There was nothing on screen that I had not seen or experienced before and better. It is rote and repetitive, saved only by a strong performance by Bradley Cooper and some gripping sequences. Other than that, go watch “Black Hawk Down” or “The Hurt Locker” for more powerful and affecting films about war and its effects.
It’s a travesty that this screenplay was nominated for an Oscar over more impressive adaptations such as “Gone Girl” or “Wild.” The dialogue is generic and the scenes don’t so much cohere as they serve severally as thematic touchstones. I thought the war scenes worked the best and I grew increasingly exasperated with the domestic scenes. Poor Sienna Miller is quickly typecasting herself as the concerned wife whose husband gets killed. I actually like a lot of Eastwood’s films, and I think he makes the movie work in spite of the screenplay, but this is not the great patriotic film America deserves.
Grade: C-
(by Lennox723)