American Sniper Film Analysis

Steel Magnolias is a great movie of love, laughter, and tears. It features six strong-willed woman who "are the Steel Magnolias of the tittle…” as Roger Ebert says. The women dealt with many set backs in life, but no matter what they kept their southern grace and charm in tact at all times. In the film one of the main set backs is Shelby, one of the “Steel Magnolias” (Julia Roberts), fighting with diabetes. Shelby’s diabetes is so bad she’s not supposed to have children due to the strains it would put on her body. Although there is a risk and against her mother’s will Shelby is determined to go though with the pregnancy. In the movie Shelby must choose between having a baby, which is one of the greatest moments in a woman’s life, or

The 1946 film The Killers is a renowned film noir based off of Ernest Hemingway’s short story of the same title, focusing on the detailed backstory and investigation for the motive of the murder of Pete Lund/Ole Anderson, commonly known and referred to as “The Swede.” A film noir is a term made originally to describe American mystery and thriller movies produced in the time period from 1944-1954, primarily marked by moods of menace, pessimism, and fatalism. Although the film does not focus on the war itself at all, it still puts forth interesting new ways in how gender relations can be stereotypical as well as divergent proceeding the Second World War.

U.S. Navy SEAL ,Chris Kyle was just the average die hard Texan. He aspired to become a cowboy, but it wasn’t working out in his favor. After seeing the horrors of terrorism on 9/11 he was ready to fight for his country and enlisted into the military. He goes on to fight in four tours and becomes the deadliest sniper in American history. After each tour, he felt that he had to go back. He had two goals that he couldn’t give up on; protecting his team and taking out the deadliest enemy sniper, Mustafa. Chris would not stop until he achieved his goals, when he finally did, he faced a new battle. He struggled with normal daily life, but even then he persevered and found a new passion to aid him. Throughout this film, Clint Eastwood portrays the theme of perseverance through the use of setting, camera angles, and the main character Chris Kyle.

When it comes to the theme heroism, there are several movies based off of this particular theme. There is a wide variety of war movies based on this theme, but the one in particular that portrays the theme of heroism the best is the film “American Sniper”. American Sniper portrays this theme in a way that no other war movie has done before. This film was directed by Clint Eastwood and aired in the year 2014. The film, American Sniper generally follows a U.S. Navy Seal named Chris Kyle, he was named the best marksman in the U.S. history and he was credited with over Two Hundred and Fifty-Five kills, even though he was a father, and a spouse he still served a total of four years over in Iraq.

Film noir is a famous era of filmmaking that defined the cinematic experience in Hollywood for a whole decade. No film can correctly represent such a influential cinematic era like Gun Crazy directed by Joseph H. Lewis. Gun Crazy is a unique expression of film noir of the 1950s that utilizes many cinematic elements in unparalleled ways to tell its story in a distinct fashion. Lewis uses cinematic techniques such as lighting, composition, editing, music, and mise-en-scene of the opening sequence to establish the tone and character motivations of the story.

The Sniper, written by Liam O’Flaherty, is a story about a Republican sniper in the Irish civil war in 1922. This story tells of a night spent on a roof looking for the enemy, the Free-Staters. In this short description of the nights events, the sniper kills 3 people; a soldier, an informer, and finally an enemy sniper on the roof across the road from him. In the end this enemy sniper turns out to be the republicans brother. This story shows the the specific characteristics a sniper must have to carry out their duty. A key moment in this text which influenced the sniper is the Civil war itself.

The Patriot. A person who is willing to fight for their country against enemies. The Patriot begins in the year 1776 in the colony of South Carolina. Mel Gibson plays a planation farmer who fought in the French-Indian war named Benjamin Martin. A War was about to begin and Benjamin wanted no share partaking in the soon-to-be American Revolutionary War. He was more concerned about his two eldest sons who wanted to fight under General George Washington. The beginning of the movie starts out with Benjamin Martin peacefully living with his kids whom no longer have a living mother. Benjamin’s oldest son, Gabriel, joins the war without permission from his father. As the rest of the family are at home one afternoon, Colonel William Travington burns the Martin Plantation to the ground and his second oldest son was killed immediately for interrupting Travington’s plan. Benjamin finds a way to seek revenge because of the rage he experiences after his family is hurt. He begins to realize that he needs to fight for his children and he will not do it alone. Both Benjamin and his oldest son, Gabriel, decide to join the militia as a way of showing what they are capable of. Throughout the film, Benjamin Martin becomes a soldier whom others respect and admire. He shows the militia what it means to truly care for not only his men, but also for his family. As the film progresses, a turn of events take place that show Benjamin’s continued want of revenge against General Charles Cornwallis. The Continentals and the militia soon commence the battle at Cowpens. This is when Benjamin Martin meets his enemy, Travington, who murdered his two eldest sons. After a drawn-out battle, Benjamin stabs Travington in the neck and kills him for the sake of his children. It is then that General Cornwallis retreats his forces and the rest celebrate. Even though some portions of The Patriot aren’t as accurate as we perceive, it is a film full of war and despair, but also a film that contributes to the importance of dignity and the love for one’s family.

Die Hard, a film directed by John McTiernan, successfully utilized several aesthetics, which offered viewers various meanings throughout the duration of the film. Although the diverse meanings grasped by viewers may differ, it was clear to me that McTiernan effectively applied elements of cinematography and mise-en-scene that resulted in viewers being allowed to interpret a range of different meanings or functions of the elements.

The movie Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy is based in the 1970s. It depicts the highly male dominated broadcast team and shows the shake up when a woman is hired as a reporter and has aspirations of becoming an anchor the television station. The particular scene shows Ron Burgundy is flustered because Veronica Coringstone is impeding on his masculinity. Burgundy exemplifies hegemonic masculinity by explaining he is a man and a professional, when Coringstone says he his acting like a baby he takes offense and explains he is a man and he his ultimately better than a women because indeed he is a man. Burgundy states, “'I’m a man who discovered the wheel, and built the Eiffel Tower out of metal and brawn. That's what kind of man I am.

“The Mission” is a film that gives a historically accurate depiction of the events that took place in South America around 1750, displaying the jesuit missions and their attempt at expanding missionary ventures in the area. These missions foresaw the Jesuits going to uncharted areas of the jungle inhabited by the Guarani people, demonstrating the significance assimilating the Guarani people meant to the Jesuits. Additionally, the Guarani people were accurately displayed as a self-sustained society where basic components such as: productivity, protection, justice regulations and a form of a leader was evident in the form of their King. Nonetheless, the Guarani were an isolated group of individuals who were secluded to the outside world; their only contact with outside personnelles were slave traders who would put them into forced slavery for personal benefits. Not to mention the “Treaty of Madrid”, which resulted in the social and political disputes between the, Portuguese, Spanish and Catholic community; manifesting in the form of territorial conflicts and misunderstandings amongst the three vigorous societies, where each have a different purpose for the Guarani people.

Liam O’Flaherty is an Irish author who focuses his writings during the time of the Irish Civil War. Along with “The Sniper,” O’Flaherty’s novel The Informer is also based in Dublin in the 1920’s during the Irish Civil War. In this story, the theme is that war dehumanizes individuals that partake in the action. The style is straightforward and easy to understand and the point of view is third person.

The film, American Gangster, directed and produced by Ridley Scott is a drama based on the biography of Frank Lucas. In the movie, Frank Lucas constructs his own business of illegal work after his boss, Bumpy Johnson, passes away. Frank builds a heroin business, following in the footsteps of Bumpy, and becomes the most powerful crime boss in Manhattan. Furthermore, because of Frank’s immoral ways, he gets caught by the police and is sentenced to 15 years in prison. As the movie progresses I form a couple assumptions of what could happen in the short term and long term. First off, when Frank Lucas attains his heroin I believe that in the short term he will succeed. Frank has established a vast amount of insights into the drug business from Bumpy, and from what he has learned he will take in and apply it to his situation. However, all immoral acts will have to be put to an end, so in the long term, Frank’s heroin business will be caught. If Frank’s business is the biggest thing in Manhattan then the police are bound to question where are all the illegal drugs coming from, how, why, and who. The police were already hunting him down so it was inevitable for him to get out of his illegal mess.

1. What is the true subject or the theme of the film, and What kind of statement, if any, does the film make about the subject? Which elements and which themes contributed most to addressing the theme of the film?

Based on a true story, the movie ‘Lone Survivor’ features four Navy SEALs that set out on a mission to Afghanistan with orders to capture and kill Taliban leader Ahmad Shah. The Navy SEALS are detected by villagers and the mission was compromised. Ultimately, the mission had been discovered and the men found themselves surrounded by dozens of Taliban soldiers. One of the Navy SEAL soldiers managed to dispatch to base and retrieve assistance but the Taliban shoot down the helicopter. During battle, three of the Navy SEAL soldiers were killed leaving one still alive.

The movie The Patriot takes place in South Carolina in 1776. The colonies were tired of paying taxes and all of this from England. They decided to go to war and fight for independence. This movie is mainly about how a farmer named Benjamin Franklin lived in South Carolina and the British brutally murdered his second oldest son right in front of his family then later the same person Col. Travingston kills Benjamin’s oldest son Gabriel. Due to this he joins the militia in order for justice of his sons. At first he wants nothing to do with it but once his sons were murdered he wanted revenge. The Patriot was about the American Revolution, the Patriot militia fighting against loyalists in the south. The film was mainly about Benjamin Martin’s family and fighting for liberty against England. They did show us about the war and them fighting in it but it was mainly about Martins’ life. They did show us them fighting in the war and how they would line up and fight in the war but they didn’t show us enough.