Theme
The main theme in the movie is war. The American Soldiers are sent to Iraq to eliminate terrorists who plan attacks on the American citizens. This theme has received controversies since some people think it is promoting violence. The war theme is aimed at making the viewers understand the hardships soldiers go through during wars in Iraq.
Dramatic structure
Spiritual Content
Chris, the soldier is a Christian since he says he believes in God, family and his country. He further says that he is ready to stand before the creator and answer for all the shots he took. He also carries his Bible with him wherever he goes and has a tattoo of a cross on his arms. We therefore get to understand Chris as a believer who believes in Christianity and God.
Positive And Negative Elements
When Chris was still a small boy, his father told him that in this world, the different kinds of people are sheepdogs, wolves and sheep. Chris therefore grows up believing that he is a sheepdog, which is why after coming back home after the war, a councilor tells him that his sheepdog days are not over, but his time to be on duty is over. This encourages him to act as mentor to upcoming soldiers. Throughout the movie, he acts selfless due to the sheepdog nature he has. This explains why he is not willing to go back home unless the war is over since he believes that if the war continues, the Americans will continue dying for no reason. The negative elements in the movie are not many. It is only the fact that the soldiers go to war with vehicles that have the skull of a gun-brandishing Marvel superhero known as Punisher.
Violent Content
In the movie there is a terrorist popularly known by the people of Iraq as Butcher. The man murders a boy in cold blood by drilling through his head because his father had given information about the terrorist to the soldiers. The soldiers also get into a restaurant that has human heads sand body parts stored. Chris also kills the terrorists in cold blood by shooting them. One of the soldiers is shot in the head and dies on the spot while another one still shot bleeds to death. There are more deaths that occur due to grenades and fire fights and there is a scene where a car runs over a dead body. Apart from the violence in the war, violence is also brought out in some scenes back home. Chris pins a dog to the ground to beat it for trying to attack a child in a backyard party. He also puts someone in a headlock and shoots a snake during the training. There is also violence when children fight on the playground and when a man throws dart on another man's back.
Drug And Alcohol Content
Chruis and his brother spend time having many bottles of beer. After Chris wedding, he and his SEAL friends drink and pour champagne and they have beer too. When Chris met his wife for the first time at a bar, he had taken some beers before she arrived and they get into a shots contest together.
Point of view
The movie is generally a war film based on a story about a soldier called Chris, a legendary sniper in the American army. The soldier is taught how to shoot by his father on a hunting trip when he was still a small boy. He is motivated to join the US army when he sees a bombing incident on the television. He goes for SEAL training and is later recruited as a sniper in the US Navy SEAL. This is to bring out a character trait of patriotism exercised by Chris in that he is willing to die for his country in order to stop terrorism. On his first mission to Iraq, he shoots a woman and child after which he earns the name Legend. Although this is a heroic action according to his friends, he feels bad after doing it which portrays him as being human. He goes for three other missions whereby the third one is prompted by guilt of losing his colleagues. In this mission he eliminates the target hence blowing the cover of the other soldiers which leads to a heavy exchange of gunshots between the terrorists and the soldiers. He calls his wife and tells her that he is ready to come home. He goes back home and confesses to his psychiatrist that he is haunted by the colleagues he could not save. This further brings out the human side of him and brings him out as a soldier who cares about the well-being of the other soldiers in his team. Years later he goes with a veteran for a shooting expenditure where the movie ends explaining that Chris died that day after being killed by a veteran who he was trying to help. Although this is a sad ending, it brings out a happy ending for the soldier since he dies helping another veteran. The scene when he is being killed is not, however, shown in order to create suspense and make the viewers try to picture out how he would have died.
Other Features
The movie is an American based film whose main color is soft and bright. The camera work of the movie is done by Tom Stern who brings out the scenes clearly for viewers to see. It is for this reason that the movie was nominated to a picture award. The costuming is also relevant to the scenes where soldiers dress appropriately for war. The movie has been edited several times before the final copy was produced so as to eliminate the irrelevant scenes. One of the edited scenes was one showing Chris being gunned down by troubled ex-veteran. This scene was dropped when Chris's widow insisted it should be removed. The music in the movie is aimed at bringing out emotions in the scenes. The design of art of the film revolves around war scenes, weapons and the American flag which generally rhymes with the story. A low style of lighting was used in the movie to show the objects around the characters and the lines of the characters. This in return influenced the mood of the characters in real life situation. Due to the lighting the soldiers appear to be in Iraq. We can therefore conclude that the lighting played a great long in making the movie look realistic which the aim of every movie.
Works Cited
Kyle, Chris. "American Sniper (2014)." 2014. Web. 31 May 2015.
