The Most Lethal Sniper in U.S History

Copy of my original work written in February 2017

On May 24^th 2012, Warner Bros. gained the rights to the book "American Sniper" an auto-biography following the military career of Chris Kyle, a United States Navy SEAL veteran and sniper. Kyle served four tours in the Iraq War and was awarded several commendations for acts of heroism and meritorious service in combat. Kyle was hailed as “the most lethal sniper in U.S history” with The Pentagon confirming over 150 kills in action during Kyle’s service in the military from 1999 up unto his departure via honourable discharge in 2009. Bradley Cooper was set to produce and star in the adaptation, he himself had thought of Chris Pratt to play the role, but Warner Bros. agreed to only buy the rights if Cooper starred.

Actor Bradley Cooper is renowned for his good looks, charm and influence in Hollywood, but most notable is his impressive acting career spanning 18 years, with his television debut in 1999 on Sex in the City, followed by his big cinematic break in 2001’s Wet Hot American Summer. Since then he’s made an impressive career for himself, he was one of the world's highest-paid actors for three years, and has been nominated for various accolades, including four Academy Awards, two BAFTA Awards and two Golden Globe Awards. Therefore it’s no surprise that WB sought after Cooper to play the role; he respects his art and always draws in the crowds, with a true story like this that is rich in patriotism- American Sniper was bound be a massive success financially.    

Tragically, on February 2, 2013, Kyle and his friend, Chad Littlefield, 35, were shot and killed by Eddie Ray Routh. Routh was a 25-year-old U.S. Marine Corps veteran who suffered from PTSD and was also diagnosed with Schizophrenia after being in and out of mental hospitals for two years. The news of this tragic event shook America to its core and put the pressure on Warner Bros. to make this the best film they could whilst remaining respectful to Chris’s legacy. Later that year, it was reported that Clint Eastwood would direct the film and in early 2014, casting began.

American Sniper grossed $350.1 million in North America and $197 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $547.1 million, against a budget of around $58 million. The film was a financial and critical success, with many reviews praising Eastwood’s vision and respect for the source material and others focusing on Bradley Cooper’s phenomenal performance and physical transformation. The movie landed six award nods in total including best picture, best adapted screenplay, best editing and of course, a best actor nomination for Bradley Cooper.

I believe this Oscar nomination was well deserved, but did Cooper deserve to win? That is, in my eyes at least, not as straightforward.

Bradley gained 30 pounds of muscle, perfected a West Texas twang and learned how to shoot a .300 Winchester Magnum rifle. He also delivered a rugged type of screen stoicism that his "American Sniper" director, Clint Eastwood, made a career of back in the older days of cinema. Bradley went into this project expecting to do it hand in hand with Chris Kyle, but before Kyle’s death they’d only spoke over the phone once. That one phone call was made by Cooper himself, he hoped he could soften any fears Chris might have about what Hollywood would do to his story.

Bradley’s performance was that of the upmost respect, the dedication was clear as day and Cooper, along with Eastwood, had gone to visit Chris’ father, in the hopes of making this film as close to the truth and as tasteful as they could. There is are still a couple of moments from the movie that have stayed with me since I saw the movie over two years ago at the cinema, one of which is the opening scene.

The camera pans slowly over a U.S military convoy making its way steadily through a war torn city in Iraq, cutting to a rooftop down the road from the convoy, the camera reveals a marksman laid in a prone position behind his rifle, accompanied by a scout maintaining communications with command. It becomes apparent that the marksman is monitoring his surroundings, watching out for potential threats to the incoming convey, ready to neutralise them at a moment’s notice. Chris’ sight is drawn towards the opening of a door across the street from him, from which a woman and a child emerge. The woman, who is wearing a shroud over her full body dress, seems to be carrying something of weight under the shroud. Chris calmly relays this information back to command whilst continuing to mark the woman’s approach. As Chris suspected, the stranger was indeed carrying something of weight…a grenade. The woman hands the grenade to the small child, who cannot be older than 10, the child then begins running towards the convey and the panic in Chris’ voice begins to burn.

After being ordered by command to deal with the situation himself, Chris is left no other option than to shoot the child in order to protect his fellow troops. This leaves a truly harrowing effect on Chris, and us as an audience witnessing this situation.

Bradley’s performance throughout this scene was astonishing, and truly left me with a lump in my throat, his calm and collective manner suddenly becomes that of fear and hesitation, his voice cracks and Cooper’s face portrays many raw emotions, the most predominant of which being sorrow for the child. This would have, and did, connect with audiences worldwide but specifically, the American audiences, which for me is where the problem with this movie lays.

In my personal opinion, American Sniper was too patriotic for its own good, especially when it came to the marketing of the movie. Trailers, posters etc. all gave off this sense of pure, unopposed love for the U.S military which of course didn’t sit well with some people. This heavily affected quite a few people’s view on the movie, with some saying that the movie was receiving Oscar buzz purely because of what it stood for, and others claiming that the movie was distasteful and that awarding Oscars based on the exploits of a U.S marksman was ludicrous. In my opinion the movie was brilliant, but the patriotism involved seemed a bit overpowering, sometimes making me feel like I was watching a propaganda movie rather than something Clint Eastwood had put together. Bradley’s absence during the movie’s promotion would have also had an impact no doubt, he was off performing in the west end’s “The Elephant Man” and was unable to boost promotion and talk about his experiences with taking on such a role as much as he’d have liked too.

2015 was a tough year for American Sniper, and more specifically, Bradley Cooper to compete in. He was up against Michael Keaton for his captivating and mind bending performance in Birdman, Eddie Redmayne’s beautiful and thought provoking role in The Theory of Everything, Benedict Cumberbatch hard hitting The Imitation Game and Steve Carrell’s dark and intense performance in Foxcatcher. This was Bradley’s third time being nominated but unfortunately for him, it was not third time lucky. Eddie Redmayne took the Oscar award home in 2015 for his portrayal of Steven Hawking in The Theory of Everything. In my opinion, it was the right decision, Eddie had managed to shine in his role, taking on a true story with the up most respect, just like Bradley did, but unfortunately, the timing of American Sniper couldn’t have been worse. Released not long after Chris’ death and during Eddie Ray Routh’s trial, throw on top the over indulgent patriotism surrounding the story, Bradley’s actual performance was very easy to overlook which I find a shame, as I believe it’s been one of his strongest so far in his career.

Here’s to fourth time lucky Bradders, you definitely deserve it.