The Tropic Thunder Controversy

Is the movie guilty of hate speech?

Everyone thought the lightning rod in Tropic Thunder would be Robert Downey Jr.'s comic turn in blackface. Instead, the American Association of People With Disabilities, the National Down Syndrome Congress, the Arc, Best Buddies, and a few other groups are up in arms over the film's perceived disrespect toward the mentally retarded. The coalition has put together an 11-page action kit (excerpts below and on the following five pages) urging supporters to "actively picket" movie theaters "with signs of protest urging patrons not to attend" in a nationwide "Rally for Respect," Aug. 13 through 17.

In the comedy, Ben Stiller (who also directed and co-authored the script) plays a movie action star named Tugg Speedman who (taking a leaf from Tom Hanks, Dustin Hoffman, Sir John Mills, and Cliff Robertson) tries to win an Oscar by playing a mentally disabled character in a movie called Simple Jack. This gives rise in Tropic Thunder to various jokes, including a review that declares Speedman's "one of the most retarded performances in cinema history" (Page 6).

This is obviously a sensitive issue on multiple levels. The very term "hate speech" is as infuritating to some, on free speech grounds, as is the word "retarded" to others.

But it is worth remembering that none except perhaps a few fringe elements have called for the movie to be shut down. What they want is social refuation in the form of a consumer boycott.

And, what of intent? Harrogate heard the interviewer on NPR ask the Chair of the Special Olympics committee if it mattered to him that the objects of mockery in Tropic Thunder are not those whom the movie actors denigrate, but the movie actors themselves. He said no, this does not matter. The sheer bandying about of the word "retard" some twenty times over the course of the movie is hurtful, regardless of context, he argued.

But regardless of what we think about the issue, perhaps we can at least all come together in giving thanks that neither Elisabeth Hasselbeck nor Whoopi Goldberg have (yet) emerged as representative interlocutors on the subject.