By Sam Crocker
Managing Editor
Whilst Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper may have gained six Oscar nominations and broken the January record for biggest opening weekend ever (previously held by Avatar), it has not been short of controversy. First there were the claims made by critics that Eastwood had misrepresented the main character, Chris Kyle, and attempted to normalize the controversial war tactics used in the siege of Fallujah. Then there was the rather awkward comparison drawn between Eastwood’s new endeavor and the World War Nazi films of Leni Riefenstahl. However, the latest controversy related to American Sniper is a little less political and a lot more plastic.
For those who have already seen Eastwood’s latest blockbuster – no your eyes did not deceive you – Bradley Cooper was holding a fake plastic baby. In what is meant to be an emotional scene between Chris Kyle and his wife (played by Sienna Miller), a partly mechanized plastic baby has been crudely substituted for the real thing. Unlike many film faux pas that require eagle-eyed viewers to scrutinize scenes over and over again to find mistakes, American Sniper’s fake baby was an obvious abomination, spotted by thousands. The film’s screenwriter, Jason Hall, admitted that the baby was a fake doll because the infant that was supposed to be screened had developed a fever. The highlight of the scene, which can now be found online for all to admire, is when Cooper can be observed moving the baby’s arm with his finger to try and make it look a little less synthetic. The mistake raised eyebrows amongst film critics who had originally praised Eastwood for his attention to detail by filming in Morocco, which is known to have similar architecture to Iraq.
This is not the first time that a blockbuster has been caught attempting to imitate infants. Other films that have included bad babies are Twilight and Trainspotting. Many on Twitter have expressed sympathy for Bradley Cooper, who trained twice a day for three months in preparation for the role only to be handed a baby that wasn’t even real when he arrived on set!
