American Sniper (Clint Eastwood – 2014) C

This movie is a missed opportunity. It wants to say something about an interesting character, about his struggles with PTSD and maybe how he got over it and helped fellow soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. What we get though are thin cardboard characters that rarely feel real. The Chris Kyle we get here is not much more than a great sniper who even has a nemesis in Iraq, another sharp shooter for the other side. This really is the films central plot! Good Guy vs.Bad Guy. Guess who wins. In the few times he does return home we get slapped in the face with the subtlety of a hammer by how he “cannot adjust”, his wife complains and he’s back in Iraq. Then there’s a brother as well that the movie introduces and then seems to forget about. It would have been great to delve more into Kyle’s life after the war, how he helped others and what motivated him. At over 2 hours the movie still has no time for that.