Why would “American Sniper” need defending, you ask? After all, its $249 million domestic grosses have made it the most lucrative war film of all time, the best wide-release January opening and the now the record holder for strongest Super Bowl weekend (take that, Miley Cyrus). It also boasts six Oscar nominations, including Best Picture.
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“It might have been misquoted because I will tell you, at Michael’s theater, which we book a lot in Michigan, is probably the only theater I know that’s free to servicemen,” Weinstein said. “So, if you’re a serviceman, you go to Michael’s theaters in Michigan for nothing, and your families for nothing too. So, I think it’s something about his family looked at snipers a certain way and that became the quote like ‘snipers are cowardly.’ It wasn’t a reaction, I think, to this movie. I think people put two quotes together.”