Aug 10, 2008 06:34 PM
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Wed Feb 10
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Tropic Thunder, the hilarious-looking movie-in-a-movie that has so far failed to score a boycott for featuring Robert Downey Jr. in blackface or Tom Cruise as reportedly the most offensive Jewish stereotype since... Well, I don't find those very offensive, so don't ask me. Anywho, Ben Stiller's character is an actor who failed to get an Oscar nod for portraying a "retard" in the film "Simple Jack". And that's what's getting the pic boy-the-fuck-cotted. "'Not only might it happen, it will happen,' Timothy P. Shriver, chairman of the Special Olympics, said of the expected push for a boycott." Because it's fine for actors to cynically go bobbing for Academy apples every year by playing a special character, but it's not okay for a comic actor to make fun of them for doing so.
And when the movie-going public inevitably ignores Shriver's inevitable boycott, he'll bring the government into it. "Mr. Shriver said that he had also begun to ask members of Congress for a resolution condemning what he called the movie’s 'hate speech' and calling for stronger federal support of the intellectually disabled. [...]
"In a statement on Sunday, Chip Sullivan, a DreamWorks spokesman, said the movie was 'an R-rated comedy that satirizes Hollywood and its excesses and makes its point by featuring inappropriate and over-the-top characters in ridiculous situations.' Mr. Sullivan, in the statement, added that the film was not meant to disparage or harm people with disabilities and that DreamWorks expected to work closely with disability groups in the future. But, he said, 'No changes or cuts to the film will be made.'"
Which is good to know, because the "Simple Jack" bits will probably be amazingly wrong—therefore funny! We could go preview it on the website the movie makers set up for it, but it's been disabled. [NYT]
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