#AmericanSniper #HollywoodEnglishFilmMovieReview #JohnsonThomas #Rating: * * *
#AmericanSniper #HollywoodEnglishFilmMovieReview #JohnsonThomas #Rating: * * *
#BestFilms(Released)thisWeek16thJan2015/#JohnsonThomas
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#TheTheoryOfEverything(English) Rating: * * * * As biopic’s this one is based on the Stephen Hawking’s initial breakthrough years of discovery while battling illness and trying to keep his love and family afloat. The point of view is that of his first wife whose memoirs are the basis for the script. The astonishing part is #EddieRedmayne’s stunning performance that gets the details of the horrible progress of illness astonishingly right. #FelicityJones as Jane, his first wife, makes a brilliant counterpoint in this highly evocative drama #MoesArt #SarjitaJain
#AmericanSniper(English) Rating: * * * It’s a wonder that #ClintEastwood directed this propaganda film based on a true story about #ChrisKyle the most celebrated sniper in American history. Interesting,a little ponderous and very much blindingly patriotically American in it’s outlook. Not as exacting or involving as ‘The Hurt locker’ or ‘Enemy At The Gates’. #BradleyCooper gets buffed-up and does a decent enough take on Kyle. #ClintEastwood #BradleyCooper #WarnerBros #AnkitAgarwal
· #Paddington(English/LiveActionAnimation) Rating: * * * Children's favorite Paddington Bear gets the big-screen treatment in this fun family film adapted from Michael Bond's book series. Irresistibly charming #WarnerBros #HughBonneville #SallyHawkins #NicoleKidman #PaulKing
English Film review
Johnson Thomas
Sniping at old foes..
Film: American Sniper
Cast: Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller, Luke Grimes,Jake McDorman, Brian Hallisay, Kyle Gallner
Director: Clint Eastwood
Rating: * * *
Runtime: 134 mins.
Synopsis: This is the story of Chris Kyle (Bradley Cooper), the most-celebrated sniper in American military history. In the aftermath of 9/11, Kyle decides to serve his country by becoming a Navy SEAL. But with each tour of duty, he gets obsessed with killing the savages in order to keep his homeland safe. At least that’s what he believes, sincerely. In the process he grows more detached from his wife and children, while growing more and more attached to the job of assassinating potential threats to America.
Review:
American Sniper is based on the memoirs of Kyle, a highly decorated SEAL who served on four tours of duty in Iraq, notching up 160 estimated kills to his name (truth is it could just as well have been 250) earning him the nickname of ‘Legend’ while the Iraqi’s announced a bounty for his head.
here's talk that the actual total may have exceeded 250) and became known as 'Legend' to his comrades, while the Iraqis promptly placed a six-figure bounty on his head.
A heavily buffed-up Bradley Cooper does Kyle proud- not just in terms of physicality but also in terms of concerted focus in presenting the man’s single point vision. When he is back home with Taya(Sienna Miller), his wife, and their two children he keeps getting pre-occupied with his role in saving America. Does seem like Kyle had a savior complex which took precedence over everything else in his life. Eastwood’s film is in fact a manifestation of that very construct and in doing so, it becomes a lesser experience. What ensues on screen seems like propaganda for America to continue the war effort. There’s hardly any context other than that which is oft repeated – it’s a land of savages and they need to be annihilated for that reason. PTSD occupies a kind-of postscript space.
American Sniper shows Kyle’s (Cooper) life as a son, husband, father, and, most famously, America’s deadliest sniper. the script by Jason Hall (Paranoia) incorporates all that but forgets to include intriguing personal drama or trauma. most of it glossed over. Whatever has been chosen and shown has little depth or heft. The opening sequence where Kyle, in Iraq is asking his comrades whether he should shoot a mother and child who appear to be hiding a bomb. He gets his instructions telling him it’s his call to put safety of his comrades above all else. Sequences from his childhood follow giving us a brief glimpse of his upbringing and the reason why he feels so patriotic. The cutaway into childhood doesn’t really have the gravitas required to fashion a reason for his blinding loyalty to the nation. In quite a few scenes you feel the distraction away from the real story –that of a man whose priorities needed rearranging if at all he wants to consider himself human. What Clint Eastwood presents here is close to a machine. A well oiled one and pre-programmed to kill. There isn’t much exposition or development other than a cursory one. So the real person is never revealed even though there’s footage representing his courtship with Taya and time spent together off-tours.
To puncture the drama further Eastwood opts to represent Kyle’s death through a cinematic version of a postscript that derails the effect totally. In a manner of saying, this film loses efficacy because of misguided choices in the screenplay and direction. Cooper is able bodied and willing to give it his all but the stunted development doesn’t give his effort as much gloss as it should have. The problem here lies in the fact that Eastwood and Hall were not too comfortable digging deeper into the psyche of the man they wished to eulogise. This film could well be compared to a memorial- it doesn’t allow you to get close enough to the character central to the telling. The distance maintained throughout puts you off completely. We of course expected much deeper stuff from Eastwood-not this workmanlike, thematic, blinkered, biased and unchallenging one!
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