American Sniper - Review

I sat next to a US Marine during this movie, at the end, he was almost in tears. The whole audience went silent after it was over and nobody said a word when exiting the theatre. That's because this movie tugs on your heartstrings even if you aren't American. First off, Bradley Cooper is spectacular as Chris Kyle. He kills it in every single scene (No pun intended). He truly captures the struggle of the first time killing a human being, to the life after duty. The action scenes are intense (Felt like a mix between Black Hawk Down and Hurt Locker) and the sound work made you feel like you were in right centre in battle. This film asks the question, "Is it better to fight for your country and leave your family behind, or take care of your family and let fellow Americans (or whatever nationality you are) die overseas?" People sometimes go to war for the glory, but this movie shows us that there is nothing but more suffering when you come back home. Being Canadian, watching the Patriotic American movie can sometimes be kind of annoying to watch (Battle Los Angeles) but if this movie would've been called "Canadian Sniper", I would have been saluting this movie left, right and centre. After watching this movie, I could see this film winning many Oscars because the academy is extremely patriotic and love movies like this. American Sniper took a chunk out of me and I will be thinking about this movie for days.