Kyle (Bradley Cooper) was a young man without a purpose in life, until he decided to enlist (at an age older than most would) in the Navy Seals. There he finds purpose, and even meets his wife Taya (Sienna Miller) while stationed in San Diego. He gets shipped out right after his marriage, and ends up an elite sniper in Iraq.
Flashbacks to young Chris' life show that his father believed there were three kinds of people in the world: sheep, wolves, and sheepdogs. Chris is told to be a sheepdog, and as the overwatch sniper for units doing door-to-door searches in Iraq, he finds his calling.
The film open with a stone cold, suspenseful scene where Chris sights a woman approaching his convoy with what appears to be a grenade--which she then hands to a child. Chris has to decide whether to take that shot.
As the film progresses, we see the toll the war takes on Chris. His marriage is rocky--he rarely sees his kids, and when he is home, he can only think of returning to the battlefield. He cannot stop thinking about the soldiers' lives he saves by stopping bad guys--wolves--from doing them harm. He is undone by the shots he has to take, and the losses in his unit.
A rival sniper working for the Iraqis is Chris' dark mirror--he has to put a stop to this man, who is crippling their operations and killing American soldiers.
From moment to moment, Sniper works like a well-oiled machine, intense and deeply felt, due to two men: Eastwood and Bradley Cooper. Eastwood has never been a flashy director, but he knows how to film action scenes so you can see what is going on, but that still ramp you up, and he does not put in a lot of "look at me" psychology or fancy shots--his approach serves this material well.
Cooper--whom has become one of our best actors--completely steps into Kyle's skin, never judging, just inhabiting the man. (I would have been fine with him winning for Best Actor.) However, I could not stop thinking about the Iraq invasion, and scenes of soldiers kicking in doors and rousting citizens just didn't sit right with me.
And the rival sniper--how is what he is doing any different (ideology aside) than what Kyle was doing? The movie does not grapple with these thorny issues, and as such, is a tense, well-done war film, but lacks any insight into the greater struggles.
Kudos are due, however, for dealing with Chris' post-war life, and his struggle with PTSD. Ironic that the very thing he did to help himself--help other veterans--led to his unfortunate death. The end of the movie is sobering, but again, lacks any insight into the greater irony of a man that survived a war zone, but died in Texas by another American's gun. (Dude, that can't be a spoiler--everyone knows what happened to Kyle.)
Grade: B+.
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