American Sniper

Cooper ist ehrgeizig und möchte Anerkennung und Oscars. Und Eastwood überzeugte offensichtlich das hohe Honorar. Sonst würde das Clint nicht machen, das Drehbuch bietet ihm nicht so viel Raum für sein Erzähltalent (die gefühlvollen Szenen mit der Ehefrau würden viele schaffen). Die Einfachheit und Direktheit des Films, der nichts Neues unter dem Helm bringt und sich ausschließlich auf das Potenzial des real-life Schicksals vom echten Chris Kyle verlässt, ist einerseits erfreulich (der Film ist spannend, ohne dass er auf das Publikum zu hohe Ansprüche stellt), wegen der Nutzung von verschiedenen Klischees und der Abwesenheit einer Einzigartigkeit (über die der identisch aufgebaute, aber nicht so einfache Film Tödliches Kommando - The Hurt Locker verfügte) hat er auf die Oscars aber keinen Anspruch. Also falls die Academy nicht offensichtlich zugeben möchte, dass es mehr um Politik als um Filme geht. Die zentrale Actionszene (Butcher + die Bohrmaschine + der Junge) hat einen meisterhaften Schnitt. Die zweite Hälfte sollte man hingegen verkürzen. (17.02.2015)

Eastwood's precise shot, which is likely to be mistaken for pathos when defending the American way of thinking, stands out above all. This is due to the fact that, despite a significant part of the runtime being spent on the battlefield, it manages to retain a civilian atmosphere, rather giving Kyle's extraordinary "skill" lip service because, at his core, the protagonist remains that pure American redneck who, in Cooper's excellent, paunchy Texan delivery, blathers on about defending the country, and yet you know he means it with unapologetic sincerity; its length and the empty brothers storyline are the only things that the film can be faulted for. Even J. Edgar wanted to look like this. (18.01.2015)

The film is divided into two parts. One takes place in Iraq and the other in the homeland. Leaving aside the fact that Bradley Cooper plays his role with absolute precision, I must add that everything else is just plain wrong. There is very little going on in Iraq. There are a few key scenes here, but that’s definitely not enough for a good film. Take the first scene, for example. It is a masterpiece in and of itself. However, the two parts intersect in the most suspenseful moment and suddenly Clint makes a cutto the protagonist’s past life in the States. The tension rapidly drops and we’re left with no choice but to watch why Chris left for Iraq to begin with. After a while, the pace picks up and you suddenly realize this movie has zero emotion. Chris is in America, then in Iraq, then returns to America and ends up in Iraq again. All of this with no emotions, unlike in Hurt Locker which worked pretty well in this respect. Here I had a problem watching it to the end. Simply put, I was disappointed. I expected American Sniper to be something in the vein of contemporary war films such as Hurt Locker or Jarhead, but what I got was a completely routine job, which engages neither with its story nor with the locations. (06.02.2015)

Biography of the sniper from Texas, Chris Kyle, who had about 150 kills scratched into his rifle stock. Eastwood has become a hitmaker in his latter years (90 million views over one weekend!) and a very moderate war movie director. Not so many kills as such, they are restrained, realistic and not even Kyle is counting (he’s so cool). Probably because we all know what a farce Iraq was, there’s no delving into politics. Simply a classic pursuit movie with ragheads with a polite duel going on in the background. The picture pretends that sniping itself isn’t playing the main role, but in fact it’s a conflict with Mustafa and the hunt for Butcher that help the viewer differentiate between the separate tours. The classic development of the Navy Seals and is all too familiar, thank you very much Eastwood for presenting it in more entertaining form. Cooper is very convincing in his transformation from man to robot and back again, at crucial moments he doesn’t act like a hero, but like a psychopath. His dead soul is visible in his cold blue eyes (that’s why Kyle wears sunglasses almost all the time). Movies like Hurt Locker don’t have this, that’s probably why this movie works much better. Emotions come across artificial, but on the other hand the finale works well, sad, even though the main message becomes a little blurred. P.S.: I’m a great fan of the Punisher, so I seriously enjoyed the scene about the “graphic novel". The armor and magazines with the skull stencil looked damn good. Hooyah! (19.01.2015)

Patriotism is boring. The psychological portrayal of the main character is average. It is neither a high-octane war action like Black Hawk Down, nor a minimalist, intimate piece like Zero Dark Thirty. American Sniper doesn't impress you with anything, except maybe how flat and predictable it ultimately is. It's as if Clint Eastwood had no room for any of his trademarks. You won't feel or resonate with the shots, nor with the dialogues spoken by characters with whom you don't empathise or bear their "burden" on the screen – except perhaps the leading duo. Thumbs up for not being afraid to depict child violence and a few solid action scenes that intertwine with the boring ones that lack dramatic dynamism and better structure – Ridley Scott could give a few lessons – the hell in Mogadishu was much more tangible. (07.03.2015)

Ein angenehm unvoreingenommenes melancholisches Porträt von einem Menschen, der zwar kein großer Denker war, der es aber gut gemeint hat. American Sniper verherrlicht Chris Kyle nicht, er stellt ihn eher als ein trauriges Opfer des grausamen Krieges sowie des eigenen edlen Bedürfnisses, Menschen zu helfen, dar. Ich gebe zu, dass ich befürchtet habe, dass es sich um einen zweiten Machine Gun Preacher handeln könnte. Meine Befürchtungen haben sich aber schließlich als überflüssig herausgestellt. Clint Eastwood hat es geschafft, die häufigsten gefährlichen Klischees, die hinter der Ecke lauerten, hinter der Ecke auch aufzuhalten und die Geschichte mit seinem üblichen kalten und distanzierten Naturalismus aufzunehmen. Es tut mir nur leid, dass der Film einer gewöhnlichen Schablone folgt und dass die Bearbeitung nicht origineller ist. So ein Ende habe ich aber nicht erwartet (weil ich über das wahre Schicksal des Haupthelden nichts gewusst habe) und es hat mich tief berührt. (29.05.2016)

American Sniper is not about physical suffering in the middle of a battle zone, but rather about the diametrically opposed perspectives that the war in Iraq is subjected to, both from the unsuspecting American public and the direct participants in the bloody conflict, as well as the questionable motivations that drive many young Americans toward their dream of "serving the country”. Eastwood works with a very generic cinematic equation, with his protagonist coming into the war full of enthusiasm and patriotic oaths, only to leave as a broken man who has lost his illusions of honour and the existence of goodness. But what elevates the film to above average is its undisguised aversion to jingoism, which is a flimsy band-aid for doing or perhaps returning to evil, the natural civility of emotion that makes the war and psychological levels blend beautifully, and of course Clint's formal genius, which he still retains even in his 80s. Given the many Oscar nominations, one might think that Americans have a soft spot for Eastwood, but watching American Sniper, as with Gran Torino or Million Dollar Baby, I realized that the popularity is well deserved. 80% (14.02.2015)

Eine widerliche propagandistische Scheiße. Ich wage zu behaupten, dass auch meine Mitschüler von der Grundschule, die keine neun Klassen geschafft haben, bemerken würden, dass der Film absolut einseitig ist. Ich hoffe, dass sich Clint Eastwood mit McCain und anderen bekloppten Republikanern zusammengesetzt und sich an den Schultern gefasst haben, sich ans Herz gegriffen und geseufzt haben, was für große Helden, tolle Kerle und Legenden die Amerikaner doch sind, die es gut mit der Welt meinen und die Demokratie verbreiten. Für mich ist ganz sicher niemand ein Held, der einhundertsechzig Menschen getötet hat, unter gar keinen Umständen. Für mich sind Ärzte ohne Grenzen Helden, Menschen, die versuchen, die Schrecken des Krieges zu korrigieren oder zu beseitigen, nicht die, die sie schaffen. So ein klischeehafter Mist, bei dem man in pseudospannenden Szenen den Ton ausschalten und die Sätze der einzelnen Figuren synchronisieren kann, der ist es überhaupt nicht wert, gesehen zu werden, und er sollte schon gar keine Preise bekommen. American Sniper ist wohl noch schlimmer als der so schon extrem langweilige Foxcatcher. Ich verliere immer mehr die Motivation, für einen Oscar nominierte Filme anzusehen, denn es ist ein Mist neben dem anderen, das Ehrenbanner halten bisher ganz sicher nur Grand Budapest Hotel und The Imitation Game - Ein streng geheimes Leben hoch. (17.02.2015)

An extended mix of contemporary male cluelessness, declining machismo, and the search for idols. It's a real shame that Cooper's decidedly above-average acting flounders in a film where every five minutes is about something different, and individual scenes end where there should be a confrontation that could at least reveal the protagonist's questionable temperament. There's also not much else to do when you've got the national hero's dad up your ass, making sure the image of his deified son matches his Texas fantasies, and Republican zombie Eastwood behind the camera. The hero's wife is a devastating parody, who right in keeping with the optics of the Southern redneck occasionally threatens to pack up the kids if she doesn't get her way, but if you're able to actively ignore her, she'll still wait for you with open arms, because that's just how women are. It'll get rednecks across the breadth of the Confederate states to join the military, so it lived up to expectations, but otherwise it's a bigoted tunnel of shame that only scores points for Cooper's performance and not messing around, including with dying and tortured children. Arab children, rather. PS: formally it holds to certain standards and it's certainly not terrible. There's even a couple of delicious scenes (the storm in the desert), but next to the formal qualities of Green Zone, The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty, and The Kingdom, there’s absolutely no reason to add points for that. (24.06.2015)

I was expecting that the movie would actually be about something else, but mainly because I didn't want to see anything about it in advance. I was intrigued by how it turned out in the end, maybe even surprising, but on the other hand, Clint can't be blamed for mostly avoiding pathos - except for the actual shots that follow before the credits and during nothing. Otherwise, it is a wonderfully directed film, especially the war scenes are incredible. (20.01.2015)