Clint Eastwood's work as director remains consistently energetic and surprising, although his movies are still over long. His choice of material was spot on for his skills - a sympathetic look at a sniper, that doesn't shy away from the psychological damage done by warfare. The action sequences are often suspenseful and exciting, particularly the first few. I do admit the law of diminishing returns set in after a while - it felt like one tour of Iraq too many (there are four sequences and I wish there'd been three); two friends are killed when only one was really needed; the final battle in particular fely vaguely anti-climactic.
Occasionally this is too Hollywood - phone call to the wife saying "I want to go home now" at the end (the Iraqis don't have that choice); the climax involving the "big game" with the Arab sniper; Sienna Miller's part is straight out of the sort of roles June Allyson played in the 1950s with a sexed up slant (most of the dialogue is "why are you never home" and "you're locking me out", "don't push me away"); if someone has too much dialogue and they're not Bradley Cooper you know they're going to be killed; Arab women just appear to wail and/or be assassins.
But I enjoyed it a lot - fantastic look, Cooper is excellent, Miller does sterling work despite her part, a supporting cast of mostly unfamiliar (to me) faces bring it home, the story is fascinating with that achingly poignant ending (I like the way they treated it), the scenes with fellow veterans are very moving, the action sequences grip. I'm aware this is a controversial movie but it was a very fine one.
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