American Sniper [Blu-ray]

Overview

Biopic of Chris Kyle (Bradley Cooper), the most-celebrated sniper in American military history. In the aftermath of 9/11, Kyle decides to serve his country by becoming a Navy SEAL. But with each tour of duty, he grows more detached from his wife and children. As the story opens, we meet carefree brothers Chris and Jeff (Keir O'Donnell) as they work the Texas rodeo circuit. They're cowboys through and through, and despite being notably older than the usual enlistee, Chris pays a visit to his local recruitment office and decides to become a Navy SEAL. Later, at the firing range, he draws on his hunting lessons with his stern father to become an expert marksman. A booze-fueled barroom chat with pretty brunette Taya (Sienna Miller) soon leads to wedding bells, and following the terrorist attacks of 9/11, Kyle is deployed to Iraq for his first tour of duty. There, his reputation as a sniper who never misses makes him a legend among his fellow troops, and earns him the moniker "The Devil of Ramadi" from his enemies. With a substantial bounty on his head, Kyle makes it his personal mission to take out a sadistic Iraqi soldier known as "The Butcher," as well as an elusive enemy marksman with a skill to rival his own. The closer he gets to achieving his goals during repeat tours of duty, however, the more fellow soldiers he sees die, and the further he drifts from Taya and their two children back home. It all leads up to a tense rooftop gunfight in a raging sandstorm -- one that convinces the sniper once and for all to make his family his top priority. Unfortunately, all is not well as Kyle struggles to make the transition back to civilian life, but he discovers that helping his fellow veterans is an effective way to do good and make peace with his wartime experiences.

Product Details

Release Date:	05/19/2015
UPC:	0883929450343
Original Release:	2014
Source:	Warner Home Video
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	2:12:00
Sales rank:	17,678

Special 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

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Bradley Cooper	Chris Kyle
Sienna Miller	Taya,Navy Recruiter
Luke Grimes	Marc Lee
Kyle Gallner	Goat-Winston
Ben Reed	Wayne Kyle
Elise Robertson	Debbie Kyle
Luke Sunshine	Young Jeff Kyle
Troy Vincent	Pastor
Brandon Salgado Telis	Bully
Keir O'Donnell	Jeff Kyle
Marnette Patterson	Sarah
Jason Hall	Cowboy
Leonard Roberts	Instructor Rolle
Jason Walsh	Instructor #2
Rey Gallegos	Tony
Kevin Lacz	Dauber
Jake McDorman	Biggles
Eric Ladin	"Squirrel"/Case
Brando Eaton	Dapper Navy Guy
James Ryen	PO Karnan
Jonathan Kowalsky	1st Marine #2
Shane Habberstad	1st Marine #1
Kevin Ryan	Marine Viper #4
Evan Gamble	JAG Officer #1
Benjamin Mathes	JAG Officer #2
Tim Griffin	Colonel Gronski
Luis Jose Lopez	Sanchez
Brian Hallisay	Capt. Gillespie
Erik Aude	Thompson
Jad Mhidi Senhaji	Omar
Navid Negahban	Sheikh Al-Obodi
Fehd Benchemsi	Terp #1
Eric Close	DIA Agent Snead
Zack Duhame	Contractor
Mido Hamada	The Butcher
Kathe E. Mazur	Dr. Hallerman
Sam Jaeger	Navy Seal Lt. Martin
Chance Kelly	Lt. Col Jones
Ryan Sadaghiani	Son
Ayman Samman	Father
Assaf Cohen	Terp #2
Fahim Fazli	Messianic Tribal Leader
Salah Salea	Angry Neighbor
Hector Bucio	PFC Alvarez
Aidan McGraw	Young Colton,McKenna
Jonathan Groff	Young VetMads
Melissa Hayden	Receptionist
Ferguson Reid	Navy Doctor
Mark Thomason	Chaplain
Pamela Denise Weaver	Marc Lee's Mom
Amie Farrell	Marc Lee's Wife
Quay Terry	Firing Party NCO
James Dever	Funeral Detail OIC
Tami Goveia	Navy Nurse
Leon Charles Farmer	Marine Gate Guard #1
Paul Meixner	Marine Gate Guard #2
Victoria Reina Sigloch	Marine Gate Guard #3
Joel Lambert	Delta Sniper
Owain Yeoman	Ranger One
Tony Nevada	Recon Sniper
Brett Edwards	Recon Gunner
Nick Salter	Navy Dispatch Officer
Ricky Ryba	Cobra Pilot
Greg Duke	MRAP Gunner
Max Charles	Colton
Jet Jurgensmeyer	Colton's Friend
Elizabeth Schmidt	Boy's Mom
Robert Clotworthy	VA Doctor
Bryan Anderson	Wynn's Friend
Jacob Schick	Wynn
Wade White	Veteran #1
Anthony Jennings	Veteran #2
Vincent Selhorst-Jones	Jones-Veteran at Truck
Cory Hardrict	"D"/Dandridge
Clint Eastwood	Actor
Bruce Berman	Actor
Sheroum Kim	Actor
Chris Kyle	Actor
Andrew Lazar	Actor
Robert Lorenz	Actor
Jessica Meier	Actor
Steven Mnuchin	Actor
Tim Moore	Actor
Peter Morgan	Actor
Kristina Rivera	Actor
Brad Abrell	September 11th Newscaster
Katia Peel	Little Boy
Haley Powell	Kid
Sammy Sheik	Mustafa

Technical Credits

Jason Hall

Chris Kyle

Clint Eastwood	Director,Producer
Jason Hall	Screenwriter,Executive Producer
Andrew Lazar	Producer
Bradley Cooper	Producer
Robert Lorenz	Producer
Bruce Berman	Executive Producer,Producer
Sheroum Kim	Executive Producer,Producer
Tim Moore	Executive Producer,Production Manager
Alan Robert Murray	Sound Editor
Bub Asman	Sound Editor
John T. Reitz	Sound Mixer
Gregg Rudloff	Sound Mixer
Walt Martin	Sound Mixer
Hunter Berk	Sound Effects
Blake Collins	Sound Effects
Steven Mnuchin	Executive Producer,Producer
Chris Kyle	Producer,Screenwriter
Jessica Meier	Producer
Kristina Rivera	Producer
Joe Montenegro	Special Effects
Scott Roark	Special Effects
Richard Schwalm	Special Effects
Tom von Badinski	Special Effects
Younes Afroukh	Stunts
Andrew Amani	Stunts
Mohamed Attougui	Stunts
Hami Belal	Stunts
Tarik Belmekki	Stunts
Matt Berberi	Stunts
Damien Bray	Stunts
Max Daniels	Stunts
Eyad Elbitar	Stunts
Garrett Hammond	Stunts
Abraham Justice	Stunts
Antal Kalik	Stunts
Panuvat Anthony Nanakornpanom	Stunts
Peter Morgan	Producer
Lenny Dalrymple	Special Effects
Vance VanBoxtel Jr.	Special Effects
Marc Banich	Special Effects
Ryan Senecal	Special Effects
Michael Kay	Special Effects
Javier Lomeli	Special Effects
Alan Roberts	Special Effects
Jake Valdez	Special Effects
Nathaniel Acord	Special Effects
Geoffrey MiClat	Casting
Thomas VonBadinski	Special Effects
Matt O'Dell	Special Effects
Tom Ozanich	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

Looking back at the legacy of war films in American cinema, it's easy to feel as though the definitive story of U.S. involvement in the Middle East remains untold. Yes, David O. Russell's Three Kings managed to expose the absurdity and greed surrounding the Persian Gulf War, and Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker explored the psychological toll that continued service can have on a soldier. But 13 years after 9/11, our inability to grasp the larger sociopolitical ramifications of these ongoing conflicts has made it difficult to paint a picture of their ultimate impact. In American Sniper, director Clint Eastwood offers an intimate portrait of a sharpshooting patriot who discovers that his personal demons are greater than he suspected. As a character study, the film works more often than not, thanks in large part to Bradley Cooper's tightly wound performance as real-life sniper Chris Kyle. Still, with the better portion of American Sniper's running time devoted to Kyle's combat experiences rather than his personal struggles to overcome PTSD and help his fellow soldiers after he returns home, the movie feels like something of a missed opportunity -- despite the fact that Eastwood largely manages to sidestep the jingoism of something like Lone Survivor, a film that seemed content to function as a simple action flick instead of using its situation as a launching point to examine more pressing issues. As the story opens, we meet carefree brothers Chris (Cooper) and Jeff (Keir O'Donnell) as they work the Texas rodeo circuit. They're cowboys through and through, and despite being notably older than the usual enlistee, Chris pays a visit to his local recruitment office and decides to become a Navy SEAL. Later, at the firing range, he draws on his hunting lessons with his stern father to become an expert marksman. A booze-fueled barroom chat with pretty brunette Taya (Sienna Miller) soon leads to wedding bells, and following the terrorist attacks of 9/11, Kyle is deployed to Iraq for his first tour of duty. There, his reputation as a sniper who never misses makes him a legend among his fellow troops, and earns him the moniker "The Devil of Ramadi" from his enemies. With a substantial bounty on his head, Kyle makes it his personal mission to take out a sadistic Iraqi soldier known as "The Butcher," as well as an elusive enemy marksman with a skill to rival his own. The closer he gets to achieving his goals during repeat tours of duty, however, the more fellow soldiers he sees die, and the further he drifts from Taya and their two children back home. It all leads up to a tense rooftop gunfight in a raging sandstorm -- one that convinces the sniper once and for all to make his family his top priority. Unfortunately, all is not well as Kyle struggles to make the transition back to civilian life, but he discovers that helping his fellow veterans is an effective way to do good and make peace with his wartime experiences. Anyone who's familiar with Eastwood's work knows that he's an unapologetically earnest storyteller with a fondness for war movies, so his decision to tell the tale of "the most lethal sniper in U.S. history" feels like a logical progression after his WWII features Flags of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima, and a trio of biographical dramas that include Invictus, J. Edgar, and Jersey Boys. Unfortunately, following the success of Gran Torino, it seems as though Eastwood has gotten so caught up in churning out films that he's forgotten how to engage an audience. Despite being effective on a purely visceral level, American Sniper focuses too much on combat sequences and too little on their repercussions to be an effective meditation on the personal toll of war. Also detracting from the movie's intimacy is the fact that it's often difficult to keep track of Chris' war buddies, and Jeff Kyle vanishes from the story entirely after a disturbing encounter with his brother that raises more questions than it answers. As a result, American Sniper never achieves greatness. It chooses to focus, somewhat less effectively, on the themes previously explored in Bigelow's aforementioned Oscar triumph, while giving two-time nominee Cooper another shot at a little gold statue. Physically imposing and emotionally distant as the film's unapologetically patriotic subject, Cooper does his best to provide some emotional gravity to Jason Hall's flawed screenplay. Perhaps if the writing talent were there to back Cooper and Eastwood up, American Sniper could have been the movie that brought the toll of the War on Terror home. Instead, it's simply a harrowing reminder that, for many soldiers, the struggle still continues long after they've left the battlefield.