American Sniper is a 2014 American biographical war drama film[6] directed by Clint Eastwood and written by Jason Hall. It is based on the book American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History (2012) by Chris Kyle, with Scott McEwen and Jim DeFelice. With 255 kills, 160 of which were officially confirmed by the Department of Defense, Kyle is the deadliest marksman in U.S. military history. The film stars Bradley Cooper as Kyle and Sienna Miller as his wife Taya, with Luke Grimes, Kyle Gallner, Sam Jaeger, Jake McDorman, and Cory Hardrict in supporting roles.
The world premiere was on November 11, 2014, at the American Film Institute Festival,
followed by a limited theatrical release in the United States on
December 25, 2014 and a wide release on January 16, 2015. The film is a
huge financial success and has already set numerous box office records:
it is currently the third highest-grossing film of 2014, it is set to
overtake The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 as the highest grossing film of 2014,[7][8][9] it is the highest-grossing war film in North America, and it is Eastwood's most successful film to date.
The film received mostly positive reviews from critics. At the 87th Academy Awards, American Sniper received six nominations, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Actor for Cooper, ultimately winning one award for Best Sound Editing.[10]
Plot
Growing up in
Texas, Chris Kyle is taught by his father how to shoot a rifle and hunt deer. Years later, Kyle is a
rodeo cowboy when he sees news coverage of the
1998 U.S. embassy bombings and decides to enlist in the U.S. Navy, where he is eventually accepted for SEAL training, becoming a
U.S. Navy SEAL sniper.
Kyle meets Taya Renae at a bar, they marry, and he is sent to Iraq after the
September 11 attacks
of 2001. His first kills are a woman and boy who attacked U.S. Marines
with a grenade. Kyle is visibly upset by the experience but earns the
nickname "Legend" for his many kills. He is assigned to hunt for the
al-Qaeda leader
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi;
during house-to-house searches in evacuated areas, Kyle interrogates a
family, and for $100,000 the father offers to lead the SEALs to "The
Butcher", al-Zarqawi's second-in-command whose favorite torture device
is a drill. The plan goes awry when The Butcher captures the father and
son, and kills them while Kyle is pinned down by a sniper using an
SVD. Meanwhile, the insurgents issue a bounty on Kyle.
Kyle returns home to his wife and the birth of his son. He is
distracted by memories of his war experiences and argues with Taya over
bootleg footage of U.S. Marines shot dead by enemy sniper "savages".
Taya expresses her concern for them as a couple and wishes Kyle would
focus on his home and family.
Kyle leaves for a second tour, promoted to
Chief Petty Officer. He is involved in a shoot out with The Butcher, who is located operating out of a ground floor restaurant.
Kyle returns home from his second tour to a newborn daughter, and he
becomes increasingly distant from his family. On his third tour, the
Dragunov sniper seriously injures a unit member, and the unit is
evacuated back to base. The unit decides to return to the field and
continue the mission. Another SEAL is killed by gunfire, compelling Kyle
with guilt and duty to undertake a fourth tour. Taya does not
understand his decision, tells him she needs him, and for a moment,
implies they should stay apart.
On tour four, the SVD-using expert insurgent sniper is identified as
"Mustafa", and Kyle is assigned to take him out. Mustafa has been
sniping U.S. Army combat engineers building a barricade. Kyle's sniper
team is placed on a rooftop inside enemy territory. Kyle spots Mustafa
and takes him out with a risky long distance shot at 2100 yards (1920
meters), (
the 8th longest sniper kill ever recorded),
but this exposes his team's position to a large number of armed
insurgents. In the midst of the firefight and low on ammunition, Kyle
calls Taya and tells her he is ready to come home. A sandstorm provides
cover for a chaotic escape in which Kyle is injured and almost left
behind.
Kyle returns home, on edge and unable to adjust fully to civilian life. He tells a
Veterans Affairs
psychiatrist he is "haunted by all the guys [he] couldn't save". The
psychiatrist encourages him to help wounded veterans in the VA hospital.
Kyle meets veterans who suffered severe injuries, coaches them at a
shooting range in the woods, and gradually begins to adjust to home
life.
Years later, on February 2, 2013, Kyle, playful and happy, says
goodbye to his wife and family as he leaves to spend time with a veteran
at a shooting range. On-screen subtitles reveal: "Kyle was killed that
day by a veteran he was trying to help", followed by stock footage of
thousands of people standing in line along the highway for his funeral
procession. Thousands more are shown
[11] attending his memorial service at
Cowboys Stadium (now known as the AT&T Stadium).
Cast
Production
On May 24, 2012, it was announced that
Warner Bros. had acquired the rights to the book with
Bradley Cooper set to produce and star in the screen adaptation.
[12] Cooper had thought of
Chris Pratt to play Kyle, but WB agreed to buy it only if Cooper would star.
[22] On September 2012,
David O. Russell said he was interested in directing the film.
[23] On May 2, 2013, it was announced that
Steven Spielberg would direct.
[24]
Spielberg had read Kyle's book, though he desired to have a more
psychological conflict present in the screenplay so an "enemy sniper"
character can serve as the insurgent sharpshooter who was trying to
track down and kill Kyle. Spielberg's ideas contributed to the
development of a lengthy screenplay approaching 160 pages. Due to Warner
Bros.' budget constraints, Spielberg felt he could not bring his vision
of the story to the screen.
[4] On August 5, 2013, Spielberg dropped out of directing.
[25] On August 21, 2013, it was reported that
Clint Eastwood would instead direct the film.
[26]
Casting
On March 14, 2014,
Sienna Miller joined the cast.
[13] On March 16, 2014,
Kyle Gallner was cast,
[16] as was
Cory Hardrict on March 18, 2014.
[19] On March 20, 2014,
Navid Negahban,
Eric Close,
Eric Ladin, Rey Gallegos, and
Jake McDorman also joined the cast,
[18][20] as did
Luke Grimes and
Sam Jaeger on March 25, 2014.
[15][17] Kevin Lacz, a former Navy SEAL, was also cast and served as a technical advisor.
[21] Another former Navy SEAL, Joel Lambert, also joined the film, portraying a
Delta sniper.
[27] On June 3,
Max Charles was added to the cast to portray Kyle's son, Colton Kyle.
[14]
Filming
Principal photography began on March 31, 2014 in
Los Angeles;
[28] it was also partly shot in
Morocco.
[29] On April 23, the
Los Angeles Times reported that ten days of filming set in an Afghan village was set to begin at the Blue Cloud Movie Ranch in the
Santa Clarita area.
[30] On May 7, shooting of the film was spotted around
El Centro; a milk factory was used as the abandoned
date factory which insurgents close in on from all directions at the climax of the film.
[31][32] Later on May 14, Cooper was spotted filming some scenes in
Culver City, California,
[33] and then he followed by shooting scenes again in Los Angeles on May 16.
[34]
On May 30, Cooper and Miller were spotted during the filming of their
characters' wedding scenes; they were filming aboard a yacht in
Marina del Rey.
[35]
On June 3, Cooper was spotted in the uniform of a Navy SEAL marksman
aiming during the filming of some scenes at a Los Angeles shooting
range.
[36] The pier and bar scenes were filmed in
Seal Beach, California.
[37] Bradley Cooper gained 40 pounds for his role.
Cinematographer Tom Stern shot the film with
Arri Alexa XT digital cameras and
Panavision C-, E- and G-Series anamorphic lenses.
[38] The film is Eastwood's second to be shot digitally, after
Jersey Boys.
[39]
Music
There is no "Music by" credit on this film. Composer and music editor
Joseph S. DeBeasi is credited as composer of additional music, and
Clint Eastwood, who has composed the
scores for most of his films since
Mystic River (2004), is credited as the composer of "Taya's theme".
[40][41] The film also features the song
Someone Like You by
Van Morrison, which plays during the wedding scene.
[42]
Reception
Box office
As of March 1, 2015,
American Sniper had grossed $331.1 million in North America and $139.1 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $470.2 million,
[3]
against a budget of about $58 million. This is Eastwood's
highest-grossing film to date. It is also the highest-grossing war film
in North America unadjusted for inflation. On an adjusted basis it
stands second to
Saving Private Ryan ($379 million).
[43] In North America, it is the second highest-grossing R-rated film of all time (behind
The Passion of the Christ),
[44] the third highest-grossing film of 2014, Warner Bros' fifth highest-grossing film behind
The Dark Knight,
The Dark Knight Rises,
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 and
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.
[45] It became the seventh Warner Bros' film to earn over $300 million in the US, and the 50th film to reach the mark.
[46] It earned as much as the combined earnings of all of the other 2014 Best Picture nominees.
[47]
Premiere and limited release
American Sniper premiered at the
AFI Fest on November 11, 2014, just after a screening of
Selma at
Grauman's Egyptian Theatre in
Los Angeles.
[48] In North America, the film opened to a
limited release
on December 25, 2014, playing at four theaters — two in New York, one
in Los Angeles, and one in Dallas — and earned $610,000 in its opening
weekend ($850,000 including Christmas Day) at an average of $152,500 per
venue debuting at #22.
[49][50]
The following week the film earned $676,909 playing at the same number
of locations at an average of $169,277 per theater, which is the
second-biggest weekend average ever for a live-action movie (previously
held by 2001's
Moulin Rouge!).
[51] American Sniper
holds the record for the most entries in the top 20 Top Weekend Theater
Averages with 3 entries. It earned a total of $3.4 million from limited
release in three weekends.
[52]
Wide release
The film began its wide debut across North American theaters on January 16, 2015 (Thursday night showings began at 7:00 pm).
[53] It set an all-time highest Thursday night opening record for a
R-rated drama with $5.3 million (previously held by
Lone Survivor).
[54][55][56]
The film topped the box office on its opening day grossing $30.5
million (including Thursday previews) from 3,555 theaters setting
January records for both biggest debut opening (previously held by
Cloverfield) and single-day gross (previously held by
Avatar).
[57][58][59]
In its traditional three-day opening the film earned $89.2 million
which was double than expected and broke the record for the largest
January opening (previously held by
Ride Along)
[60] and the largest winter opening,
[61] which is also Eastwood's top opening as a director surpassing
Gran Torino 's opening.
[62] The three-day opening is also the biggest opening weekend for a drama film (previously held by
The Passion of the Christ),
[63] the second biggest debut for a Best Picture Oscar nominee (behind
Toy Story 3),
[64] the second biggest debut for an R-rated film (behind
The Matrix Reloaded), and the second biggest for a non-comic book, non-fantasy/sci-fi film (behind
Fast and Furious 6).
[64][65] It also set an
IMAX opening record with $10.6 million setting record for a January IMAX weekend (previously held by
Avatar in its fourth weekend) and an R-rated IMAX debut record (previously held by
Prometheus).
[66] It earned $107.2 million during its four-day
Martin Luther King weekend setting a record for the biggest R-rated four day gross.
[67]
In its
second weekend, the film expanded to 3,705 theaters making it the widest launch for an R-rated movie.
[68][69]
It grossed an estimated $64.6 million in its second weekend, declining
only by 28%—and set the record for the second-best hold ever for a movie
opening to more than $85 million and also set the record for the eight
largest second-weekend gross.
[70][71] In just 10 days of release, the film surpassed
Pearl Harbor ($198.5 million) to became the second highest-grossing war film in North America.
[72] By its second weekend,
Box Office Mojo
had already reported that the film was on poise to become the
highest-grossing film of 2014 in North America, a record that is
currently held by
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 ($334 million), judging from its gradual decline and strong holdovers.
[73] It became the highest-grossing IMAX film of January grossing $18.8 million from 333 IMAX theaters.
[74] On Thursday, January 29, 2015 – 35 days after its initial release, the film surpassed
Saving Private Ryan ($216.5 million) to become the highest-grossing war film in North America, unadjusted for inflation.
[75]
By its third weekend of wide release, the film expanded to 3,885
theaters (180 additional theaters added), breaking its own record of
being the widest R-rated film ever released.
[76][77] The film topped the box office through its third weekend earning $30.66 million which is the second highest
Super Bowl weekend gross (behind
Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert).
[78] After topping the box office for three consecutive weekends (the longest of 2015 so far), the film was overtaken by
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water in its fourth weekend.
[47]
Other territories
In Italy, the film was released on December 31, 2014 and earned $6.72 million (
Dealine reported $7.1 million) in its opening weekend.
[79][80][81]
For the weekend of January 16, 2015, the film expanded in to seven new markets and earned an estimated $9.3 million.
[82]
This includes $3.8 million in United Kingdom, which is Clint Eastwood's
biggest debut ever in that region, $1.2 million in South Korea and
$291,149 in New Zealand.
[81] Australia opened with $4 million ($4.3 million including previews).
[83]
For the three day weekend of January 30, 2015, the film added $11.1
million, which brings its total to $67.3 million in other territories
till date.
[84]
Critical response
American Sniper has received mostly positive reviews from critics.
Rotten Tomatoes
gives the film a "Certified Fresh" rating of 72%, based on 217 reviews
from critics, with an average rating of 6.9/10. The site's consensus
states, "Powered by Clint Eastwood's sure-handed direction and a
gripping central performance from Bradley Cooper,
American Sniper delivers a tense, vivid tribute to its real-life subject."
[85] On
Metacritic, the film has a score of 72 out of 100, based on reviews from 48 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
[86] In
CinemaScore polls conducted during the opening weekend, cinema audiences gave
American Sniper a rare grade of A+ on an A+ to F scale.
[87]
Todd McCarthy of
The Hollywood Reporter wrote: "A taut, vivid and sad account of the brief life of the most accomplished marksman in American military annals,
American Sniper feels very much like a companion piece—in subject, theme and quality—to
The Hurt Locker."
[88] Justin Chang of
Variety
gave the film a positive review, saying "Hard-wiring the viewer into
Kyle's battle-scarred psyche thanks to an excellent performance from a
bulked-up Bradley Cooper, this harrowing and intimate character study
offers fairly blunt insights into the physical and psychological toll
exacted on the front lines, yet strikes even its familiar notes with a
sobering clarity that finds the 84-year-old filmmaker in very fine
form."
[89] David Denby of
The New Yorker
gave the film a positive review, saying "Both a devastating war movie
and a devastating antiwar movie, a subdued celebration of a warrior's
skill and a sorrowful lament over his alienation and misery."
[90] Chris Nashawaty of
Entertainment Weekly gave the film a C+, saying "The film's just a repetition of context-free combat missions and one-dimensional targets."
[91] Elizabeth Weitzman of
New York Daily News
gave the film four out of five stars, saying "The best movies are
ever-shifting, intelligent and open-hearted enough to expand alongside
an audience.
American Sniper, Clint Eastwood's harrowing meditation on war, is built on this foundation of uncommon compassion."
[92] Amy Nicholson of
LA Weekly
gave the film a C-, saying "Cautiously, Eastwood has chosen to omit
Kyle's self-mythologizing altogether, which is itself a distortion of
his character. We're not watching a biopic."
[93] Kyle Smith of the
New York Post
gave the film four out of five stars, saying "After 40 years of
Hollywood counterpropaganda telling us war is necessarily corrupting and
malign, its ablest practitioners thugs, loons or victims,
American Sniper nobly presents the case for the other side."
[94]
Peter Travers of
Rolling Stone
gave the film three and a half stars out of four, saying "Bradley
Cooper, as Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, and director Eastwood salute Kyle's
patriotism best by not denying its toll. Their targets are clearly in
sight, and their aim is true."
[95] Ignatiy Vishnevetsky of
The A.V. Club gave the film a B, saying "
American Sniper is imperfect and at times a little corny, but also ambivalent and complicated in ways that are uniquely Eastwoodian."
[96] James Berardinelli of
ReelViews gave the film three and a half stars out of four, saying "
American Sniper lifts director Clint Eastwood out of the doldrums that have plagued his last few films."
[97] Rafer Guzman of
Newsday
gave the film three out of four stars, saying "Cooper nails the role of
an American killing machine in Clint Eastwood's clear-eyed look at the
Iraq War."
[98] Kenneth Turan of the
Los Angeles Times
gave the film a positive review, saying "Eastwood's impeccably crafted
action sequences so catch us up in the chaos of combat we are almost not
aware that we're watching a film at all."
[99] Claudia Puig of
USA Today
gave the film three out of four stars, saying "It's clearly Cooper's
show. Substantially bulked up and affecting a believable Texas drawl,
Cooper embodies Kyle's confidence, intensity and vulnerability."
[100] Joshua Rothkopf of
Time Out New York gave the film four out of five stars, saying "Just as
only Nixon could go to China, only Clint Eastwood could make a movie about an Iraq War veteran and infuse it with doubts, mission anxiety and ruination."
[101] Inkoo Kang of
The Wrap
gave the film a negative review, saying "Director Clint Eastwood‘s
focus on Kyle is so tight that no other character, including wife Taya
(Sienna Miller), comes through as a person, and the scope so narrow that
the film engages only superficially with the many moral issues
surrounding the Iraq War."
[102]
Controversies
Matt Taibbi, of
Rolling Stone,
wrote that the movie turned the complicated moral morass and
mass-bloodshed of the Iraq occupation into a black and white fairy tale,
without presenting the historical context.
[103] John Wight of
Russia Today stated that
American Sniper depicted the Iraqi people as a dehumanized mass of savages, which the white man was in the process of civilizing.
[104] Alex von Tunzelmann of
The Guardian
argued that the film presented a simplified black and white portrayal
of the Iraq war, and that it features the distortion of facts into
unreliable myths based upon previous legends.
[105] David Masciotra of
Salon criticized the movie's focus on physical rather than moral courage as the ultimate manly virtue.
[106] Cavalry Scout
Sniper Garett Reppenhagen stated that he did not view Iraqi civilians
as savages, but as part of a friendly culture for which the movie has
furthered ignorance, fear, and bigotry.
[107] Cinematographer
Paul Edwards wrote in
CounterPunch that the film is dangerous due to mutilating the classic
hero's journey into a simplistic, brutal, and sadistic destruction of "evildoers".
[108] Several other articles have also been critical of the movie.
[109][110][111][112][113]
Responding to critics, Eastwood said that
American Sniper shows "what it (war) does to the people left behind",
[114]
and that presenting "the fact of what [war] does to the family and the
people who have to go back into civilian life like Chris Kyle did" is
the "biggest antiwar statement any film" can make.
[115] He stated: "One of my favorite war movies that I've been involved with is
Letters from Iwo Jima
and that was about family, about being taken away from life, being sent
someplace. In World War II, everybody just sort of went home and got
over it. Now there is some effort to help people through it."
[115] He also said: "I was a child growing up during
World War II. That was supposed to be the one to end all wars. And four years later, I was standing at the
draft board being drafted during the
Korean conflict,
and then after that there was Vietnam, and it goes on and on forever
... I just wonder ... does this ever stop? And no, it doesn't. So each
time we get in these conflicts, it deserves a lot of thought before we
go wading in or wading out. Going in or coming out. It needs a better
thought process, I think."
[116]
Bradley Cooper
stated that much of the criticism ignores that the film was about
widespread neglect of returning veterans, and that people who take issue
with Kyle should redirect their attention to the leaders who put troops
there in the first place. He said: "We looked at hopefully igniting
attention about the lack of care that goes to vets. Discussion that has
nothing to do with vets or what we did or did not do, every conversation
in those terms is moving farther and farther from what our soldiers go
through, and the fact that 22 veterans commit suicide each day." Cooper
said that an increasing number of soldiers are returning from conflict
psychologically damaged, only to be more or less discarded.
[117]
First Lady
Michelle Obama and Former
GOP vice presidential nominee
Sarah Palin also spoke out in support of the movie.
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