Tropic Thunder: Should We Boycott This Film?

As I drove into a favorite local park this weekday afternoon, I noticed I had the place to myself, except for a group sitting at the edge of the picnic area. As I pulled up to the parking lot, I saw a van that was marked "Special Services" and a cluster of about a half dozen people, some in wheelchairs, eating and enjoying the beautiful views of the river. It was nice to see this group totally at ease and feeling a sense of belonging at the park.

This tranquil scene was a refreshing change from the way the mentally disabled and those with special needs are often treated in my community. A few weeks ago, I saw a number of white vans pull up on a busy day at the park, unloading some special needs passengers. As they set up a picnic, I saw some other families either pick up their things and drive off, or move far away from the action. In fact, one family huddled on the grass at the edge of the park, about as far away as you could get from the disabled. It was clear that this group wasn't really wanted and you could almost cut the tension with a knife.

This isn't the first time I've seen the mentally disabled being shunned or discriminated against in my community. When a group home tried to move into my tiny town a few years back, no one seemed to want the residents living in their backyard. The group home is now operating, but curiously, the apartment building next door is always pretty empty, with a perpetual "for rent" sign on the front lawn.

And even though the economy is quite dismal and there is a shortage of jobs in my area, lots of positions that involve working with the disabled seem to go unfilled here. It seems that no matter how bad the economy gets, not enough people want to work with those who have special needs.

Those who are disabled or have special needs just can't seem to get a break in my community these days. So when I learned more about some themes in the new Ben Stiller film Tropic Thunder I really felt anger and outrage. I wondered why Ben Stiller would choose to label and demean a group of people in society who are already facing so many challenges in life. It just felt heartless and totally cruel to me, and I would definitely not pay to see a movie like Tropic Thunder.

When I first saw the promos for Tropic Thunder, I thought it looked like a spoof of war movies, but I wasn't completely sure what this film was about. It looked like just another silly Ben Stiller spoof in the spirit of his earlier work Zoolander. With the release of the film this week, I started hearing more about the content of this movie, and protests about the way the mentally disabled are depicted in this film.

In Tropic Thunder, Ben Stiller portrays a mentally disabled character called Simple Jack, who is the butt of a lot of labeling and cruel jokes (in fact a cruel epithet for the mentally disabled is used repeatedly in the film.) I feel that groups that support and advocate for the mentally disabled have every right to speak out against Tropic Thunder as being demeaning to those with challenges and special needs.

However, the studio that released Tropic Thunder says they will make no changes to the film. In fact, one of Tropic Thunder's stars said that people had the right to protest and make their feelings known, but the filmmakers also had the right to exercise artistic freedom.

I'm all for artistic freedom, but isn't one of the goals of being an artist to uplift, entertain, inform, educate and inspire? As performing artists, we can add value to the world by choosing projects that somehow leave the world a better place by sending positive messages. It seems a poor use of artistic freedom to make a creative work that spreads negative messages and marginalizes a group of individuals.

Those involved in the making of Tropic Thunder think the audience who protests this film isn't cool or sophisticated enough to get the humor. They claim that the filmmakers are really lampooning self important actors and the excesses of filmmaking in general.

This may be the case, but one wonders why Tropic Thunder had to target the mentally disabled in order to create a satire. Don't they realize that audiences that leave Tropic Thunder may feel encouraged to stigmatize or ridicule the disabled if this movie makes it seem cool, funny or acceptable to do so.

It truly worries me that no one at any stage of Tropic Thunder thought there was anything wrong with labeling and belittling those with special needs. Ben Stiller wrote the script, then it was cast and produced and released, and no one at DreamWorks ever thought that maybe groups that advocate for the mentally disabled would be outraged? Or maybe they simply thought so little of the mentally disabled that they went ahead with this project because to them, it simply didn't matter who they offended.

It also makes me wonder why Ben Stiller couldn't come up with any fresh material for a movie. Did he have to resort to labels and slurs and cheap shots at the mentally disabled in order to come up with some material for Tropic Thunder? I find it puzzling that he would target this group for his cruel jokes. Why did Ben Stiller feel it was okay to do that? Why did the studio release a film with these cruel themes?

I also ponder why people will go to see Tropic Thunder. Maybe if there wasn't such an audience for cruel put down humor, movies like this wouldn't be made anymore. Unfortunately, Tropic Thunder could be a huge hit because everyone is curious to see just what the controversy is all about.

Should there be a boycott against Ben Stiller and Tropic Thunder? I feel if this kind of humor strikes you as inhumane, show Hollywood it won't be tolerated by not buying a ticket to Tropic Thunder. The mainstream moviemaking system is very much about the bottom line, so if everyone who is offended and saddened by the way Tropic Thunder treats the mentally disabled boycotts the film, it could send a strong message.

In many ways, I think we shape what the media feeds us by our acceptance or rejection of the material. It's tragic to think that Hollywood serves up films like Tropic Thunder because they think there is a strong market of viewers who want to see this kind of subject matter.

With all the violence and inhumane themes that pop up in movies and on television these days, it sometimes makes me wonder if we are devolving as a people. I hope Hollywood will become more sensitive to the way it depicts groups like the mentally disabled. I fear these stereotypes will only make it even harder for those with special needs to find a place in society and receive the opportunities and acceptance they richly deserve.