American Sniper (Blu-ray + DVD + UltraViolet)

Blu-Ray Reviews | May 26th, 2015

American Sniper Blu-Ray Review

Starring: Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller, Luke Grimes, Kyle Gallner, Sam Jaeger, Jake McDorman, Cory Hardrict
Written By: Jason Hall
Directed By: Clint Eastwood
Studio: Warner Bros
Buy On Amazon.com

Clint Eastwood’s latest movie is the acclaim and box office hit American Sniper. Fake baby aside, the movie is a good military drama even though you might know the outcome of it. While it addresses PTSD towards the end of the film, I thought maybe the film should have focused more on that.

The movie is based on the real life of Navy Seal sniper Chris Kyle (Bradley Cooper), who became one of the deadliest marksman in the military after completing 4 tours in Iraq. Chris Kyle grows up in Texas and eventually decides to enlist in the Navy, and later on gets accepted into the Navy Seals. Chris meets Taya (Sienna Miller) and down the road marries her and starts a family with her. He’s sent to Iraq soon after the September 11 attacks. He quickly makes a name for himself and becomes legendary with his sniper kills. Everytime he comes back from Iraq, he’s still concerned for what’s happening over there and what has happened while he was over in Iraq. It begins to affect him and his family greatly.

I didn’t know much about Chris Kyle besides what happened recently. So tragic and sad. Based on what I read, some things were changed in the movie from his memoir for dramatic effect. There wasn’t a character called The Butcher and his first kill over in Iraq wasn’t a mother and her children carrying grenades. With these type of real-life stories, most of them are going to be loosely based to make them more exciting or dramatic. If another director had done this movie, I bet they would have focused more on Chris’ PTSD and veterans that come home from the war.

Besides how recent some of these events in the movie are, American Sniper doesn’t really stand out too much compared to other military movies. There’s definitely your fair share of intense action, but there’s also other stuff happening back home that mixes into the drama as well. Kyle gets more and more enwrapped with his military duties and has a hard time of being a good husband and Father. I’ve seen it happen in other military movies and TV series so its not something new, but just seems fresher. Maybe the stature of Clint Eastwood and Bradley Cooper’s performance elevated this movie above some of the war/military movies from the past?

The Blu-Ray contains 2 featurettes, give or take a half hour each. They talk about the Kyle’s life before and after his book, his untimely death, and other movie production things. Both featurettes give you a little insight into the making of the movie and worth your time if you enjoyed American Sniper.

American Sniper is good, I just don’t know if its as good as other war/military movies & mini-series. Band of Brothers is still, by far, my favorite military mini-series/TV show/movie of all time.

Features

One Soldier’s Story: The Journey of “American Sniper”
Join director Clint Eastwood, cast and crew as they overcome enormous creative and logistic obstacles to bring the truth of Navy SEAL Chris Kyle’s story to the screen.
The Making of American Sniper

Video
Widescreen 2.40:1 Color (Anamorphic)

Audio
Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1
English DTS-HD MA 7.1
French DTS-HD MA 7.1

Bottom Line: Another interesting and good military/war drama from Clint Eastwood
Running Time: 134 mins
Rating: R
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating:

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