Producers of the controversial comedy Tropic Thunder claim disability advocates are upset because they haven't seen the film in context. Lawrence Carter-Long, has. In this commentary, the founder and curator of the provocative disTHIS! Film Series (disthis.org) explains where the film-makers got it wrong:
To those who have been in a cave the past few weeks, the film Tropic Thunder starring and directed by Ben Stiller featuring Robert Downey, Jr. and Jack Black, includes a plotline where Stiller's down and out action star previously portrayed "Simple Jack" an intellectually disabled person in an attempt to revive his career. After concerns were raised by disability advocates, a promotional website for “Simple Jack” was pulled prior to Thunder’s premiere.
As personal fan of satire with a provocative film series with disability themes of my own, I waited to reserve judgment on Tropic Thunder until after seeing the film. What I saw disturbed me, but not for the reasons originally feared – or often discussed.
What's the fuss? Simplistic explanations point toward political correctness and understandable condemnation of the word "retard." If only it were that, um, simple. A more thorough examination suggests the biggest mistakes made by Dreamworks were those of omission.
Director Ben Stiller told the Los Angeles Times he decided against his initial idea of a "post-Platoon" syndrome for actors who survived a tough shoot in the jungle for fear people would “think you're making fun of veterans."
Another concern was the character Kirk Lazarus (portrayed by Robert Downey, Jr.), a quintessential method actor and five time Oscar winner who undergoes a "controversial" skin-darkening treatment to portray an African American sergeant. Scratch that, not portray, but rather to become black.
In media reports, Stiller asserted, “We never wanted it to be OK." To be fair, in this case, the satire largely works. To emphasize the absurdity of the situation, actor Brandon T. Jackson was cast opposite Downey, Jr. as African-American rapper Alpa Chino whose existence in the film consists primarily of calling Lazarus on every possible point of politically correct contention.
While Stiller deserves credit for lampooning actors like Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump, Dustin Hoffman’s Rain Man and Sean Penn in I Am Sam for portraying disabled characters in the hopes of winning awards (criticisms shared by many disability advocates), the lack of a disabled counterpart to Jackson’s only heightens the sense of being slighted.
Stiller admitted as much when he appeared on PBS’ Charlie Rose on August 15. Said Stiller, "We screened the film hundreds of times with different audiences and it never came up."
Could it be because Dreamworks failed to screen Tropic Thunder to the right test audiences?
Unlike people of color or veterans, the opinions of real, live people with disabilities weren’t considered until Dreamworks became concerned about losing box office.
Still, limiting the debate to charges of censorship or political correctness misses the point. The deeper issue isn’t about words, it’s satirization without representation.
Census figures put the population with disabilities of the United States at 1 in 5 -- that's 54 million, arguably our largest minority -- but culturally speaking disability is still considered a distant threat, something that happens to people segregated to telethons and fundraising campaigns.
Only when our brothers and sisters return from wars missing limbs or our parents are debilitated by hip or knee replacements do we take notice. Seldom do we consider people who 'join the club' like Christopher Reeve could one day be us. Seldom do we consider that the children hurt by schoolyard taunts could be our own. People with disabilities are simply not yet recognized as a constituency to be reckoned with and, as such, have not been afforded the same concern as other groups.
Perhaps, that is, until now.
To date, more than 200 groups have signed on to a letter of opposition and thousands turned out to protest the opening of the film across the nation August 13. Media coverage has been unprecedented. Hollywood can ill afford to dismiss the views of disabled advocates and their allies now.
It didn't have to be this way, but by failing to consider the nations 'largest minority' Dreamworks created the controversy themselves.
Lawrence Carter-Long is the Director of Advocacy for the Disabilities Network of NYC (dnnyc.net) and the founder/curator of the disTHIS! Film Series: disability through a whole new lens (disthis.org). As a media critic/social commentator, he has been featured on CNN, The New York Times (Style section, above the fold!), NBC’s Today Show and National Public Radio, among others. He is a producer for the Largest Minority Radio Show on WBAI in NYC.
