American Sniper

Eastwood directs this deeply moving film about navy seal Chris Kyle, adapted from his autobiography. A first rate production both in front of, and behind the camera, this movie has all the markings of a true classic.

This is based on the real life American SEAL Chris Kyle (Bradley Cooper) whose finely honed sniping skills see him take four tours to wartorn Iraq at the height of the tensions there, whilst trying to reconcile the fairly profound effects of the war on his psychology and on his family back at home. On that front, he is married to Taya (Sienna Miller) and by watching his increasingly perilous activities abroad and his struggles to adjust to life with her and their children when he returns each time, we get a powerful sense of the impact his job, and of his own childhod, is having on his mental stability. He's not a violent man, nor a drunken thug. Indeed, he is aware of the vacillations of his behaviour and also appreciates the equally torrid situation faced by Taya and his growing family as each trip leaves him more involuntarily distant and emotionally disconnected. Initially, I didn't think Cooper was the best choice here - he begins in just a little too lightweight a fashion, but thanks to some authentic looking recreations of their Iraqi scenarios we do get a gradually growing feeling for the dangers he and his squad face and he starts to exude something altogether more convinc