American Sniper made its way into tonight's Real Time, where Bill Maher took issue mainly with the real Chris Kyle being framed as some kind of "psychopath patriot" that everyone can easily get behind.
Maher brought up Kyle's quote about killing "savages" over in Iraq and getting a kick out of it, and Maher couldn't help but ask why a decent Christian person would speak of anyone in that way. Maher felt American Sniper painted a very easy black-and-white picture of good versus evil instead of presenting a more complex story. Bret Stephens shot back that Maher missed the point of the film, which was about what soldiers and veterans go through, and that the "savages" line was not about all Iraqis, but about the horrid, murderous ones.
Comedian Bill Burr also told Maher, "You can't sum up a man by one quote taken out of context."
Maher still thought the lack of subtlety and the very obvious "we're good, they're bad" message was troubling. He did admit, though, there is slightly more ambiguity in the movie than there was in Kyle's book.
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