One of my favourite things about going to the cinema is watching the trailers. Does that sound silly? I know I can easily watch as many as I like on IMDB, but it’s kind of a game trying to guess which trailers will have been picked for a particular audience. There’s one trailer from the end of last year that I’ll never forget, mainly because I genuinely forgot to breathe whilst watching it!
American Sniper is the real-life story of Navy SEAL Chris Kyle (Bradley Cooper) who was a legendary sniper in the war in Iraq. Chris was nothing more than a ‘wannabe’ cowboy until he reached his thirties, when he decided he should do something to express his talent, and help his country which he loved so much. That’s when he joined the SEALs as a sniper and began his first tour in Iraq. Once home, he struggled with normal life and the weight of his conscious.
I hope I can do this film justice with this post, but I have to admit I’m completely out of my depth here. I recall Chris Kyle’s name being in the news and the reason why, but that’s as much as I know. War films have never interested me either, but as I said, the trailer took my breath away, and I’ve been dying to see more of Bradley Cooper since seeing him in Silver Linings Playbook.
American Sniper had me gripped from start to finish. I quickly realised the trailer I remembered so well was simply 2 minutes of footage from the start of the film, and so I was going in blind for the rest of the duration. Good lord, I could barely recognise Bradley Cooper at first, he really beefed up for that role! I just read he had to eat 8,000 calories a day (and work out of course) to prepare, and that made me feel a little ill. He really is on top form in this film, in every single way!
There were plenty more heart stopping moments, the sniping scenes especially, and I thought there was a perfect balance between the scenes at war and the scenes at home. Can I be ‘that guy’ for a minute though? I don’t think I’ve ever seen a faker baby in a film before, seriously! Although, I read that they used a real baby to begin with which was sick on someone, so I might just forgive it for that right there.
All in all, I’m so glad I watched American Sniper. It was a breathtaking and heartwarming film, and it’s opened my eyes to what really goes on behind the news reports I read.
The trailers are pretty much the best part of every film! I understand! My fellow moviegoers in the southern U.S. basically ate any chance I had of liking this film, as a result of their obsession and praise for it. However, I agree that the trailer was brilliant!
ReplyDeleteI was lucky. I, too, am from the Southern U.S., but I was able to see this the day it opened. I got to it before all the praise came out and all the negative bullshit started flying, and I have yet to notice a "fake baby". It's a solid War film (coming from a guy who has seen quite a few) classically-made, and it's a good human interest story as well. I was quite taken with it and put it on my list of the Ten Best of 2015. I was "gripped" too, Allie. Good review!
Delete