Tropic Thunder's use of R-word has disability groups talking to studio execs

The movie within a movie, Simple Jack, in Tropic Thunder. The poster says "Once upon a time there was a retard."

Jack Black, Robert Downey, Jr., in blackface, and Ben Stiller

The New York Times says the new Ben Stiller film hits a new level of crudity: "Ben Stiller slurps gore from a human head. Robert Downey Jr. wears blackface throughout. Both milk an extended gag about Hollywood’s weakness for what they impolitely call retards."


The American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) in Washington, D.C., organized by phone with other disability organizations August 1, and a number of representatives from disability organizations will be meeting with Dreamworks excutives.

The Patricia E. Bauer blog on news media and disability issues says August 2 that "Chip Sullivan, head of publicity for DreamWorks Pictures, confirmed today that studio executives will meet next week with disability rights advocates to hear their concerns about the representation of a character with intellectual disabilities in the upcoming film 'Tropic Thunder.'”

The NY Times says Aug. 2:

Of “Tropic Thunder,” Stacey Snider, chief executive of the DreamWorks unit, said in a phone interview this week: “I’m proud of the movie. It is hysterically funny. I do think it’s got its heart in the right place.”

Ms. Snider acknowledged the risks inherent in the film. It is the first from DreamWorks, she said, to use a so-called red band trailer, which attempts to limit access to online viewers 17 or older. (Visitors to tropicthunder.com can view it only
after clicking on “Restricted” and entering name, ZIP code and birth date.)

But the film’s humor, she said, comes at the expense of its own heroes, a corps of knucklehead actors, rather than of the handicapped or anyone else. “The star-studdedness of it, and the absolute playability of it, trumps it all,” Ms. Snider said.

Whether Mr. Stiller’s movie-within-a-movie subplot about his character’s would-be Oscar turn as the developmentally handicapped title character of “Simple Jack” incites a backlash remains to be seen. A mock promotional Web site for “Simple Jack,” simplejackmovie.com — which features Mr. Stiller cavorting as a bucktoothed, kindhearted dolt — has drawn a wary response from some.

Reached in Vancouver, British Columbia, where he has been working on “Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian,” Mr. Stiller suggested that the movie would speak for itself.

“It’s hard for me to tell people how to react,” he said. “The whole point of the movie is about actors, and the length actors will go to to advance their careers.”