Spot on target over sniper loneliness

INTENSE combat, domestic disquiet and sad irony are the grim touchstones of American Sniper, a film about a latter-day patriot and believer in truth, justice and the American Way whose larger-than-life story - in the assured hands of director Clint Eastwood - is easily the stuff of legend.

As it happens, Legend was the moniker given to Chris Kyle, a sharpshooter in the Navy SEALs whose four tours in Iraq yielded a record number of kills and a reputation throughout the US military as a tough Texas-born hero. His deadly skill with a rifle even caused Iraqi insurgents to place a bounty on his head - a sure sign of the damage he wrought among the enemy.

Over the course of a long and distinguished career, Eastwood has made his share of movies about men in battle, often troubled and distanced from society - and he's also played a few flinty-eyed gunslingers in his time - so he's a good fit for a character study that is part war movie and part domestic drama.