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Rating: "Shooter" is one of those rare examples where action and the spectacular nature typical of overseas blockbusters converge with a critique (not even too veiled) of American political choices.
The film tells the story of sniper Bob Lee Swagger (played by a solid Mark Wahlberg), who, after returning from a military experience in Ethiopia, retires to a peaceful life. He is called back by Colonel Johnson (Danny Glover) to thwart a supposed terrorist attack against the President of the United States. He will realize that he has fallen into a conspiracy against him, from which he will try to escape with all the strength he has left.
Reading it like this, it might seem like the usual American shooting game with patriotism at the forefront. But what emerges from Antoine Fuqua's film, released in 2007, is a critical vision of the American military and political reality. It is mentioned that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the U.S. political system is dismantled, which, as we are told, seems to be entirely based on favors, impunity, the lack of human dignity, and conspiracy (though probably we didn't need this film to realize that).
Thus, in the era of monumental 3D skirmishes and phantasmagoric advertisements, "Shooter," thanks to a decent budget, is indeed an action film with spectacular scenes and shootouts worthy of good old Rambo, but it is also a film unafraid to prod U.S. politics, sometimes with irony, sometimes with dark cynicism.
"You don't understand, they killed my dog."
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