You may or may not have seen on my blog me talking about the new movie "Tropic Thunder". Here is a short synopsis of why this movie is being hit by national disability activists due to the movie's use of the word "retard". Understandably, that is not a popular word in my house.
The following information should offend you. I even was surprised at the extent of it. I feel that if I don't pass this on, then other's feeling that I am overreacting to something simple might not quite come across as it should.
The "full retard" scene between Stiller's Speedman and Robert Downey Jr.'s Kirk Lazarus is more extensive than the clip distributed on the internet. Among the lines not included in the Internet version are this:
Stiller: You know, it was an intense experience, you know? I just did the work. I watched a lot of retarded people, spent time with them, observed them, watched all the retarded stuff they did. In a weird way, I had to free myself up to believe that it was okay to be stupid or dumb. To be a moron. To be moronical. To be a moron. To be an imbecile. To be the dumbest mother fucker that ever lived. Stupid ass Jack.
Stiller is made to re-enact Simple Jack to entertain his captors, and wear a coconut wig, improvised overalls and borrowed dentures to act the part. When he doesn't perform the way they like, they hit him and say "more stupid".
Offended? You should be. My daughter has a degree of mental retardation and in essence this movie is portraying to society that she is a moron, that she is an imbecile, that she is dumb, that she is stupid. This is being portrayed to a society that we fight so hard to just be accepted.
Maybe you can pass the word to more people so they too can realize that this isn't a comedy made to poke a little fun. Rather, it's offensive and if you substituted any race or nationality instead of it being pointed at the disabled, it would be considered a HATE CRIME. Please for my daughter's sake, don't see this movie. We need to prove a point to Hollywood.
Unbelievable! I hope a movie like this tanks. My grandma was a special education teacher and we were taught that words like that are worse than swear words. By the way, I have to tell you that you kiddo's are adorable (I'm sure you have heard a million times). Hope to see you at the reunion!
ReplyDeleteThis whole movie thing just makes me feel sick. I totally agree, it is a hate crime!
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