As you know I’m vouching for the movie TROPIC THUNDER cause it’s literally gonna crack you up.
But having seen the movie (You can read my review on the movie anytime), I can tell you this… it’s not making fun of the developmental disabled, it’s making fun of Hollywood’s way of depicting them.
Latinoreview covered this issue first and I’d have to agree with them.
Before we get ahead of ourselves… let me explain.. the movie TROPIC THUNDER features the character Tugg Speedman, played by Ben Stiller. Tugg is known as the action guy but at one point he’s tried to pursuit Oscar by being in a movie about a boy who’s… slow, named Simple Jack.
Simple Jack has been the viral marketing way of promoting Tropic Thunder. I’ve posted here a while ago describing what it was about. It even had its own website.
The movie’s red band trailer shows a glimpse of the character.
Now, in the movie, Tugg Speedman gets captured by the rebels in the jungle who turn out to be big fans of Simple Jack, forcing Tugg Speedman to re-enact every scene from the retarded movie.
There’s an article by Patricia Bauer that stated…
There are those who view the word “retard” as offensive and demeaning, and think it fuels social stigma against vulnerable people. And there are others, like perhaps the R-rated film’s star, director and lead writer Ben Stiller who may think the word is inoffensive and a good complement to the film’s other gags, stunts, explosions and gross-out jokes.
It’s just good clean fun, the studio might say, pointing out that the movie also pokes fun at racial stereotypes. It’s a sendup of old Hollywood films that trotted out able-bodied actors in disability drag, like Tom Hanks in “Forrest Gump,” Dustin Hoffman in “Rain Man” and Sean Penn in “I am Sam.” Stiller isn’t laughing at people with intellectual disabilities, I can imagine his publicist saying. He’s laughing at the way Hollywood portrays them.
But for the estimated 14.3 million Americans with cognitive disabilities and their families, such arguments may be problematic. These people share a history of segregation and exclusion, and report that what many call the “R-word” reinforces negative social attitudes just as surely as racial, ethnic and sexually oriented slurs do.
And so.. get this! The movie TROPIC THUNDER decided to take down/remove Simple Jack’s website and every marketing promotion that relates to that character.
I guess Paramount didn’t want any trouble with the censorship folks.
Even the clip where Robert Downey Jr.’s character tells Ben Stiller‘s character about the concept of ‘Never Go Full Retard’ has been taken down in some sites.
What do you think?
Do you find Simple Jack offensive? What about movies about retards in general?
Isn’t expected for an R-rated comedy to make fun of just about anthing?
Is Censorship being too uptight about all this or do you think the studio’s done the right thing being more sensitive to those who might be offended by the word ‘Retard’?
