El francotirador

Cooper apunta alto, quiere reconocimiento y premios Oscar. Y a Eastwood lo convenció con una remuneración bien alta. De lo contrario, Clint no la habría hecho, el guión no ofrecería tanto espacio para su talento narrativo (las escenas emocionales con su esposa las hubiera hecho bien cualquier otro actor). La simplicidad y la franqueza de la película, que no aporta nada nuevo y se basa únicamente en el potencial de la vida real del verdadero Chris Kyle, es agradable (la película cautiva sin imponer mayores exigencias al espectador), pero debido al uso de todo tipo de clichés y la ausencia de peculiaridad (de la que disponía la similar En tierra hostil), no puede aspirar a ningún Oscar. A menos que la Academia sea capaz de admitir que se trata más de política que de películas. La escena de acción central (Butcher + taladro + chico) magistralmente editada. Pero la otra mitad necesita acortar. (17.02.2015)

Odporná propaganda mierda. Me atrevería a afirmar que los compañeros de la escuela primaria que no pudieron completar ni nueve grados, se darían cuenta de que está completamente sesgado. Espero que Clint Eastwood se haya sentado con McCain y otros republicanos locos, se hayan abrazado, se hayan agarrado el corazón y suspirado, diciendo que los estadounidenses son los mayores héroes, luchadores y leyendas que piensan bien del mundo y difunden la democracia. Para mí, definitivamente no es un héroe alguien que mató a ciento sesenta personas, bajo cualquier circunstancia. Para mí, los héroes son Médicos Sin Fronteras, personas que intentan corregir o eliminar los horrores de la guerra, no aquellos que los crean. Esta basura cliché, donde puedes silenciar el sonido y doblar las líneas de los personajes, no vale la pena ver, y mucho menos ganar algún premio. El francotirador estadounidense es incluso peor que el aburrido Foxcatcher. Cada vez pierdo más la motivación para ver estas películas nominadas al Oscar, porque una es peor que la otra. Hasta ahora, solo Grand Hotel Budapest y Código Enigma se mantienen como dignas de honor. (17.02.2015)

Eastwood's precise shot, which is likely to be mistaken for pathos when defending the American way of thinking, stands out above all. This is due to the fact that, despite a significant part of the runtime being spent on the battlefield, it manages to retain a civilian atmosphere, rather giving Kyle's extraordinary "skill" lip service because, at his core, the protagonist remains that pure American redneck who, in Cooper's excellent, paunchy Texan delivery, blathers on about defending the country, and yet you know he means it with unapologetic sincerity; its length and the empty brothers storyline are the only things that the film can be faulted for. Even J. Edgar wanted to look like this. (18.01.2015)

Biography of the sniper from Texas, Chris Kyle, who had about 150 kills scratched into his rifle stock. Eastwood has become a hitmaker in his latter years (90 million views over one weekend!) and a very moderate war movie director. Not so many kills as such, they are restrained, realistic and not even Kyle is counting (he’s so cool). Probably because we all know what a farce Iraq was, there’s no delving into politics. Simply a classic pursuit movie with ragheads with a polite duel going on in the background. The picture pretends that sniping itself isn’t playing the main role, but in fact it’s a conflict with Mustafa and the hunt for Butcher that help the viewer differentiate between the separate tours. The classic development of the Navy Seals and is all too familiar, thank you very much Eastwood for presenting it in more entertaining form. Cooper is very convincing in his transformation from man to robot and back again, at crucial moments he doesn’t act like a hero, but like a psychopath. His dead soul is visible in his cold blue eyes (that’s why Kyle wears sunglasses almost all the time). Movies like Hurt Locker don’t have this, that’s probably why this movie works much better. Emotions come across artificial, but on the other hand the finale works well, sad, even though the main message becomes a little blurred. P.S.: I’m a great fan of the Punisher, so I seriously enjoyed the scene about the “graphic novel". The armor and magazines with the skull stencil looked damn good. Hooyah! (19.01.2015)

The film is divided into two parts. One takes place in Iraq and the other in the homeland. Leaving aside the fact that Bradley Cooper plays his role with absolute precision, I must add that everything else is just plain wrong. There is very little going on in Iraq. There are a few key scenes here, but that’s definitely not enough for a good film. Take the first scene, for example. It is a masterpiece in and of itself. However, the two parts intersect in the most suspenseful moment and suddenly Clint makes a cutto the protagonist’s past life in the States. The tension rapidly drops and we’re left with no choice but to watch why Chris left for Iraq to begin with. After a while, the pace picks up and you suddenly realize this movie has zero emotion. Chris is in America, then in Iraq, then returns to America and ends up in Iraq again. All of this with no emotions, unlike in Hurt Locker which worked pretty well in this respect. Here I had a problem watching it to the end. Simply put, I was disappointed. I expected American Sniper to be something in the vein of contemporary war films such as Hurt Locker or Jarhead, but what I got was a completely routine job, which engages neither with its story nor with the locations. (06.02.2015)