Sometimes the opening of a Clint Eastwood movie may seem a little off, like Sully or Jersey Boys; but American Sniper started off beautifully.
And thereafter everything seemed to flow very well even when there were jumping of timelines. In the very Eastwood fashion, some of the shots were just spectacular from wide, and then back to the closeup of his subjects with equal intensity.
Bradley Cooper was unrecognisable in this movie. And with each tour he took, Eastwood and Cooper made the character more and more unrecognisable as he descended into PTSD. With each tour, we get to delve a little bit into the psyche of the war veteran; though what Eastwood did not choose to go down was how badly it had affected his wife and family.
But that was also where I thought the movie did not go the path of a typical PTSD story, but kept things interesting at the parts when he was serving his country. Having said that, however, there was still that slowing down of a dip towards the second half of the second act as the movie could not sustain a gripping pace.
I could also understand the controversy behind making this real character of Chris Kyle looked like an American hero because of how the story was told. All his dark demons were never realised onscreen, which was the main cause of the controversy.
Then again, Eastwood's source material was based off the book by Kyle, so naturally he would be the hero in his own story. Maybe that was what people did not understand, just like that ridiculous controversy behind Million Dollar Baby.
I also thought a good argument could be put forth here for Sienna Miller, who was also unrecognisable. This could be her best performance to date and it is a pity she did not get more buzz for it.
All in all, this was another very realistic war movie delivered from the hands of a master storyteller.
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