WARNER BROS. PICTURES Presents
In Association with VILLAGE ROADSHOW PICTURES
In Association with RATPAC-DUNE ENTERTAINMENT
A MAD CHANCE PRODUCTION
A 22ND & INDIANA PRODUCTION
A MALPASO PRODUCTION

AMERICAN SNIPER

This film is based on actual historical events. Dialogue and certain events and characters contained in the film were created for the purpose of dramatization.

WARNER BROS ®

CHRIS KYLE FOUNDATION

www.chriskylefrogfoundation.org

Review by dalia di giacomo + production notes

Directed and Produced by....................................................................................... CLINT EASTWOOD

Written by....................................................................................................................... JASON HALL

Based on the book by ....................................... CHRIS KYLE with SCOTT McEWEN and JIM DeFELICE

Chris Kyle............................................................................................................ BRADLEY COOPER

Goat-Winston............................................................................................................. kyle gallner

Young Chris Kyle ........................................................................................................... Cole konis

Wayne Kyle....................................................................................................................... ben reed

Debbie Kyle......................................................................................................... elise RoberTSON

Young Jeff Kyle........................................................................................................ luke sunshine

Pastor......................................................................................................................... troy vincent

Bully......................................................................................................... brandon salgadotelis

Jeff Kyle................................................................................................................. Keir O’Donnell

Sarah........................................................................................................... Marnette Patterson

Tony......................................................................................................................... rey gallegos

Dauber............................................................................................................................ kevin lacz

Biggles.................................................................................................................. JAKE McDORMAN

“D” / Dandridge........................................................................................................ cory hardrict

“Squirrel” / Case................................................................................................................ eric ladin

Taya.......................................................................................................................... SIENNA MILLER

Dapper Navy Guy..................................................................................................... Brando Eaton

PO Karnan..................................................................................................................... James ryen

Marc Lee...................................................................................................................... LUKE GRIMES

Mustafa....................................................................................................................... SamMY sheik

Three types of people: Predator, prey, protector.

First off i must say i liked this movie very much. This film, based on actual historical events, should be  a must not only for Americans, but above all for the European audience. Indeed Europeans too had and still have troops mobilised abroad for security and defence in missions and operations which too often get forgotten by media and people, it seems that   Europeans appreciate and consider all efforts and traumas their soldiers must endure during these missions and , psycologically, back at home too, when they return less than American people.  

This film is based on war and on the engagement for the very own Country, but, please, forget scenes of blatant battles. It's not "Troja", It's not "Alexander". Even not "Apocalypse now". The theme is  "humble" (yet anyway scaring and lethal) everyday guerilla in Iraq towns. This movie smells of death, smells of dust, smells of loneliness. When I left the Metropolitan Kino in Zürich after the press screening I had the sensation that sand was attached to me. A strange feeling of exotic fear mixed to middle east flavour and blood. Shooting on “American Sniper” began on location in Rabat, Morocco, which doubled for Iraq.  Clint Eastwood notes, “The architecture of Morocco is very much like Iraq". The production took over in California, where an urban Iraqi environment was recreated, closely mirroring the Morocco locations. And it was perfectly recreated. You strongly believe you are there, in war-torn Iraq together with the American troops. Period. Absolutely well done. To bring the audience directly into the action, Eastwood and cinematographer Tom Stern used state-of-the-art Blackmagic cameras.  Both handheld and fixed cameras are able to create the sensation of being in the middle of battle. Just only for this, the movie deserves to be seen. To buy then the movie DVD is a logical choice.

Yes, the film is directed and produced by legendary Clint Eastwood "in person" and is raw and has the same temperament as "Gran Torino". We could say: A legend (Clint Eastwood) tells a legend (Chris Kyle). In my opinion Clint Eastwood is successful in depicting a story ,which may be basically the same the whole movie long, without letting it appear boring even not for one second. It's the story of a man, Chris Kyle, who emerged from the war in Iraq as the most lethal sniper in the history of the U.S. military. War and family, family and war. Sniping and alertness, alertness and sniping. Recurrent. The same fears, the same responsability in each mission. Bradley Cooper, who stars in the title role says “In some ways, it’s a universal story about what most veterans have to go through—dealing with the seesaw of being in a war zone and then suddenly coming home to a ‘normal’ life.  That was very moving to me.  I liked the fact that it wasn’t as much of a war movie as it was a character study.  And if you look at Clint Eastwood’s films, like ‘Unforgiven,’ ‘Gran Torino,’ ‘Letters from Iwo Jima’…they are all complex character studies, albeit with very different backdrops.  So he was absolutely the right director to tell this story in a very raw, truthful way.”

Clint Eastwood adds, “I have done war stories before, but this was exciting to me because it was a cross between Chris’s exploits in combat and the personal aspects of his life, which made him even more interesting.  It shows the toll war takes on a person but also the pressure it puts on the whole family.  It’s good to be reminded of what’s at stake when people are sent into war and to acknowledge the sacrifices they make, so I thought that made it an especially significant story to tell.”

Chris Kyle is a husband, a father but also a man who must and wants protect others. During a tour, the whole mission and life of a convoy is in his hands. Irony of destiny he  was not murdered in Iraq but in the United States, in his own Land by a fellow veteran whom Kyle was helping. Chris Kyle was no violent person, on the contrary, he just believed in duty and service. He believed in God, Country, Family as foundation for a life characterised by  the heavy demands of his job as a Navy SEAL. We get a glimpse of how Chris became the man he was, beginning as a boy in Texas, when his dad teaches him and his brother about  three types of people : the predator, the prey, the protector. Eastwood says.  “That carried into his role as a sniper; his job was to watch over the troops on the ground and keep them safe from an enemy they could not see.” Cooper knew that taking on the role of Chris Kyle would test him both physically and mentally. Cooper was involved in a hard workout regimen with trainer Jason Walsh, “Chris was 230 pounds of muscle and I was about 185 pounds at the time, so it was three months of constant eating and working out.  It was tough,” Cooper says.

In this movie i liked a lot other two figures: Chris wife and Chris rival sniper. In the film, Chris Kyle is  rivaled by an enemy sniper named Mustafa ( Sammy Sheik).  “He’s a Syrian sharpshooter who competed for his country in the Olympics,” says Sheik.  “Now he’s come to Iraq with the goal of fighting for the insurgents against their common enemy.  I thought he was a fascinating character even though he does not say one word the entire film.  But everything had a rhythm to it.  Clint would tell me, ‘Take it slow; this guy is cool under stress.’

In "American sniper" there is no propaganda and no racism, simply facts: this makes the movie honest...and human. 

9/10

Review by dalia di giacomo

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