Gary Sinise, an actor best known for playing detective Mac Taylor on “CSI: NY” and Lieutenant Dan in “Forrest Gump,” entered the “American Sniper” debate this week by refuting politician Howard Dean’s assumption that audiences flocking to see the Iraq War drama are “very angry.”
“I saw ‘American Sniper’ and would not consider myself to be an angry person,” Sinise wrote on WhoSay on Monday. “You certainly have a right to make stupid blanket statements, suggesting that all people who see this film are angry, but how is that helpful sir?”
The “stupid” statement in question came out of Dean’s mouth during a debate on Friday’s “Real Time with Bill Maher.”
“There’s a lot of anger in this country, and the people who go see this movie are people who are very angry,” the former National Democratic Committee chairman said during the same segment in which Maher called real-life “American Sniper” Chris Kyle “a psychopath patriot.”
“Do you also suggest that everyone at Warner Brothers is angry because they released the film?” Sinise’s message to Dean continued. “That Clint Eastwood, Jason Hall, Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller and the rest of the cast and crew are angry because they made the film? Chris Kyle’s story deserved to be told.”
Sinise proceeded to explain what many critics have disregarded as the public debate surrounding the U.S. Navy SEAL played by Cooper continues to focus on a select few passages from his memoir, as well as his number of confirmed kills, and the Best Picture nominee’s depiction of the war, in general.
“It tells a story of the stress that multiple deployments have on one military family, a family representative of thousands of military families. It helps to communicate the toll that the war on terror has taken on our defenders. Defenders and families who need our support,” Sinise wrote. “I will admit that perhaps somewhere among the masses of people who are going to see the film there may be a few that might have some anger or have been angry at some point in their lives, but, with all due respect, what the hell are you talking about?”