Bill Maher has joined the growing chorus of critics of the Oscar nominated movie American Sniper. The political commentator slammed the Best picture nominee on his show Friday night.
The movie directed by Clint Eastwood just happens to be number one at the U.S. box office and has set records for a January release.
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First Maher quoted the real life man on whom the film is based. Chris Kyle wrote in his book about the people who he shot at, “I hate the damn savages. I’ve been fighting and I always will. I love killing bad guys, even with the pain I loved what I was doing. Maybe war isn’t really fun, but I certainly was enjoying it.”
The comic wanted to know why it was OK to talk that way about the people of Iraq and Afghanistan, calling them savages. He compared the remarks to those made by President Eisenhower who said, “I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can.”
Maher also wondered why this movie is doing so well at the Box Office when “Hurt Locker, ” an Oscar winning movie with a similar theme, did not do so well. He said that, “Hurt Locker only made $17 million…because it was a little ambiguous. And thoughtful. And [American Sniper] is just, ‘American hero, he’s a psychopath patriot, and we love him.’”
The host also wanted to know why it is that Americans seem to need to paint people either as a complete hero or total villain with no in between. “The idea that Americans cannot see any ambiguity, that somebody has to be pure hero or pure traitor, is ridiculous, ” he said.
