American Sniper 2014
This was a movie I had recorded a while back and never got around to watching. With my subscription to Dish and access to my recordings about to go away, I decided I would rather watch it for free now than try to rent it later. Typically I like seeing movies about modern battles and Blackhawk Down is one of my favorites. This isn’t quite that kind of movie. Time is split between Chris Kyle’s stateside life of growing up, becoming a SEAL, getting married, having kids, etc. and his military life in Iraq over four different tours of duty. You see some of what he does as a sniper, including a role in protecting troops making door-to-door searches. Soon he gets more involved on the ground as he pursues some bad guys over multiple tours, giving the military part of the story a little bit more of a backbone (and, not surprisingly, kind of made up). Kyle is an amazing guy, but I don’t feel like we really get to know him as a person. The movie is worth watching and I think maybe the home life parts are important to show what so many soldiers go through, which is fine, but it isn’t real clear what the issues are at home or how they were resolved, other than that he was gone and then he came back. And the military story is fine, but kind of just a series of barely related missions (probably realistic). Maybe by splitting the movie up, it doesn’t really do either part justice. Or maybe his life doesn’t fit into a movie neatly. It is good to see this portrait of a hero even if it doesn’t all hold together like a movie should.
Written: 25 Nov 2016
Owned on: Digital