American Sniper

Theatrical Release Date: 2014 12 25 (USA - Limited) / 2015 01 16 (USA)

UPC: 883929450343

Studio: Warner Home Video

Summary: 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.
~ Jeremy Wheeler, Rovi

Category: War

Awards: Best Director – National Board of Review Best Picture – National Board of Review Best Adapted Screenplay – Writers Guild of America Best Producer – Producers Guild of America Best Producer – Producers Guild of America Best Producer – Producers Guild of America Best Producer – Producers Guild of America Best Producer – Producers Guild of America Best Director – Directors Guild of America Best Sound Mixing – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Picture – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Editing – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Sound Mixing – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Picture – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Picture – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Picture – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Editing – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Sound Mixing – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Adapted Screenplay – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Picture – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Actor – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Music Documentary Award – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Sound – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Sound – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Sound – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Adapted Screenplay – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Sound – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Sound – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Sound Editing – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Sound Editing – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

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

American Sniper

Format: Blu-ray

Release Date: 05/19/2015

Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1 2.40:1

Audio: DHMA, DD5.1 Dolby Digital 5.1

Runtime: 132 Minutes

Sides: 2

Number of Discs: 2

Language(s) English,French,Spanish

Subtitles: English,Spanish,French

Chapters: Disc #1 -- American Sniper
1. Scene 1 [10:14]
2. Scene 2 [8:41]
3. Scene 3 [9:30]
4. Scene 4 [10:36]
5. Scene 5 [11:52]
6. Scene 6 [9:08]
7. Scene 7 [7:49]
8. Scene 8 [9:45]
9. Scene 9 [11:00]
10. Scene 10 [8:40]
11. Scene 11 [8:32]
12. Scene 12 [8:46]
13. Scene 13 [9:28]
14. Scene 14 [8:25]
15. Scene 15

Jason Buchanan

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. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Clint Eastwood  Director 
Andrew Lazar  Producer 
Robert Lorenz  Producer 
Bruce Berman  Executive Producer 
Bradley Cooper  Producer 
Tim Moore  Executive Producer 
Peter Morgan  Producer 
Jason Hall  Executive Producer 
Jason Hall  Screenwriter 
Steven Mnuchin  Executive Producer 
Sheroum Kim  Executive Producer 
Bradley Cooper  Actor 
Luke Grimes  Actor 
Sienna Miller  Actor 
Kyle Gallner  Actor 
Ben Reed  Actor 
Elise Robertson  Actor 
Luke Sunshine  Actor 
Troy Vincent  Actor 
Brandon Salgado Telis  Actor 
Keir O'Donnell  Actor 
Marnette Patterson  Actor 
Jason Hall  Actor 
Billy Miller  Actor 
Leonard Roberts  Actor 
Jason Walsh  Actor 
Rey Gallegos  Actor 
Kevin Lacz  Actor 
Jake McDorman  Actor 
Cory C. Hardrict  Actor 
Eric Ladin  Actor 
Brando Eaton  Actor 
James Ryen  Actor 
Jonathan Kowalsky  Actor 
Shane Habberstad  Actor 
Sammy Sheik  Actor 
Kevin Ryan  Actor 
Evan Gamble  Actor 
Benjamin Mathes  Actor 
Tim Griffin  Actor 
Luis Jose Lopez  Actor 
Brian Hallisay  Actor 
Erik Aude  Actor 
Jad Mhidi Senhaji  Actor 
Navid Negahban  Actor 
Fehd Benchemsi  Actor 
Eric Close  Actor 
Zack Duhame  Actor 
Mido Hamada  Actor 
Kathe E. Mazur  Actor 
Sam Jaeger  Actor 
Chance Kelly  Actor 
Ryan Sadaghiani  Actor 
Ayman Samman  Actor 
Assaf Cohen  Actor 
Fahim Fazli  Actor 
Salah Salea  Actor 
Hector Bucio  Actor 
Aidan McGraw  Actor 
Jonathan Groff  Actor 
Melissa Hayden  Actor 
Ferguson Reid  Actor 
Mark Thomason  Actor 
Pamela Denise Weaver  Actor 
Amie Farrell  Actor 
Quay Terry  Actor 
James Dever  Actor 
Tami Goveia  Actor 
Leon Charles Farmer  Actor 
Paul Meixner  Actor 
Victoria Reina Sigloch  Actor 
Joel Lambert  Actor 
Owain Yeoman  Actor 
Tony Nevada  Actor 
Brett Edwards  Actor 
Nick Salter  Actor 
Ricky Ryba  Actor 
Greg Duke  Actor 
Max Charles  Actor 
Jet Jurgensmeyer  Actor 
Madeleine McGraw  Actor 
Elizabeth Schmidt  Actor 
Robert Clotworthy  Actor 
Bryan Anderson  Actor 
Jacob Schick  Actor 
Wade White  Actor 
Anthony Jennings  Actor 
Vincent Selhorst-Jones  Actor 

Country: USA