AMERICAN SNIPER - Oscar Movie Review Special
If you live in either U.S. entertainment hub - Los Angeles or New York - you just might hear folks humming “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” in January and February. Why? Not because the “ethical atheists” are celebrating solstice, nor is it Christmas freaks who can’t let go of the holidays. It’s simply awards season, that lovely time of year when the entertainment industry rolls out the red carpet for itself, and pats itself on the back for all its doubtless great contributions to humanity during the previous year. There’s the Golden Globes, the People’s Choice Awards, the Grammys, the SAG Awards, etc., but the Queen Mother of all the awards ceremonies is the Oscars; awards for excellence in cinematic achievement. Up ‘til 2013 the actual name was the Academy Awards. It was then the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences changed the official name to The Oscars. “Oscar” for some reason makes me think of hot dogs, and lunch meat. Hmm, I wonder why? The term “Oscar” for an Academy Award has been around since the early '30s. Actress Bette Davis claimed credit for the name which she supposedly garnered from her first husband, Harmon Oscar Nelson, a band leader. I wouldn’t doubt that since Ms. Davis was a truly pushy broad. Most likely though, “Oscar” came about via Margaret Herrick, then Academy Executive Secretary, who upon seeing the statue for the first time, said it brought to mind a cousin of hers. No matter which is the real scenario, the name certainly stuck. The Oscar trophy itself is made of gold-plated britannia on a black metal base, it is 13.5 in tall, weighs 8.5 lb and depicts a naked knight with amorphous genitalia rendered in Art Deco style holding a crusader's sword standing on a reel of film with five spokes. The five spokes represent the original branches of the Academy: Actors, Writers, Directors, Producers, and Technicians.
The first Academy Awards ceremony took place in 1929 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, and lasted only fifteen minutes, as there were only twelve categories. The “Outstanding Picture” award went to the silent 1927 WWI epic, Wings, starring Buddy Rogers (3rd husband of Mary Pickford) and Clara Bow (the “It Girl”). It was also the film that launched Gary Cooper’s career, though he only had one scene. This picture was controversial and groundbreaking for a number of reasons. First, it cost two million dollars to make - the most expensive film ever made at that time - featured some 3500 extras, 300 planes, and was six months in the making when most feature length silents were in the can after just one month. It was lauded for its special effects and the realism of the battle scenes, and was long the standard by which subsequent war movies were measured. It was the first wide-release motion picture to contain nudity, exposing the hindquarters of a group of men, lined up for physicals (the first step in becoming WWI fighter pilots), and there is a brief glimpse of Clara Bow’s bare breasts in a scene where she is changing clothes. Another thing that raised eyebrows was the fraternal kiss between Jack Powell (Rogers) and David Armstrong (Richard Arlen), when David lies dying in Jack’s arms. In the scene where all the ace pilots are celebrating in a Paris night club, they used actual champagne in the filming. Rogers, who was not a drinker and had never had champagne previously, became actually roaring drunk very quickly; a case of method acting taken to the extreme. “Wings” would probably be rated PG today...maybe PG-13 for violence.
Let’s move ahead 80 odd years to the present, and two or three blocks east of the Hollywood Roosevelt to the Dolby Theater at Hollywood and Highland, where we are just days away from Oscars 2015. One of the movies nominated for Best Picture is American Sniper, yet another war movie. Sniper is based on the life of Chris Kyle from his autobiography, “American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History," and was adapted from the book by screenwriter Jason Hall. It stars Bradley Cooper (Kyle), who is a Best Actor Oscar nominee for his work in this picture. The film also stars Sienna Miller (Foxcatcher) as Chris Kyle’s wife, Taya. Not only is it nominated for Best Picture and Best Actor, it is also nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Sound Editing, and Best Sound Mixing. The film was ignored by the Golden Globes, and the SAG Awards, but that is most likely politics more than anything else. Many in the oh-so-pretentious and politically correct filmmaking community consider Clint Eastwood, one of the producers and the director of American Sniper, a pariah. In my own case, if I see Clint Eastwood’s name on a project, I want to see it because he is a master storyteller and has an uncanny knack for reaching an audience.
The backdrop for this film is the Iraq War. The viewer is engaged from the first scene where Kyle, a Navy SEAL has his gun sites on a couple of insurgents. As he takes the shot we are immediately transported back to his boyhood, a brilliant piece of editing, where he fells a deer, hunting with his father, showing us that he was a crack shot from a young age. Next, we find him somewhat older riding the rodeo circuit with his younger brother. In this same period, he sees the news of the 1998 bombings of American embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, and feels duty bound to join the armed forces. He soon goes into Navy SEAL training. After completing his training, he meets Taya Renae, who subsequently becomes his wife. Their time together after the nuptials is short-lived as he is deployed to his first tour in Iraq. Chris ends up fulfilling four tours in the Iraq war. One thing that kept him reupping, other than his patriotism and sense of duty, is his desire to exact revenge on an enemy sharpshooter dubbed “Mustafa,” played adroitly by Sammy Sheik. In the final battle scene of the film, Kyle obtains his desire and takes Mustafa out with a million-to-one shot of some 2100 yards. Unfortunately the kill shot tips off a large contingent of armed enemy to their whereabouts. They realize it’s highly unlikely they will survive the attack. In the midst of this, Kyle makes a tearful call to his wife telling her he is ready to come home. The unit ultimately escapes under cover of a sandstorm. By the time Chris Kyle comes home for the final time, he has become a legend in the U.S. armed forces, having 225 kills under his belt; 160 confirmed by the Department of Defense. This gives him the dubious distinction of having been the deadliest sniper in all of U.S. military history.
Wings and American Sniper join the ranks of other war films such as The Hurt Locker, Saving Private Ryan, Pearl Harbor, and Catch 22 in portraying the devastating personal toll war takes on soldiers and their families. Some may take the simplistic view that Sniper is just a "hurrah for our side, kick the crap out of the bad guys" motion picture. I admit to having a liking for those type of flicks, but American Sniper is so much more. If you take a really hard look at it, it is an anti-war movie if ever there was one. It is a very personal look at the Iraq War through the eyes of war hero Chris Kyle and his family. The emotional toll on them was immense; he suffered post traumatic stress, and familial withdrawal, etc. Realizing he could lose his family, he opted for therapy to heal his war wounds. Part of his healing process included counseling and lending a helping hand to other returning war veterans, which eventually cost him his life in February of 2013.
Eastwood was the perfect director for American Sniper, and in this writer’s opinion the film certainly deserves the best picture nod. It is rife with just the right amounts of humor, pathos, and spine-tingling adventure. Bradley Cooper and Sienna Miller were absolutely great as Chris and Taya Kyle. Their performances rang a crystal clear truth of people conflicted, torn by war with duties to country, to family, and ultimately to themselves. There is also a quick glimpse of the same type of conflict on the other side between Mustafa and his wife, as he is taking off to have a go at Kyle for the last time. There is no dialogue, but the body language between the two speaks volumes. Cooper’s performance in this picture has garnered him his third Oscar nomination in a row. 87 years earlier, the Best Actor Oscar was presented to Emil Jannings at the first Academy Awards ceremony at the Hollywood Roosevelt. This Sunday night we shall see how Bradley Cooper, Clint Eastwood, and American Sniper fare at the Dolby Theater when the envelopes are opened.