Thomas Beckett

I've always had this old VHS tape of Sniper. It's just one of those movies I love playing...or love having on while cleaning up at home, cooking, or sorting through files. There's a lot in the loneliness in Tom Berenger's character that I connect with that really shouldn't be interpreted as some sort of depression, but a normal state of some people who just have an affinity for solitude.

The movie apparently was a bit of cult hit and two sequels were actually made...so I went out and sought to acquire a used copy of em somewhere.

Sniper 2 was actually pretty good. Paring Thomas Beckett with a real soldier this time was a good choice. Sniper 3 was ok, but I wasn't too crazy about it.

Surfing through the web, I actually found out that Tom's character was loosely based on a real marine sniper name Carlos Hathcock. I admired the story of his career, and how he preferred to be out of the limelight (he declined the Silver Star...though the military finally got him to accept it 30 years later). His service was cut short saving fellow soldiers in a fire (that left him with burn injuries the rest of his life). He's a pure soldier.

Tom Berenger was just the perfect fit to portray him. And you know Tom's played a lot of soldiers in his career (like Sgt. Barnes in Platoon :) ).