American Sniper Opening Analysis

This is the opening scene of the biographical war drama film released in 2014, American Sniper. This is directed by Clint Eastwood and stars Bradley Cooper as the main character Chris Kyle who was killed in February of 2013.

This is an amazingly done opening scene that is suspenseful and tense. It perfectly teases us with a heart racing well crafted action scene and sets up the rest of the movie and especially Chris Kyle's backstory.

The first few scenes is shown to setup the threat, show us the setting, put us right in the action and build up tension with the extremely realistic portrayal of war. We firstly have a shot of a gigantic tank which immediately puts us on edge, it also shows us soldiers which tells us that they are at war somewhere. We then have a wide shot which shows us what kind of terrain and situation we are working with. We also see Chris Kyle and his spotter on the roof.

We are then shown Chris Kyle’s scope which is gives us Chris Kyle’s point of view and consequently his perspective. Putting us even more in his place. This is much more important later on. We see a man on a communication device who Chris Kyle has located. Chris asks for advice but is told to make the decision himself. He then goes to adjust his scope suggesting that he is considering shooting. But before then the man moves away

Right after that a (presumably) a mother and a child comes out of a building. We do not know what their motives are just like Chris in that situation. He then asks for advice on what he should do however, once again he has to make his own decision. The mother then pulls out something from her pocket and gives it to the child. It’s an RPG shell. He has to make the call whether to shoot the kid or not. Not doing so could mean harm for his comrades, doing so would be extremely unethical and hard to mentally cope for any man. This is where the first person POV looking through the scopes is so so important. It makes us ask ourselves “What would we have done in that situation?”. We then cut to Chris’ finger which is on the trigger ready to shoot, it slowly inches closer bringing us to the edge of our seat. Before the trigger is pulled we cut to the past, with us, the audience brimmed with excitement and intrigue.