American Sniper: The Chris Kyle Commemorative Edition [Blu-ray] [2014]

The quality and the presentation of the movie was excellent. It made me feel as if I was part of the presentation.

Glad I got my movie at Best Buy, had extra clips included and the price was good, store close to home too !!!

An amazing movie. Saw it in theaters, but it looks better in blu-ray!

This is definitely one of the greatest American films EVER made! The Exclusive Slipcover is an added plus to owning it! :)

Chris Kyle is on record as being the most leathal sniper in US Military history, with 160 confirmed kills out of a suspected 255. When word got out that Clint Eastwood would be adapting Kyle's book into a major motion picture, “American Sniper,” there were protests and complaints, as there usually are when such subject matter such as this is turned into a film. Many critics of war have claimed that this man can not possibly be considered a hero. Who can kill so many people, with such ease (and glee, if his logs are to be believed#, be considered anything but evil? Eastwood is old though, and with age usually comes wisdom. He see's clearly how Kyle is a hero. That is why “American Sniper” feels so patriotic in the face of such horrible death that surrounds it. When we first meet Kyle #Bradley Cooper# he is in position, covering his men during his first tour in Iraq. He witnesses a woman hand a boy a grenade and instructs the kid to attact the American soldiers with it. In that moment Kyle is in a situation where no one can truly relate. There is a kid with a weapon, no other soldier can confirm this, and thus the call to kill him is in Kyles hands. At this point who that kid might be, what life he might live, none of it matters. All he sees is someone with a weapon is going to kill his men. So what does he do? He takes the shot. I mean, what else was he going to do? Given the choice between saving a dozen of his fellow soldiers and this kid, he'll easily shoot the kid. This is just one decision though. He has to deal with dozens of situations like this on a daily basis. There are times he's on the ground with the men who covers, and now his life might be in the hands of others as well. This is the life he lives. He is there to save lives. Some of the men he protects #including his own brother# are starting to look at what they are doing, the reasons for them being at war, with distain and doubt. Kyle has no time to think like that. He's got a job to do, and whether these men believe in the war anymore or not, that job is to keep them alive during it. So too, are we now part of the war, as Eastwood pits us tightly in every situation Kyle finds himself in. Most war movies we watch we are witnesses to the grand horror that is on display. Here we are almost always by Kyles side, putting us into the horror itself as if we were there. The film was recently remastered for an IMAX release, which is where I saw it, and the extra size just brought the intimacy of the film that much closer. This is important because the most intense moments do come from the distance, where Kyle is forced to make the kind of decisions we could only imagine making. The movie also takes time to show us his home life with his wife #Sienna Miller), who spends most of the time worried about her husband and begging him to come home. Though many might say the whole point of her character is to be a nagging wife, the reality is that she just can't understand what life is like over in Iraq, and because of that she may be the only dose of reality her husband gets in his life. I'm not sure how much of Kyles story was changed for the movie. Some say he enjoyed killing more than what portrayed in the movie. I don't know what people were expecting him to be portrayed as, but I think Kyles dedication to the war, while certainly motivated in part because of his need to protect his men, shows that there is a huge part of him that does enjoy the killing, and does get a high out of the hunt. At one point he is in a situation where he might need to kill a potentially innocent bystander. In his mind he begs the person to stop what they are doing, but when the person does drop the weapon Kyle breaths a breath of disappointment. We can tell that, deep down, he wanted to kill that person, and was upset because he didn't get to. Yet Eastwood understands that it is the nature of the beast that can cause men to feel this way. So too, does Bradley Cooper, who gives the sort of nuanced performance that can make or break a movie, and thankfully he understands this situation and character in a way that brings the movie so close to home. That Kyle was a natural killer did not make him a bad guy, and both Copper and Eastwood know this. He was a hero, just one who happened to have the most kills on US Military record. Some people might not be able to understand this. I think “American Sniper” is an attempt to bring this reality to the movie going public. Knowing how stubborn people are, I doubt this will take. But if you take away just one thing, take away the final image of Chris Kyle's funeral. Navy Seals have a tradition of honoring men they respect with personal emblems punched onto the caskets. Chris Kyle had more of these emblems on his coffin than any coffin I have ever seen before. If this image doesn't make it clear the difference Chris Kyle made in the lives of the men he was hired to protect, then I can only assume you are as heartless a human being as you claim Chris Kyle is.

While settling into my theater seat to view "American Sniper", I had about as high of expectations as any movie I'd seen in the past year. Rarely do those type of expectations ever get lived up to these days, it seems. That was emphatically NOT the case with this film, however, as it captivated me from beginning to end. For a basic plot summary #minor spoilers#, "American Sniper" focuses on the life of Chris Kyle #Bradley Cooper#, who serves multiple terms in Iraq during the early 2000s while wife Taya #Sienna Miller# dutifully waits for him on the homefront with each deployment. Over in Iraq, Chris is an expert sniper Navy Seal, tasked with providing air support and protecting "his guys" from any number of unforeseen calamities #a scene where a young Iraqi boy begins to pick up an explosive device is particular telling on what mental torture Chris's job can be at times#. Because, Chris doesn't want to leave until the "job is done", he's a little bit less himself every single time he returns stateside. This puts particular strain on wife Taya and a growing family that Chris does not know how to integrate back into. One could almost say that "American Sniper" is two movies in one... First, it is a taut psychological spectacle of the type of warfare that was being conducted in Iraq. A sniper from the opposition is nearly Kyle's equal, while a notorious "Butcher" commits atrocities that begin to wear on Kyle's mental faculties. To me, this was the "weaker" portion of the film #though to call it "weak" would be a travesty#, but that's likely because I don't have first-hand experience in that type of environment. It was all kind of surreal to me. A number of people in the group I saw the movie with thought these war/sniping scenes were the best part, so it was probably just personal preference. Secondly, and to me this is where the flick can go down in history, are Kyle's struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder. Each time he returns back to Taya and the family, he is a little bit less himself, and even a bit more anxious to be back to the battlefield. I was utterly fascinated #and quite more than a bit proud# by how a man can voluntarily put himself into harm's way in order to finish the war at hand and have the back of his fellow soldier. These are the scenes where director Clint Eastwood really excels. He knows exactly how to prod the emotions and then get out of the way so as not to seem preachy. So, for me, "American Sniper" made my "top films" list because I've never seen a war film tackle the issue of PTSD so brutally. Usually, a military member returning home will say something like "I saw some things over there" and that's all that will be said. Here, however, the PTSD is actually experienced in chilling fashion. If Bradley Cooper doesn't get serious consideration for his outstanding performance as Chris Kyle, it would be a crying shame. The auxiliary cast is good as well, but Cooper is almost literally front and center in every meaningful scene or exchange in the picture. He'd certainly get my vote for "Best Actor" to get a gold Oscar, that is for sure. Overall, "American Sniper" is one of those films that is tough to "like" even though it is truly a gem. The reason being? It is so hard-hitting. The story of Chris Kyle and his family is one that resonates in this day and age, while Eastwood was the perfect choice to get the most out of it. If you want an insight into many aspects of being a soldier that you had likely never thought of before, "American Sniper" is the film to watch.

Fantastic movie. This was one hell of a shot. Too bad he died the way he did

Navy S.E.A.L. sniper Chris Kyle's (Bradley Cooper's) pinpoint accuracy saves countless lives on the battlefield and turns him into a legend. Back home to his wife and kids after four tours of duty, however, Chris finds that it is the war he can't leave behind. U.S. Navy SEAL Chris Kyle (Bradley Cooper) takes his sole mission -- protect his comrades -- to heart and becomes one of the most lethal snipers in American history. His pinpoint accuracy not only saves countless lives but also makes him a prime target of insurgents. Despite grave danger and his struggle to be a good husband and father to his family back in the States, Kyle serves four tours of duty in Iraq. However, when he finally returns home, he finds that he cannot leave the war behind.