In what registers as a complete anomaly today, the highest-grossing film released domestically in 2014 was not a Disney release, nor was it part of an extended franchise or based on an existing IP. In fact, it wasn’t even a traditional blockbuster. The film, released at the tail end of the year, was a biographical war drama, American Sniper. The story of Chris Kyle, the decorated Navy SEAL soldier who served in the Iraq War, became an unexpected cultural phenomenon in late 2014 and early 2015. Clint Eastwood’s film had everyone talking, for better or worse, as its historical accuracy and glorification of war sparked much controversy in addition to its vast financial gross. Ironically, the original director attached to American Sniper wasSteven Spielberg, the father of the modern blockbuster. For all anyone knows, the Spielberg touch to this film could have further increased its box office revenue. What is clear, however, is that his early contributions to the film remained in the final cut.
‘American Sniper’ Connects With Clint Eastwood’s Late Period Filmography
Based on his memoir, American Sniper follows Chris Kyle (Bradley Cooper), the Navy SEAL who became the deadliest marksman in the history of the U.S. military. Married to Taya Studebaker (Sienna Miller), Kyle is sent to Iraq following the September 11th attacks and subsequently serves four tours in the Middle East. Throughout the film, Kyle is revered by his fellow soldiers for his preternatural skills in combat, but the more he transforms into a killing machine, the more he drifts away from Taya and their newborn child, with Kyle grappling with PTSD in the process. While on tour, Kyle engages in a duel with an insurgent sniper, Mustafa (Sammy Sheik), an archenemy of Kyle who serves as his white whale. Terminating this faceless enemy combatant takes on a deeper, personal meaning that supersedes his duties as a soldier.
Clint Eastwood, a Hollywood legend defined by his performances as cowboys and cops, was naturally drawn to a story about an American soldier using violence to restore peace and justice. Considering that the accuracy of Chris Kyle’s kill count in combat was intensely scrutinized following American Sniper’s release, Eastwood puts the modern American soldier through the wringer of mythmaking like the Western outlaw. Eastwood’s late-period phase as an artist has been consumed by adapting true stories of complicated “heroes” facing the pressure of overwhelming media publicity, including Sully, The 15:17 to Paris, and Richard Jewell. As the director of the masterful deconstruction of the Western genre, Unforgiven, Eastwood possesses a rich understanding of the unshakable core of violence. In the case of William Munny from Unforgiven and Chris Kyle, they can never escape their barbaric paths.
Steven Spielberg’s Early Development of ‘American Sniper’
While Eastwood and American Sniper were a perfect marriage of interests, Chris Kyle’s story began with another certified Hollywood legend, Steven Spielberg. Detailed in a Hollywood Reporter story, screenwriter and producer Jason Hall developed a bond with Chris Kyle until the latter died in 2013. Hollywood was apprehensive to touch the Iraq War on the screen, as its divisive impact still lingered with the public, making Hall’s script an undesirable property. Through a mutual connection, Hall contacted Bradley Cooper, a hot star coming off of Silver Linings Playbook, with the prospect of producing the film and playing Kyle. Coincidentally enough, Kyle pitched the story as a Western, as the character “goes from being a hero to being filled with vengeance and slipping over the dark side.” Cooper was immediately sold.
Shortly after Kyle’s death, Spielberg got hold of Hall’s script and expressed interest in directing, with Spielberg’s own studio, DreamWorks, co-producing the film with Warner Bros, who purchased the script and book rights. However, he had story notes he wished to integrate into Hall’s script, particularly a thematic arc with Mustafa, the enemy sniper who faces off against Kyle. Hall recounted that Spielberg, the director of the raw and gritty portrait of World War II, Saving Private Ryan, interpreted the combatant sniper’s role as a reflection of Kyle. They operate with the same code on opposite sides of the battlefield. “It was a psychological duel as much as a physical duel. It was buried in my script, but Steven helped bring it out,” Hall explained. What could’ve merely amounted to a checkpoint in the retelling of Kyle’s story evolved into a meditative character insight, as Kyle’s desire to eliminate the lone sniper transcends the scope of the war. American Sniper is at its best when it keys in on Kyle’s violent core and his primal draw to killing, and Spielberg’s insightful character dynamic unlocks the psychology of the soldier.
Why Steven Spielberg Dropped Out of Directing ‘American Sniping’ and How Clint Eastwood Took Over
As Spielberg continued revising American Sniper’s script, the page count grew. Warner Bros. envisioned American Sniper as a $60 million project. Feeling as though he couldn’t bring his vision of the story to the screen for that amount of money, Spielberg dropped out. Left out to dry, domestic distribution chief Dan Fellman made a call to one of the studio’s most reliable filmmakers, Clint Eastwood, who has been working with the studio since the 1970s. At the time of receiving the call, Eastwood just so happened to be in the middle of reading Chris Kyle’s memoir. He signed on under one stipulation: the studio had to move its scheduled release from Christmas 2015 to Christmas 2014, as Eastwood was eager to begin production. One of the few guarantees in life is that any film directed by the expeditious Clint Eastwood, who will go as far as using a fake baby in a scene to conserve time, will be completed ahead of schedule and under budget. Under Spielberg, Hall’s script increased in page count. Under Eastwood, the script was truncated. Filming lasted a brisk 44 days, backing up Eastwood’s reputation as the most economical director.
Steven Spielberg’s American Sniper would likely have been a financial success. After all, no director is historically more box office friendly than Spielberg, and his experience making Saving Private Ryan demonstrates his chops for directing gritty war combat. While Eastwood’s film was mostly critically acclaimed, what we know of Spielberg’s vision of the story could have amended historical aspects of the film that sparked controversy. Eastwood more or less constructed a rudimentary biopic that tracked a linear progression of Chris Kyle’s life, which automatically props up the subject as a hero out of sheer audience sympathy. Many critics disapproved of the simplistic black-and-white portrayal of the war, as well as the two-dimensional depiction of Iraq and its people, painting them with a blank expression of evil commonly found in Hollywood films about foreign wars. Spielberg, the ultimate sentimental filmmaker, could have brought nuance to both sides of the war. Although he did not direct American Sniper, Spielberg’s main contribution to the film, the focus on the enemy sniper, remained intact.