Larry Wilmore on ‘American Sniper’s’ $200 Million Box Office: Cost of ’40 Seconds’ of Iraq War (Video)

Larry Wilmore took on the American Sniper controversy Monday, equating the record January total the Iraq War movie has hauled in to how much the war cost.

“200 million — man — that’s the cost of about 40 seconds of the actual Iraq War,” Wilmore said, adding that since the movie is on pace to surpass “Passion of the Christ” as the number-one R-rated movie,  Bradley Cooper can now be anointed the new ‘R-rated Jesus.’”

A panel of veterans, Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi, and comedian Sabrina Jalees joined Wilmore to take sides on the good and bad aspects of the Clint Eastwood-directed movie.

Taibbi, who wrote a scathing piece for Rolling Stone about the film, said it missed out on one important concept.

“The fact that they left out the part that we invaded the wrong country, I just think that was an important plot element,” he said. “I didn’t want to disparage veterans … I just think they left out some important historical details.”

Founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America Paul Rieckhoff conceded the movie was boiled down to a black and white view of the war, but he’ll take it if it means millions of people are watching a movie about what veterans go through.

Watch Wilmore above and his panel below.