ARTS & CULTURE
14 Obiter Dicta
A Trio of Film Reviews, Currently in Theatres
Crime, History, War: Violence Leaves Its Mark
kendall grant › staff writer
American Sniper (2014) 2.5/4
Incurious and hyper-macho, stilted and scandalously
blinkered, American Sniper is a solidly-staged and
unexceptional picture, crammed with action, heartpounding moments, and familiar dramatic situations.
It’s a gripping, straightforward character study that
could have been so much more.
In the wake of 9/11, Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle
(Bradley Cooper, The Place Beyond the Pines, Silver
Linings Playbook) hones his pinpoint accuracy into a
life-saving, battlefield-shredding weapon that turns
him into a legend. Despite a marriage to Taya Renae
(Sienna Miller, Foxcatcher) and the birth of a daughter, Kyle returns to Iraq for four tours of duty and
becomes increasingly distant from his family. Unable
to adjust fully to civilian life, he begins coaching
wounded veterans, stepping toward a tragic demise.
A lesser actor might have made American Sniper
into an unthinking piece of jingoism. Cooper, beefed
up and twanging like a true Texas cowboy, rarely
flinches and never chest-thumps, carrying the full
weight of Kyle’s so-called achievements. Stewing,
taciturn, and totally precise, he’s poured a lifetime of
craft into stilling his character’s heartbeat. American
Sniper is a companion piece to The Hurt Locker in
subject and theme, but not in quality. As Kathryn
Bigelow’s war triumph found revelatory depths
in Jeremy Renner, so American Sniper hinges on
Cooper’s restrained yet expressive lead performance.
Though it fails at being a great film, it’s no fault of its
star.
Tauntingly tough-minded and expertly choreographed in unfussy style, American Sniper is a crackerjack piece of efficient filmmaking, crispl