American Sniper
27/02/15 Filed in: Cinema
We saw two films this week. The first outing on Wednesday was to see American Sniper.
Critical reviews of this film were mixed but box office receipts would suggest that it has been popular with audiences. The chief criticisms seem to be that it was blatant American propaganda, it inaccurately portrayed Chris Kyle and it unfairly implied that all Iraqi people were 'bad' while all American troops were 'good'. In other words your average war movie albeit the players may be different depending on the conflict being portrayed.
I wouldn't disagree with any of those criticisms but having accepted these shortcomings I found it a very watchable film. I suppose the difficulty lies in it being based on 'fact' and perhaps it would have been better if it was a purely fictional tale, as the 'truth' would not then have got in the way.
Critical reviews of this film were mixed but box office receipts would suggest that it has been popular with audiences. The chief criticisms seem to be that it was blatant American propaganda, it inaccurately portrayed Chris Kyle and it unfairly implied that all Iraqi people were 'bad' while all American troops were 'good'. In other words your average war movie albeit the players may be different depending on the conflict being portrayed.
I wouldn't disagree with any of those criticisms but having accepted these shortcomings I found it a very watchable film. I suppose the difficulty lies in it being based on 'fact' and perhaps it would have been better if it was a purely fictional tale, as the 'truth' would not then have got in the way.
Kyle is portrayed as a patriot, and no doubt he was, this being the motive for his 160 confirmed kills, although actual kills were probably greater. Detractors say that patriotism wasn't his only motive and that he took satisfaction from what he did. The film deals with the personal aftermath of his four tours in Iraq, and the psychological effect these had on him, this being a counterpoint to his lethal impact while he was there. In fact we see a man who has completely reformed after being ill at ease all the time that he was away from the action. This portrayal is, I believe, a bit contentious.
I'm not sure if his nemesis Mustafa, a crack Iraqi sniper who had won an Olympic shooting medal, was real or is fictional. The account on Wikipedia tends to suggest that Kyle's supposedly longest shot of 2100 yards didn't take out another sniper, but of course this particular sequence made good cinema. And whatever the target that's some shot!
So, a good action film with interesting parallel human stories but perhaps the historical details ought not to be taken too literally.
I'm not sure if his nemesis Mustafa, a crack Iraqi sniper who had won an Olympic shooting medal, was real or is fictional. The account on Wikipedia tends to suggest that Kyle's supposedly longest shot of 2100 yards didn't take out another sniper, but of course this particular sequence made good cinema. And whatever the target that's some shot!
So, a good action film with interesting parallel human stories but perhaps the historical details ought not to be taken too literally.