On a serious note.
I'm afraid of being labelled a SJW for not liking this movie.
I enjoyed it but overall it wasn't as spectacular as many people are saying. I can see why a lot of people thought it was "meh". All the basic movie stuff was great. Camera work, sets, action scenes--all amazing. The character was fairly interesting. But I think you and Chaos are pretty close to the mark that it never really developed itself into a story about
something. I mean, it's obvious that him vs other sniper was supposed to be the classic three arc struggle; and Eastwood tossed in a lot of obtuse symbolism about his having to leave his sniper rifle behind and what not, and how difficult it is to "leave" a war. But the theme of the movie seemed to be about him being uncomfortable at home, then running away to where he was comfortable. If that was translated into a meatier epilogue, it would have been great.
But instead, it was
explainedto us (Not
shownto us). "Killing wolves never bothers me. I was uncomfortable at home because I'm not helping people when I obviously could be....I need a purpose if I stay at home...Oh? Disabled vets? Purpose found"
magicall better. <--------That throw away scene, should have been beefed up and it would have helped explain his feelings and actions in the rest of the movie. And it would have made it a better film. If the him "adjusting" to home life had been 30 minutes instead of ten, with a decent look at how helping the other veterans calmed him down and took away his survivors guilt? It would have made all the other scenes where he was all twisted up feel a lot stronger.
Still a decent movie, I thought it was worth the price of admission. But in the end, it felt like the movie didn't know what it wanted to say (Even about the character). It wasn't a pure war movie about an objective, and camaraderie, the futility/triumph of surviving war like BoB, Generation Kill, Black Hawk Down, Platoon ect. But it also wasn't one of the movies that was purely about the toll of war at home, like Flags of our Fathers or (Pick any number of Vietnam war movies). It just kind of languished a little between both those stories and never really developed well. The final 10 minutes almost feels like Eastwood put the doctor in just so Cooper could literally explain to us the theme of the movie.