Tropic Thunder, a post-mortem

So, yes, I saw Tropic Thunder.

And the short version is that I wasn’t offended. But I don’t really know how to stick with the short version, so here goes.

As the saying goes, opinions are like assholes: everybody’s got one and most of us don’t like them to be prodded without warning. Which in some ways explains to me the firestorm over this movie — I would never tell anyone what they should or shouldn’t be offended by, and I actually think it’s pretty great that some of the disability groups (and individual people) have had their voices heard and maybe started a conversation in a larger venue…I just wish the conversation hadn’t started from such a (again, my opinion) stupid place. Calling for a boycott? Asking for a word to be banned? Asking for a piece of art — and yeah, even a summer movie is a piece of art…though whether a good or a bad artwork is up to everyone to decide (see, there’s that silly “opinion” thing again) — to be banned? Especially, in most cases, when the people boycotting/asking for the ban hadn’t even seen the thing? Um, no. Though they were right about the promotional Simple Jack fake website that Dreamworks took down– how anyone thought that was appropriate for viral marketing and without more context is beyond me.

If I had seen Tropic Thunder and thought it was hateful or mendacious or even just totally unaware of the way in which the retard/retarded word was used, I’d be shouting long and loud about how horrible it was and how people should spend their hard-earned dollars elsewhere. But no way was I going to do that without seeing it for myself.

But now that I have, I have to say that, contextually, I was pretty okay with it. I mostly wish it had been funnier. Does hearing the word “retard” still rankle? Sure. But for me, it’s much worse to hear it or see it used casually, without thought, than in a deliberative (but not directed at people with disabilities) fashion. Is that a fine line? Yeah, I think it is. But I’ll give Stiller — and especially Robert Downey Jr — credit for making it work. I posted a short version of the “full retard” scene in a previous post, but the extended version was even less hinky to me. In the conversation Stiller and Downey have in the movie, it’s very, very clear that Downey’s character thinks Stiller’s character is an idiot and is pointedly demonstrating that to the audience. And as I wrote in my previous post, it’s definitely an attack on Hollywood and the way they treat disabilities, which is that they’re only heard/seen if it’s a famous actor playing someone mentally/physically disabled and they’re usually doing it for the prestige of winning/being nominated for an award.

As for the use of the word itself, well… I would say that comedy — at least this type — is about language and delivery, and there’s no way you could replace every instance of retarded/retard with “mentally challenged” or “specially challenged” or whatever the word of the day/week/year is without ruining the comedy of this bit.

People are also, of course, taking offense at Stiller’s actual portrayal of a person with mental disabilities in the movie within the movie, Simple Jack. But this was so over the top and intentionally horribly portrayed that I just couldn’t find a way to muster up any outrage, especially when it’s mentioned any time you actually see him do that how horrible he is and how disastrous the reaction to the movie was in the movie. But I’ll let the Perry brothers address this for me, as they do it much better than I ever could:

I will say that I’m not as far on the evolutionary scale as they are in terms of their complete rejection of the power of the word “retard,” (see my idea for an anti-slur ad below) but I agree that words and meaning change and think they have a valid point. I also think in terms of killer lines from the flick, “I’m a lead farmer, motherfucker!” lends itself to t-shirts much better than the “full retard” line. But maybe I’m not the right one to judge that, seeing as how I’ve already come up with a few t-shirt slogans for Archer when he hits the right age:

I was born this way, what’s your excuse?

I may be a retard, but you’re the one who’s retarded.

I also really dig “Does this shirt make me look retarded?“, an idea I will totally steal from here.

I’ve also read in a couple of places that even if you excuse Stiller’s portrayal of a disability and the word “retard” in the movie, there’s still the “just plain mean” issue of Matthew McConaughey and how he refers to his son… who is only seen in a still photo and then at the end of the picture disaffectedly looking out a plane window. At one point McConaughey says that he’s “stuck with” his kid and the camera pans to a photo of him and his semi-overweight kid not looking at the camera. An editorial here says that this kid is “clearly meant to have an intellectual disability,” but I didn’t see that at all. I just saw a teenage boy who could give a shit that his hipster dad was a big-time Hollywood agent and as handsome as McConaughey. Of course, maybe it helps that I saw the kid in this (funnier than the movie) clip about Tropic Thunder, where he casually rips Downey Jr a new one when discussing Iron Man and The Dark Knight at about the 1:30 mark:

One of the arguments I’m hearing a lot — and sure, it’s a legitimate one, is that the liberal use of the so-called “r-word” in this movie is somehow giving kids and teens and young adults the green light to use that word. But I’m sure I don’t have to break it to most people that the casual use of retard/retarded is out there already. And just to digress for a minute, I have to go back almost 30 years to when I was a preschool tyke. Roots was on the TV and my parents were watching it. Now, Roots is about slavery in the South before/during the Civil War and the word “nigger” is thrown around all over the place. Now, as an impressionable child, I didn’t really have any idea what that word meant or how it should be used, though I do have a foggy memory of my parents sitting me down and explaining to me that it was a bad word that was used in the past to describe black people… Can you see where this is going?

At some point not too far after the airing , I was at preschool sitting at a table with a little girl. And after explaining to her (however a 4/5-year-old would) about the word I just learned, I said (very calmly as I recall), “You’re a nigger.” I won’t pretend to know now whether I was testing boundaries or just trying out a new word or was (doubtfully) actually trying to hurt someone. But I said it. And all I remember after it came out of my mouth was being ripped out of my seat and off my feet by one of the adults there and being put in a corner until my parents came to pick me up. I’m sure I got a stern scolding by my folks, too, but I don’t remember that. What I do remember (and it still comes up every time I think about it) is the shame I felt whenever I was old enough to actually process that information. And I haven’t used it since.

Now, I am in no way equating TT with Roots as far as cultural relevancy, but I think it illustrates a point. No one would suggest that Roots shouldn’t have been on the air at that time or that it shouldn’t be seen today, even though maybe it influenced someone to use the N-word, right? Because, obviously, the context of the piece is relevant, not just the word itself. Not to mention that Roots was on broadcast TV during the so-called “family hour” back when there were only three channels. Tropic Thunder is an R-rated movie that, in an ideal world, wouldn’t be seen by kids without their parents…who could then maybe sit them down and talk to them about not using the word “retard.” Not that I’m naive enough to think that kids don’t get into R-rated movies, but my larger point is that it’s not Stiller’s job to police whatever someone may mistakenly take from his movie. As a parent, it’s my job to teach my kid what’s right and wrong, whether that be offensive terms or when not to punch somebody in the face or when to stand up for somebody that’s being kicked around.

I read yesterday that there will be a PSA on the DVD about this issue. I kind of hope there’s one for the gay community (the only gay person in the movie very conveniently and stereotypically knows how to sew), the Asian community for only showing them as one-dimensional drug-dealing gun-toting savages, and to Jewish people for showing them to be willing to sacrifice someone’s life for money and more fame, and to the acting community for showing them all to be a bunch of up-their-own-ass douches (with the exception of Jay Baruchel), as well as for the mentally disabled (a term almost as bad as retarded– but when they’re all bad, what are you going to do?). Not to mention the issue that everybody was supposed to have an issue with, the blackface thing. Though again, Downey was so good that he completely defused that. Though that many PSAs in a row would lend itself to humor itself. And there’s already a pretty good one out there:

I would’ve much rather seen the disability communities push Dreamworks to throw some of their advertising budget to putting some of these commercials on TV, either with or instead of TT ads. Though my own more in-your-face ad campaign goes something like this:

A series of six black-and-white photographs, each with one of the cutest damn babies you’ve ever seen in your life, smiling at the camera.

The first baby is black, the second one is Latino, the third one is a little white girl, the fourth one is Asian, the fifth one has small features and cup-like little ears, and the sixth is an adorable little boy.

And superimposed over the torso of each one is a word in red ink, like what you’d see on a REJECTED application.

On the first picture, the word stamped is NIGGER.

On the second one, the word stamped is SPIC.

On the third one, the word stamped is CUNT.

On the fourth one, the word stamped is CHINK.

On the fifth one, the word stamped is RETARD.

And on the sixth one, the word stamped is FAGGOT.

Pretty ugly, I think, but it might get some people’s attention. It gives me shivers just writing those words out and visualizing it in that way, but if abortion opponents can use pictures of unborn fetuses in their ads, then a few red words aren’t going too far, right?

And now I’ve given this movie far too much of my time, far more than it deserves. So I’m off. But if you feel the need to read more about this, all you need to do is Google “tropic thunder retard” and you’ll get a wide selection of thoughts on both sides of the aisle.

A few of the things I’ve read that I would recommend are here and here and here and here. There are oh so many more even, but really, you probably have your own opinion already.

Though I would encourage everyone to read this, which is maybe what it’s really about. And, I guess, if you use that word and/or allow your kid to use that word, don’t be surprised if one day someone hears you and then up and punches you in the face. But don’t blame it on Tropic Thunder.