Disability Advocates Call for Boycott of "Tropic Thunder"

According to the Associated Press, the blockbuster hit, Tropic Thunder, is stirring up controversy from mental disability advocates.

The film, starring Ben Stiller, Jack Black, and Robert Downey, Jr., is based on the premises that the actors are filming a Vietnam War movie. However, the writer-director becomes fed up and dumps the actors in the middle of a real war.

Members of the Special Olympics and American Association of People with Disabilities protested at the film's Los Angeles premiere at Mann's Bruin Theatre on Monday. Members held signs that read phrases such as "Ban the movie, ban the word" and "Call me by my name, not my label."

The groups are upset over the film's liberal use of a foul word that is used to describe the mentally handicapped. Ben Stiller played a character who previously had a role as a mentally handicapped man named Simple Jack.

"I cannot believe a writer could write something like that. It's not the way that we want to be portrayed. We have feelings. We don't like the word 'retard.' We are people," said Special Olympics global messenger Dustin Plunkett.

Downey told AP Television, "You know, if I want to protest something because it offends me that's my right as an American, and it's also any artist's right to say and do whatever they wanna do."

Due to the outrage from the aforementioned organizations, DreamWorks pulled promotional material, including a Web site that featured Simple Jack with the tag line, "Once there was a retard." According to DreamWorks spokesperson Chip Sullivan, "No changes or cuts to the film will be made."

Timothy Shriver and others are calling for a boycott of Tropic Thunder. The film is to be released in theaters August 13.