There are plenty of war movies that try and depict the actions and causalities of war. I think the most recent film to come out that was the closest to legitimacy and realism concerning a soldier's experience was American Sniper.
It focused on the life of Chris Kyle who is internationally known for his sharp shooting and 160 confirmed kills. This film contains some of the more intense battle scenes in recent memory. It’s deafening, explosive, and uncomfortably intimate. It does its best to serve a plate of honesty about the whole thing from the main character's point of view to the American military in Iraq to the vets who come home severely wounded, and try to rebuild their lives after seeing combat.
This movie focuses almost exclusively on Kyle’s four tours in Iraq, and his often strained marriage. It is not just the prolonged absences that cause the problems, but the when these guys return home they are scarred, and often mad at our first-world problems while their friends are off fighting a war that so often we pay no attention to on a daily basis. An underlying message of the film is the reality that what so many of these vets hate about combat is the same thing that keeps pulling them back in.
This film was derived and based on Kyle’s best-selling book, he collaborated with Bradley Cooper, who played him in the film, and he also served as a producer on the movie before his death. This movie is portrayed through Kyle's perspective, but it does not put him on a pedestal. He was not some Super Dad or Super Husband, and he was not easy to deal with upon his return home from any of his tours. But he was good at his job, and it makes no apologies for it.
The most moving part of this movie was that it was based on real life events and the unfortunate events soldiers endure. Kyle decided to dedicate his life to helping vet's adapt back into society and live as a civilian, unfortunately his life was taken in the processing of assisting a former soldier who suffered psychologically effects from being deployed and killed Kyle while they were at a gun range.
Thanks for you're review; I've had this movie on my list of movie's to watch but have been hearing mixed reviews. I did listen to Bradley Cooper's interview on Howard Stern and he had nothing but wonderful things to say about the movie and specifically Kyle.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your review; worth reading if you have some time:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/06/03/in-the-crosshairs