"American Sniper"

[Stewball]

I saw this movie last night and have thoughts that are related to the film itself. Is there a place on this forum to share those kinds of thoughts?

It's the nature of the beast, especially for more important or controversial films. The Nightcrawler thread keeps being derailed with totally irrelevant comments as well. If you have more technical or artistic comments I don't see why you can't post them here with these comments on content which is the third important aspect of a film. More people would probably see it here than in a separate thread, but maybe not. Or you could start a new thread and put it in both--that could be interesting.

[CMonster]

I saw this movie last night and have thoughts that are related to the film itself. Is there a place on this forum to share those kinds of thoughts?

No

[mattorama12]

I saw this movie last night and have thoughts that are related to the film itself. Is there a place on this forum to share those kinds of thoughts?

Please do, save the thread

[VinegarBob]

American Sniper, more than any other film I can think of for quite some time is one that people either like or loathe purely depending on their own politics. The film itself is kind of getting forgotten amongst all the posturing (I hold my hand up here too - it's a tempting trap to fall into). Disregarding the politics of the whole thing I feel the film is weak in too many areas to be considered anything other than mediocre. While a few of the action scenes in Iraq are quite effective, and Cooper gives a decent performance, the direction is completely unimaginative, the domestic scenes are appallingly clunky, the screenplay is very cliched and the dialogue is really bad. It doesn't engage on any level other than the purely emotional or visceral and lacks any kind of moral ambiguity or complexity. Even the sniping scenes become very dull, because there's absolutely no characterisation on the part of the Iraqis. It becomes akin to watching someone shooting bottles on a fencepost after a while.

...content which is the third important aspect of a film.

This comment could take this thread in an interesting direction - one not contingent on peoples' political leanings. What, in your opinion are the first two most important aspects of a film, and what, if anything is after content in terms of importance? I feel the answer to these questions would reveal a lot about your feelings towards this film - and films in general. That's always more interesting to me than the kind of thing that's currently going on in this thread.

[mattorama12]

Disregarding the politics of the whole thing I feel the film is weak in too many areas to be considered anything other than mediocre. While a few of the action scenes in Iraq are quite effective, and Cooper gives a decent performance, the direction is completely unimaginative, the domestic scenes are appallingly clunky, the screenplay is very cliched and the dialogue is really bad. It doesn't engage on any level other than the purely emotional or visceral and lacks any kind of moral ambiguity or complexity. Even the sniping scenes become very dull, because there's absolutely no characterisation on the part of the Iraqis. It becomes akin to watching someone shooting bottles on a fencepost after a while.

I thought the Iraq scenes were properly tense scenes and well-directed. It's easy to imagine a really boring depiction of a sniper's job. There's a lot of sitting around and waiting. Though it must require a ton of vigilance, depicting that patience is probably not easy. For those scenes, however, I though Eastwood did a great job of building tension and keeping me engaged. You know how things are going to end, but you're still brought in to the scene and get a sense of the unknowing dread that the characters are experiencing.

The problem for me was that those scenes, while good standing alone, didn't contribute to the film as a whole in a greater context. The scenes of Kyle at home were totally perfunctory. The story structure felt very repetitive, even though there were only 3 tours. It lacked any real through-line that pushed the film forward, other than the simple passing of time.

And maybe it's a reflection of my left/moderate political leanings, but I'd say I liked the film, but also didn't find it to be great or anything. Ended up T5 for me.

...content which is the third important aspect of a film.

This comment could take this thread in an interesting direction - one not contingent on peoples' political leanings. What, in your opinion are the first two most important aspects of a film, and what, if anything is after content in terms of importance? I feel the answer to these questions would reveal a lot about your feelings towards this film - and films in general. That's always more interesting to me than the kind of thing that's currently going on in this thread.

I can answer as to #1 for Stewie: Truth (with a capital T).

[Paxton]

My thoughts (and here's an unnecessary disclaimer if you're 11 pages deep in a thread specifically about one movie, my entire post will be spoilers) are that the film was good but not great, certainly not Best Picture great. I haven't seen all of the nominees, actually Birdman is the only other and I saw that just today, but I thought Gone Girl was a better film despite its lack of nomination.

The best of the film was the intensity of the war scenes as has been mentioned. The worst was the home life (if ever an actress was relegated to nagging wife, Sienna Miller was) as was also mentioned.

What bothered me about the film (I'm going to supress what bothers me about this thread from both sides) was the entire competition aspect that was played with Mustafa, which may or may not have been factual (I haven't read much about Kyle). Obviously a movie needs to tell a story and piecing together a film out of a biography can be tricky business (did anyone else feel the ghost of Argo's nonsensical ratcheted up tension during the final sandstorm battle?), but I never connected with this plotline. It felt too much like a sports movie, like Mustafa was Ivan Drago with even less exposition.

The home life scenes were really pretty horrendous, not as horrendous as the fake baby, but...

No. I'm not done talking about the baby. It wasn't even the fake plastic thing that Miller bobbed around like she's never even seen anyone hold a real one. It was the cgi hand reaching up as she breastfed. I once saw Memento in the theater and an older gentleman had an epileptic seizure two rows in front of me and was escorted out after about twelve intense minutes of his wife getting assistance and apologizing (which was heartbreaking) and that didn't take me out of that movie as much as that cgi hand did.

The acting was fine. I'd spit my drink out if Cooper gets the nod over Keaton (and oh, yes, I will be drinking to make it through that broadcast). Sienna Miller wasn't given anything to work with (Be concerned as you're on your phone outside of a hospital, NO! More concerned!).

I was still impressed with the movie if only for the sheer intensity of the good scenes.

[Kublai Khan]

While a few of the action scenes in Iraq are quite effective, and Cooper gives a decent performance, the direction is completely unimaginative, the domestic scenes are appallingly clunky, the screenplay is very cliched and the dialogue is really bad. It doesn't engage on any level other than the purely emotional or visceral and lacks any kind of moral ambiguity or complexity. Even the sniping scenes become very dull, because there's absolutely no characterisation on the part of the Iraqis. It becomes akin to watching someone shooting bottles on a fencepost after a while.

Yes! Exactly! Kyle (Cooper) is the focus of the film, to the point where every other character is wholly unexplored. Chris' wife (I can't remember her name) somehow sticks with him through his re-enlisting, but never explains/conveys why. Chris' brother is basically shell-shocked and then forgotten. The collaborating Iraqi father is executed and then forgotten. I mean holy crap, just include those scenes in a flashback sequences of the many horrors of war that give Kyle PTSD and it all ties together. But Eastwood can't be bothered because he has to show the horrors of being awkwardly thanked in a Firestone Complete Auto Care waiting room.

Even the sniping grows dull. Is there a doubt that Kyle will nail that mile long incredible snipe shot? I admit I was thrown off a bit when Kyle reacted so much after hitting that shot, but then I remembered that Kyle wasn't watching the movie of Kyle so it made sense that he was surprised.