Bill Maher has made his comedic career on provocative statements that challenge the status quo, so it shouldn’t surprise anyone that he has come out swinging at American Sniper, the new drama by Clint Eastwood that has made an astounding $135 million at the box office in just two weeks, and garnered 6 Oscar nominations, including a Best Actor nod for Bradley Cooper, who plays the film’s lead, U.S. military sniper Chris Kyle.

Maher is the most recent prominent figure to comment on American Sniper – comic actor Seth Rogen and filmmaker Michael Moore were critical of the film, although both claimed their comments had been taken out of context.

The comic discussed the film at a roundtable panel during yesterday’s episode of Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO, considering with his guests whether Chris Kyle, who wrote the book on which the film was based, was a “hero or not.”

“Hurt Locker made $17 million because it was a little ambiguous, and thoughtful,” said Maher. “And this one was just, ‘American hero! He’s a psychopath patriot, and we love him.’”

Maher seemed to take issue with the praise Hollywood and the public has levied on Kyle. He contrasted Kyle’s alleged public statements, such as “I love killing bad guys” and “I hate the damn savages” to the anti-war sentiment of former president and 5-star general Dwight D. Eisenhower, who denounced the theater of war after World War II.

“Eisenhower once said, ‘I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can.’ I just don’t see this guy in the same league as Eisenhower, I’m sorry,” said Maher. “And if you’re a Christian—I know this is a Christian country—‘I hate the damn savages’ doesn’t seem like a very Christian thing to say.”