‘American Sniper’ Silences Audience

"American Sniper" is based on one of the best snipers in American military history and the movie based on his life leaves audiences silenced. My wife and some friends saw this movie yesterday in IMAX at the Carmike Cinema and what happened at the end of the movie stunned me.

The Clint Eastwood directed movie topped the box office in revenue for two straight weeks in a row and kept me engaged for more than two hours. This movie made me think of what is happening a world away and what our men and women are going through and what they're up against every day as they do their job to defend our freedoms and rid our world of terrorists.

The story of Chris Kyle is inspiring and actor Bradley Cooper, in my opinion, did a great job in the movie. What stunned me though happened at the end of the movie. Normally at the end of a movie the audience is pretty loud, people are wrestling around, the music is also loud as the credits roll, but what happened at the end of this movie was a different experience. The audience in the theater that I was in was extremely quiet. No one really said anything as the credits started to roll. There were a few claps but those quickly faded. Normally when the credits begin to roll, people get up to head out and that wasn't the case in this showing. People continued to sit in their seats for at least a couple of minutes and then slowly dispersed from the auditorium. I hadn't ever experienced anything like that at a movie. I think one thing that caused the reaction is that there was no music during the closing credits, which is unusual.

Although there is some controversy in the movie about using a doll instead of a real baby, I thought this was an excellent, intense and thought provoking movie.

If you've seen this movie, did you experience the same with your audience at the end of the movie?  Let me know in the comment section below and let me know what you thought of it as well.