Rama’s SCREEN

Recently, there has been a.. how should I call it,.. ruckus.. regarding the upcoming movie TROPIC THUNDER. For those of you who haven’t seen the movie, let me just let you in on something but don’t worry, it’s not a spoiler or anything.
In short, Ben Stiller’s character Tugg Speedman is an action star who’s tried a supposedly Oscar worthy movie by playing a develop mentally disabled person in a fake movie called Simple Jack.. when you see the movie Tropic Thunder, you’ll see the mock trailer.

Throughout the whole hilarious comedy movie, and I mean that by the way, the movie made me laugh so hard I almost pissed my pants, throughout the whole thing, we keep being reminded by this one Simple Jack character and there’s a scene where Ben Stiller’s character and Robert Downey Jr.’s character discussed the the concept that you should never go full retard in a movie.

The clip and the whole name calling ‘Retard’ offends some people and now according to New York Times, Timothy P. Shriver, chairman of the Special Olympics and more than a dozen disabilities groups, including the National Down Syndrome Congress and the American Association of People with Disabilities will picket the movie’s premiere on Monday evening (August 11th, 2008) and they call for a national boycott of the film which gets released nationwide this Wednesday.

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.

The viral website for Simple Jack has been removed and TV marketing and poster ads that feature the character with a tagline “Once there was a retard” has been taken down everywhere, but the studio insists the movie stays the way it is… no changes or cuts whatsoever.

I’ve seen the movie, I’ve ever reviewed the movie, and I just think this whole thing is gettin’ blown out of proportion.
It’s an R-rated Comedy for crying out loud!
Tropic Thunder is not the first movie to use the “R” word, why be mad about it right now?!
What about There’s Something about Mary?
So if you make an intellectually disabled person a champion like Rain Man or Forrest Gump, then that’s considered okay?
Wouldn’t that be a type of exploitation too or a stereotype or a mockery??

What do you think about all this commotion??
Does this info make you wanna boycott Tropic Thunder… or does it only make you even more curious to see it??
Do you get offended by Hollywood’s portrayal of people with developmental disabilities??
What about the saying, ‘Any publicity is good publicity’, will this so called problem work for the movie’s advantage eventually or will it hurt the movie at the box office??

After you see the movie this weekend, please let me know what you think about it, especially this part of it, I’m curious to hear your opinion.