Skip to main content

American Sniper vs. Unbroken

2014 was a good year for movies based on the lives of soldiers in the US military with remarkable lives.  Early on in the year, there was Lone Survivor starring Mark Wahlberg; a film that tells the story of Marcus Luttrell, a soldier in Afghanistan whose platoon was ambushed.  This film tells the story of Luttrell’s platoon and how he is the sole survivor from the attack.  At the end of the year, there were two films that I will focus on for this article, American Sniper starring Bradley Cooper and directed by Clint Eastwood, and Unbroken starring Jack O’Connell and directed by Angelina Jolie.  Both films portray soldier whom many people think of as heroes in their respective wars.

American Sniper
            American Sniper is the story of Chris Kyle, a Navy SEAL during the war in Iraq who served four tours there.  He became known as “the legend” among the Marines because of his record number of confirmed kills, over 160; making him the most lethal sniper in US military history.  Bradley Cooper delivers perhaps the strongest and most natural performance in his career.  In fact, for much of the film’s duration, I forgot that there was an actor portraying Chris Kyle. 
            Clint Eastwood directs this film incredibly well, but portrays only one side of the war in Iraq.  The film argues a compelling reason why the United States went to war and invaded Iraq in the first place without showing too many of the details.  The chronology of Kyle’s life in the military is the most important aspect of the film as well as the one focused on most. 
While many of the shots Kyle takes against insurgents are not shown, the ones that are shown can be rather disturbing, especially because some of them are against women and children.  People might find the film controversial because of Kyle’s portrayal.  Is he an American hero or a cold-hearted killer?  Personally, I believe he is an American hero who had a job full of really tough choices.  Yes he had to kill many people in order to execute his duties, but the question to ask is how much safer did he make this country?  How many terrorist attacks against American lives did he prevent and how many of his fellow soldiers did he save because of his actions? 

Unbroken
            Louis Zamperini was an Olympic athlete before he went to the military during WWII.  The film shows little of his upbringing in Torrance, California, but focuses mainly on his military life.  He went from being an athlete, to a soldier, to a survivor, to a prisoner of war.  On a mission, his plane crashes, killing much of the crew, but leaving him and two other survivors.  They are forced to stay on a raft for forty-seven days, until the Japanese find them afloat and rescue them.  They are immediately taken back to Japan where they are interned in a prisoner of war camp until the end of the war.  At this point in the film, the focus becomes less on Zamperini and more about the POW camps he goes to. 
            My biggest problem with the film is the lack of focus on Zamperini’s character.  Around the time in which he goes to the POW camp, the film begins to focus less on Zamperini and more on the camp as a whole; the people imprisoned there as well as the people who run the camp.  The story is a little unclear and bounces around up until this point as well.  It fails to give much detail about his home life growing up.  While some of it is shown, I would have liked to see a more chronological organization of the story instead of flashbacks. 
            Angelina Jolie perhaps is not the best director for this film.  Somebody like Steven Spielberg might have made this a far more inspiring and far more powerful film; something almost on the level of Saving Private Ryan.  The film is put together in a way that doesn’t make Louis Zamperini look like the hero he is in real life.  It is not the best tribute to a true American soldier. 

Conclusion

            Both of these films are entertaining, especially American Sniper.  If you’re looking simply to be entertained for a few hours, you can’t go wrong with it.  Unbroken is not nearly as good as it could have been.  Both films show a certain aspect of war that is particularly ugly, and that most of us will never have to experience.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Hunger Games

Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, and Liam Hemsworth Directed by: Gary Ross Screenplay by: Gary Ross and Suzanne Collins Based on the novel by Suzanne Collins      If reality television hasn't gone too far yet, then this show should definitely make it go too far.      In a futuristic nation called Panem, one boy and one girl are selected from each of the nation's twelve districts to represent them in an annual television event called the Hunger Games.  Of the 24 contestants, only one will survive in this televised fight to the death.      I like the concept of the story.  While this futuristic society seems somewhat simple, it does not seem all that well developed.  It is unknown how this society came into being, even though it is known how the Hunger Games began.      If this film were released last year, I would have hoped it would be nominated for best make-up.  Many of the characters look absolutely ridiculous and are way too flashy, but the make-up is v
2 comments
Read more

First Man

Starring: Ryan Gosling, Claire Foy, Jason Clarke, Kyle Chandler, and Corey Stoll Directed by: Damien Chazelle Screenplay by: Josh Singer Based on the book by James R. Hansen      Yes, this is the same director who did La La Land from a few years ago.  But this is a true story this time, and not necessarily a feel good one.      Many of us know about Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969.  First Man is not simply the story of the moon landing, but the story about Armstrong and what led him to be the first man in history to walk on the moon.  It's a story about making huge sacrifices for himself, and his family, in order to accomplish such a goal, as well as overcoming a great deal of grief.       The film focuses almost entirely on Neil (Ryan Gosling).  The film opens up on him as one of the premiere pilots in the military, piloting the X-15; a plane that was capable of flying over 100,000 feet altitude.  He is portrayed as
Post a Comment
Read more

Resident Evil: Afterlife

Starring Milla Jovovich and Ali Larter, and directed by Paul W.S. Anderson Resident Evil: Afterlife is a somewhat scary action thriller about a zombie dominated planet during present times. It's the fourth movie in the franchise. Alice (Jovovich) is the former head of security at the Umbrella Corporation, the company that created the T-Virus that accidentally escaped and turned everybody into zombies. She travels to Alaska to what she thinks is a small town called Arcadia, where there is supposedly a colony of survivors that are infection free. She is drawn by transmissions saying that they offer safety and security, food and shelter. When she arrives, nothing is there, but she picks up Claire Redfield (Larter) and travels to what once was Los Angeles where there is another colony of four survivors living atop a prison rooftop and surrounded by zombies. They find that the Arcadia is actually a ship just offshore. Can they make it to the ship? Milla Jovovich plays a very act
2 comments
Read more