Very good and not easy to watch, this bio-pic of Chris Kyle, the deadliest US sniper in history, is intense. Bradley Cooper as Kyle earns his Oscar nomination, and Clint Eastwood once again directs a bang-up war story. In 2011 it would have been hard to imagine the Cooper (last blogged in Guardians of the Galaxy) of the Hangover series getting nominated three years in a row, but he has grown (figuratively and literally--he gained about 40 pounds and trained intensively so as to physically resemble Kyle. Then he had to get skinny almost immediately to play the Elephant Man on Broadway). Unfortunately Cooper had no chance against Michael Keaton for Best Actor last night. Sienna Miller (Casanova (2005), the excellent Interview (2007) co-starring Steve Buscemi, and Dave Schultz' wife Annie in Foxcatcher) is also quite good as Kyle's feisty wife Taya. It's by no means a two-person show--131 cast members are listed--but I'll spare you and myself from going into them all.
Eastwood (most recently in these pages for Jersey Boys) is no doubt disappointed that the movie won only one Oscar, for Sound Editing, when it was nominated for five others (Best Picture, Actor, Adapted Screenplay, Editing, and Sound Mixing). Eastwood also wrote a song for it, Taya's Theme. Jason Hall (co-wrote two other movies not seen by me) adapted Kyle's memoir, which was written with two others, and lost the Oscar last night to The Imitation Game.
Some have complained the the movie is pro-war and anti-Muslim. Perhaps, but it's told from a specific point of view and everyone doesn't have to share that view.
We saw this five and a half weeks ago, so I don't have too many other details to share. Certainly it's worth seeing. Rotten Tomatoes' critics are averaging 73% and its audiences 86.
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