's also not much else to do when you've got the national hero's dad up your ass, making sure the image of his deified son matches his Texas fantasies, and Republican zombie Eastwood behind the camera. The hero's wife is a devastating parody, who right in keeping with the optics of the Southern redneck occasionally threatens to pack up the kids if she doesn't get her way, but if you're able to actively ignore her, she'll still wait for you with open arms, because that's just how women are. It'll get rednecks across the breadth of the Confederate states to join the military, so it lived up to expectations, but otherwise it's a bigoted tunnel of shame that only scores points for Cooper's performance and not messing around, including with dying and tortured children. Arab children, rather. PS: formally it holds to certain standards and it's certainly not terrible. There's even a couple of delicious scenes (the storm in the desert), but next to the formal qualities of Green Zone, The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty, and The Kingdom, there’s absolutely no reason to add points for that. (2015-06-24)

Patriotism is boring. The psychological portrayal of the main character is average. It is neither a high-octane war action like Black Hawk Down, nor a minimalist, intimate piece like Zero Dark Thirty. American Sniper doesn't impress you with anything, except maybe how flat and predictable it ultimately is. It's as if Clint Eastwood had no room for any of his trademarks. You won't feel or resonate with the shots, nor with the dialogues spoken by characters with whom you don't empathise or bear their "burden" on the screen – except perhaps the leading duo. Thumbs up for not being afraid to depict child violence and a few solid action scenes that intertwine with the boring ones that lack dramatic dynamism and better structure – Ridley Scott could give a few lessons – the hell in Mogadishu was much more tangible. (2015-03-07)

American Sniper is not about physical suffering in the middle of a battle zone, but rather about the diametrically opposed perspectives that the war in Iraq is subjected to, both from the unsuspecting American public and the direct participants in the bloody conflict, as well as the questionable motivations that drive many young Americans toward their dream of "serving the country”. Eastwood works with a very generic cinematic equation, with his protagonist coming into the war full of enthusiasm and patriotic oaths, only to leave as a broken man who has lost his illusions of honour and the existence of goodness. But what elevates the film to above average is its undisguised aversion to jingoism, which is a flimsy band-aid for doing or perhaps returning to evil, the natural civility of emotion that makes the war and psychological levels blend beautifully, and of course Clint's formal genius, which he still retains even in his 80s. Given the many Oscar nominations, one might think that Americans have a soft spot for Eastwood, but watching American Sniper, as with Gran Torino or Million Dollar Baby, I realized that the popularity is well deserved. 80% (2015-02-14)

I was expecting that the movie would actually be about something else, but mainly because I didn't want to see anything about it in advance. I was intrigued by how it turned out in the end, maybe even surprising, but on the other hand, Clint can't be blamed for mostly avoiding pathos - except for the actual shots that follow before the credits and during nothing. Otherwise, it is a wonderfully directed film, especially the war scenes are incredible. (2015-01-20)

Eastwood's precise shot, which is likely to be mistaken for pathos when defending the American way of thinking, stands out above all. This is due to the fact that, despite a significant part of the runtime being spent on the battlefield, it manages to retain a civilian atmosphere, rather giving Kyle's extraordinary "skill" lip service because, at his core, the protagonist remains that pure American redneck who, in Cooper's excellent, paunchy Texan delivery, blathers on about defending the country, and yet you know he means it with unapologetic sincerity; its length and the empty brothers storyline are the only things that the film can be faulted for. Even J. Edgar wanted to look like this. (2015-01-19)