Tropic Thunder, the latest Ben Stiller flick, faced protests from at least two camps. The first group expressed outrage over the disrespect shown to intellectually disabled people via a character Stiller portrayed in the film, as well as multiple utterances of the word “retard.” Another group griped about the Blackface character portrayed by Robert Downey, Jr.
On the one hand, no one can ever dictate whether or not anyone should be offended about anything. These matters are very personal, based on individuals’ perspectives and experiences. So the people appalled by Tropic Thunder are completely within their rights to be angry.
But here’s the lowdown, IMHO (In MultiCultClassics’ Humble Opinion).
Tropic Thunder uses both broad humor and dark humor to essentially blast Hollywood. Stiller skewers the stereotypes via stereotypes, ultimately slapping the shallow, self-absorbed folks in the movie industry. If anyone should be insulted, it’s the real-life stars, producers, directors, screenwriters, agents, moguls and more. Don’t bet on that happening. The rest of us can laugh along with and/or at Stiller and his compatriots.
The intellectually disabled and Blackface caricatures are literally poking fun (or disgust) at the A-list actors and actresses who’ve transformed themselves to collect awards. For the intellectually disabled, think of Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump, Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man, Sean Penn in I Am Sam, Billy Bob Thornton in Sling Blade, Cuba Gooding, Jr. in Radio, etc. For roles incorporating physical changes, think of Robert De Niro in Raging Bull, Charlize Theron in Monster, George Clooney in Syriana, Matt Damon in Courage Under Fire, Nicole Kidman in The Hours, etc. Hell, the movie’s most outrageous chameleon isn’t even credited in the advertisements (MultiCultClassics won’t play spoiler here).
Ben Stiller in Tropic Thunder isn’t like Johnny Knoxville in The Ringer—indeed, Knoxville’s movie appeared to anticipate and address its politically-incorrect nature by being overly reverent, depicting the Special Olympians as savvy heroes. Besides, Stiller’s main character, Tugg Speedman, is arguably a dimmer bulb than the intellectually disabled Simple Jack secondary character. Go figure.
As for Robert Downey, Jr.’s Blackface Kirk Lazarus/Sgt. Osiris, well, they’re on the same level as Stiller’s Tugg Speedman/Simple Jack characters. Plus, another cartoonish character—hip-hop artist Alpa Chino played by Brandon T. Jackson—keeps Downey, Jr./Lazarus/Osiris in check by constantly dissing the Blackface act.
Oh, yeah, there are Tropic Thunder characters that insult Asians too. And armed services veterans. And GLBT activists. And animal-rights backers. And others we were probably too insensitive to notice.
You’ll need a stereotype scorecard to keep everything straight in this movie. Better yet, simply enjoy the guilty pleasures of laughing out loud at Tropic Thunder. Unless you tend to be offended by such things, in which case you should stay away.
4 comments:
My whole issue with TT was precisely the use of stereotypes to make points about Hollywood that could've been made in funnier, more interesting ways.
I mean, having been on both sides, I have more respect for the bigot than i do for the self-righteous soft-ass liberal who says, "no, i was just using bigotry to make a larger point."
It's like Borat goes to Hollywood.
If Stiller's trying to stick it to the industry for making disabled people and ethnic minorities look bad, then Stiller's a weak champion.
as they say, with friends like these...
Don’t know why Borat seemed significantly more offensive than Tropic Thunder. Maybe it’s because Tropic Thunder is more blatant in its movie parody formula—it plays like the Scary Movie series. Or maybe too much exposure to bigoted stereotypes just dulls the senses.
the problem with TT and Borat is they both claimed some moral high-ground in dealing with serious issues of bigotry in entertainment, xenophobia, etc. yet took the easy way out thru what amounted to white liberal hipsterism—-and done by people who'd never speak out on these issues on any other circumstances.
What has Ben Stiller done to fight/discuss bigotry or sexism prior to this? His movies couldn't be any whiter if Larry David and David Schwimmer were executive producing them.
Same with borat--Sacha Cohen spent years ripping on black folks/hiphop overseas before breaking stateside.
As for the Scary Movie franchise, it never hid behind any grandiose claims of satire or "making a point". They imply didn't care who they offended or why. in a lot of ways, that's more geniune than the "don't you see... i'm on YOUR side,I'm subversive" BS.
besides, Tropic thunder just isn't very funny. nothing unfunnier than hipster comedy.
Didn’t realize Tropic Thunder claimed a moral high ground, although did realize they generated pre-publicity to address the Blackface factor. The intellectually disabled activists probably hit them by surprise. Borat, on the other hand, attempted to position itself as something more, which made it more offensive to me.
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