American Sniper

Director Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper is a riveting war drama about a real-life American hero, Chris Kyle, who was credited with over 160 “kills.” 

Now, that may sound horrible to some, but, in doing so, he saved countless lives.  And, Kyle’s driving force was that he was protecting his fellow soldiers and Country and only felt bad that he couldn’t save more soldiers.  And, that drive almost destroyed him.

Kyle served four tours of 250 days each, risking not only his life, but his marriage, as well.  It was only after he removed what he felt was the biggest threat to his fellow soldiers, that he was able to realize he had had enough.

Then, the real battle of re-finding himself began.

Working from the book by Kyle, Scott McEwen and James Defelice and Screen Writer Jason Hall’s screenplay, Eastwood keeps a tension building even for those who might know Kyle’s story.  I didn’t and was glad for that.  It made the tension even greater.

Bradley Cooper is fabulous as Kyle and Sienna Miller keeps getting better and better as she follows up her excellent performance in Foxcatcher with her work, here.

If you like war stories and, even if you’ve recently seen Fury, don’t miss this one. 

I give American Sniper a 4+ out of 5.