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“Tropic Thunder” Causes Controversy Storm
8-Aug-2008
Written by: Andy Koenig
Ben Stiller’s film inside a film causes trouble.
The new film, Tropic Thunder, directed and cowritten by Ben Stiller, is stirring up controversy even before its Aug. 13 release date.
According to the New York Times, Peter V. Berns, executive director of the Arc., a “community based organization of and for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities,” spoke on Thursday about some of the language used in the promotions for Thunder, and the film itself.
“We think that’s hate speech,” Berns said.
The speech in question refers to the term “retard” which is used when describing “Simple Jack,” a mentally disabled farmhand who Stiller’s character, Tugg Speedman, portrays in a fictional role in the film.
In clips and trailers of the film, the word “retard” is used quite often, such as in the fake movie poster for “Simple Jack,” that reads, “Once upon a time . . . There was a retard,” or the quote from the film’s restricted trailer where Stiller’s character said, “There were times when I was doing Jack that I actually felt retarded, like really retarded.”
Starring Stiller, Jack Black and Robert Downey, Jr., the film follows the story of actors who think they are shooting a war movie but by accident are actually engaged in a battle with militant gorillas.
Thunder mainly makes fun of the cliché Hollywood war movies and the actors who bring them to life.
One of the most surprising roles in the film is that of Robert Downey, Jr., who plays a white actor who undergoes a procedure to play an African-American soldier in the fictional movie, a controversial move considering the affect the same act had on actor C. Thomas Howell’s career with 1986’s Soul Man.
“It's a part that does have the potential to be some kind of career-ender. It's so out there. But Ben got the tone right. I think people are going to love this guy,” Downey said when talking with MercuryNews.com.
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