American Sniper - The Heroism in Difficult Decisions [Oscars week]

As the story of American Sniper developed from the revealing of the initial trailer, to the end-of-year limited release in NY & LA to qualify for the Oscars, and then the controversy and blockbuster success, I knew this was going to be the one that would get my mom to go see an R-rated movie. Tonight she and I went to see the Clint Eastwood-directed film. I was glad we got the chance to see it together. It's a heavy film, and one that has inspired many impassioned op-eds and reviews for or against many different perspectives. But at the end, as we sat and watched the music-less credits roll, alone in the theater, what we felt the most was a somber regard for human life and the toll war takes on those it touches.

American Sniper tells the story of Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, one of the most-skilled and most-successful snipers in US military history, and his four tours in Iraq. It opens in media res during an operation in which Kyle, played by Bradley Cooper, provides overwatch for a group of marines canvasing an urban setting for insurgents. He's perched on a roof, belly-down, surveying the area through his scope for possible threats to the soldiers on the ground. A woman and a boy come out of a building holding a grenade and he has to make a difficult choice. This scene, which cuts back in time and returns us to that point through backstory that presents the foundation for Kyle's character, establishes a feeling of intensity constantly accompanied with difficult choices of right and wrong, of bad and worse. We see how he's encouraged from a young age to fight not as a wolf but as a sheep-dog: in protection of others. As a young man this instinct sets in at a time of life when he's coasting along in the Texas rodeo circuit. A decisive man, he immediately enlists in the armed forces and we follow along as he goes through BUDS training and sniper school. At the same time we watch the romance as he meets Taya and starts his life together with her. At his wedding his team receives the deployment call and the bulk of the film follows Kyle to Iraq and back home again and again. We see his glories on the battlefield. We see the toils of war taken home.

Bradley Cooper makes Chris Kyle a lovable and noble character. He's a quiet giant with a sincere Texan charm who isn't afraid to open his heart at any moment when you wouldn't expect. When he first meets his future bride at a bar she playfully jokes that she couldn't marry a Navy SEAL. In gentlemanly fashion he bids her adieu at this news and then Taya, in a lovely performance by Sienna Miller, getting a small glimpse revealing that this guy is different from the rest, admits she's willing to give him a chance. The scenes of Kyle's youth are key to the person that he is in the later acts of the film. Hunting with his father, reverence at church, lectures on fighting for those that need protection - these all kick in automatically when, in Kyle's understanding, the need to protect becomes critical. I suppose these things might seem cliche to some, but they are carried out subtly and expertly. He's not a perfect man and, certainly under the conditions of going and back and forth between war and home, his ability to keep the cool and clear philosophy that makes him tick becomes challenged. I don't mean to say that he ever doubts his role as a soldier, but rather it proves difficult to operate as a civilian among his wife and kids knowing that he could be helping save lives half a world away.

I think the real heroism of the character that Eastwood and Cooper give us in American Sniper is not in his courage in the face of death or in the combination of talent and determination that feed his skill at shooting, but in the resolve of character that allows Chris Kyle to make difficult decisions. This much is clear as he reflects on a letter written by a fallen soldier and comrade after a funeral. Although a poor decision and a surprise enemy onslaught resulted in his friend's death, Kyle says it is the doubt expressed in the letter that really caused him to die. Some may describe it as willed ignorance or justification of the many lives he ended from his eagle-eye perch, but it is actually a result of his facing the reality of his role as sniper and the reason for his service - in other words looking at the worst full in the face - that allows him to achieve calm acceptance of who he is and what he does. He is able to cordon off sections of debate that don't fall under his purview as a soldier. The reverence and clear respect for his situation allows him to consider shooting a child picking up a gun at the same time he scolds fellow soldiers for congratulating him on a kill.

While there are many life-affecting decisions that Chris Kyle makes in the film, two are key to the development of the character. The first is made in the spur of the moment by a cowboy waking up to the reality of the larger world. The second, made just as quickly, comes to a man realizing when it's time to come home. Watch for the symbolism of where Kyle puts his gun as a sign of this. As a sandstorm engulfs a messy, nearly-fatal operation for Kyle, and after scrambling to phone his wife mid-battle and tell her he's ready to truly leave the war, you'll see his gun, ammo, and helmet left in the sand signifying he's ready to accept and give in. Conventional wisdom might say the decision to go to war is the most difficult and self-sacrificing, but it's the choice to live that becomes so understandably elusive for many veterans. And as with so many suffering from withdrawal of one kind or another, Chris aids his own recovery by offering his friendship to veterans stateside after he's finished his military service.

As for the controversy surrounding the film, I think most viewers will realize it has been played up for press attention from both sides of the political aisle. I've read multiple articles for or against the film and it is clear that those opinions expressed were held before American Sniper and are the same afterward. I listened to Terry Gross from NPR interview Bradley Cooper about his role in American Sniper and, apart from being a great discussion about the movie (Terry's movie interviews are always so great), it reveals that Cooper was an early producer/champion for the film before Kyle's death in 2013 and had always planned on it being about the man and not an overall statement of the war. The film stays true to that and anyone claiming it makes a blanket statement one way or the other fails to differentiate the artistic portrayal of a character - who he is and who he becomes - from their own thoughts on the larger forces at play, which are beyond the scope addressed in this story.

Among many, there are a few other things I'd like to note. At times American Sniper is a real-time, war procedural. The action is played out clearly and simply and if it weren't against the backdrop of real events, the exhilaration of these scenes would be fun. Equally riveting is the story of Chris Kyle stateside as his wife struggles to get him to open up and be at home when he is at home. I can't comment expertly on the cinematography and production design accept that it seems to be done simply and expertly, providing realistic settings and characters (except for the unfortunately and humorously distracting baby) along with enough bird's-eye perspective to provide beautifully realistic environments through both sight and sound. It's a great movie all around, and one you can take your mother to go see.

Rated R for violence and language.