Ben Stiller and Robert Downey Jr in Tropical Thunder. stir on Twitter. Replying to a well-wisher who asked him not to apologize for his 2008 comedy Tropical Thunder. “Please stop apologizing for making this movie,” a fan wrote. «It was and still is funny, AF… Even funnier now that cancellation culture is the way it is.»
Stiller, who receives perhaps hundreds of such messages daily, decided to publicly respond to this: «I make no apologies for Tropic Thunder,» he said. “I don't know who told you that. It has always been a controversial film ever since we opened. I'm proud of it and the work everyone has done on it.»
It represents a kind of change in attitude since 2018, when, a decade after his hugely funny film was released, Stiller turned to the perpetual hustle and bustle surrounding his film. “In fact, Tropic Thunder was boycotted 10 years ago when it came out, and then I apologized,” he said. “It was always meant to make fun of actors trying to do anything to win awards. I stand by my apology [and] the film.»
Stiller should be congratulated, not condemned, for his courage in making a film that defies any definition of good taste. Not only has he been attacked for jokes about blackface, mental retardation, overweight and homosexuals, but also that Hollywood's biggest star is uncredited in a role that requires him to — for lack of a better word — «Jewish face.»
However, all of this is done not to shock needlessly, but with a sharp satirical purpose that seems even more relevant now, 15 years after the original release. Perhaps only today can one fully appreciate his courage and audacity, even when the cries of horror and indignation are getting louder. Even ones like It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia look boring.
When Stiller began his film career in 1987 with a small role in Steven Spielberg's Japanese POW drama Empire of the Sun, he noted that there was an inevitable gulf between the hardships actors endure on screen and a generous being. the comfort of a five-star hotel and chauffeur-driven travel they enjoyed.
Such was the status quo, but Stiller, with a keen comedic sense of inconsistency, also noticed that movies like Saving Private Ryan and Black Hawk Down sent their big-name stars to military boot camp before filming even began. They would then return, solemnly declaring that the experience had changed them forever, before resuming their lives of luxury.
He collaborated with screenwriters Justin Theroux and Ethan Coen on a script that would poke fun at the pomp and conceit of the actors, as well as the industry itself — everyone from agents to directors and studio executives would be less fondly ridiculed. The film will be about a group of selfish, insecure actors who are making a film about the Vietnam War and refuse to believe they were involved in a real conflict, despite ample evidence to the contrary. Stiller himself will play the lead role, Tugg Speedman, a seedy action star looking to expand his horizons, with dismal but hilarious results. -list to play his characters from the list of the best. He compiled a stellar list of names including Jack Black, Steve Coogan and — replacing Owen Wilson, who left the film — Matthew McConaughey. But the hardest part was playing Kirk Lazarus, the strong Australian actor who won several Oscars, who, in one of the film's funniest lines, «[doesn't] drop the character until [he] does a DVD commentary.»
Tropic Thunder cast Credit & Copyright: Alamy
The central running gag is that Lazarus is so committed to his role that his skin is artificially darkened so that he can play an African American soldier, much to the consternation of a real African American actor. It was brash, potentially tasteless, and, even in an era before cancellation culture had taken hold, Stiller went for it, fully aware that it would generate huge controversy. What he needed was an intrepid actor who not only could handle the considerable theatrical demands of the role, but who wasn't afraid to walk into the line of fire of the inevitable outrage it would cause.
Enter Robert Downey Jr. Although the Iron Man and Oppenheimer star is now firmly established at the top of Hollywood's A list, back in 2008 he was slowly rebuilding his career. He appeared in a variety of leading roles in small films (including the excellent Kiss Kiss Bang Bang) and supporting roles in such famous films as Zodiac, but showed a certain caution that threatened to be blown to pieces if he took up case. for the role of Lazarus.
Downey Jr. is no stranger to controversy over the well-documented drug addiction that took hold of him in the late 1990s and early 2000s and nearly ruined his life and career. At first, Downey Jr. didn't want to put himself at risk. the inevitable criticism that follows.
As he said on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast in 2020, “My mother was horrified. «Bobby, I'm telling you, I have a bad feeling about this.» I thought, “Yeah, me too, Mom.” Sean Penn passed it on or something like that. Possibly wise. And I thought, «Yeah, I'll do it, and I'll do it after Iron Man.» Then I started thinking, «That's a terrible idea, wait a minute.»
Steve Coogan in Tropic Thunder Credit & Copyright: Alamy
And yet, Downey Jr. was not just a company employee trying to rehabilitate himself. His father, the legendary underground filmmaker Robert Downey Sr., directed the 1969 black comedy Putney Swap, which was about a black advertising executive who eventually takes over and molds the company in his own image. His young son interacted with some of the film's cast during the making of the film and later recalled, «I was thinking about some of the people who were hanging out in the West Village at the time. Without going into too much detail, I just started this husky, tough, very world-weary voice and said, «Oh my God, I'm going to have some fun with this.»
He had two reasons for accepting the role. The first, and artistically the most compelling, was that he wanted to poke fun at the pomposity and conceit of many of his fellow actors, some of whom scornfully abandoned him when he was considered a box office kryptonite, only to grovel in return when his career recovered. And secondly, what he admitted to understandably surprised Rogan was that «Then I was like, 'Well, hold on, man, be honest, where's your heart?' My heart… I will mentally be black for the summer, so there is something in it for me.”
However, Downey Jr. also realized that if Stiller hadn't handled the material well, it would have ruined not only his career, but the careers of everyone involved. As he later reflected: “[Stiller] knew exactly what the vision for it was, he executed it, it was impossible for it not to be an offensive movie nightmare. And 90 percent of my black friends said, «Dude, that was great.» I can't disagree with [the others], but I know where my heart lies. I think it's never a reason to do something inappropriate and untimely, but for me it blew my hat on [the question]. I think moral psychology is job number one. Sometimes you just need to say, «Yeah, I screwed up.» In its defense, Tropic Thunder talks about how wrong [blackface] is, so I object.»
Tom Cruise as Les Grossman Photo: Alami
However, blackface was just one of the various sins against taste that Tropic Thunder was accused of at the time and thereafter. Some of the aspects of the film that have been criticized include fat shame (in the form of obese, sweaty comedian Jack Black playing a character literally called Fat Man), homophobia — Brandon T. Jackson's closeted rapper tries to sell an energy drink called Booty Shake . — and anti-Semitism, with Tom Cruise's uncredited performance as a bullying, obnoxious studio executive named Les Grossman, who is described as a Jewish face.
All this will indeed offend the faint of heart, but the film is a raucous satire aimed at adults who understand the intent. And then, unfortunately, there was Simple Jack.
Looking back, it's clear that Stiller and his collaborators anticipated the controversy that would arise over Lazarus and the blackface aspects. But they didn't see where the film's portrayal of Speedman's failed attempt to rehabilitate his career by appearing in the Oscar-winning Plain Jack would lead.
A running joke in the film is that by taking on the role of a mentally handicapped farmhand who can talk to animals, Speedman dug even deeper into the abyss of his career. Understandably, a shocked Lazarus says, «Everyone knows you never get retarded,» before listing examples of stars winning awards before announcing, «Ask Sean Penn, 2001, I'm Sam.» Remember? Left behind, returned home empty-handed.
Tropic Thunder's Dreamworks studio was convinced enough of the usefulness of «Simple Jack» as a discussion tool to create a website to spoof the fake movie. It worked, but not in the way they expected. A coalition of disabled groups objected to the use of the word «retarded» in the film and, after due outrage at a special screening of the film, staged a protest at the American premiere on 11 August.
An exasperated Stiller said, «We've shown the film so many times and it was revealed very late… in the context of the film, I think it's really clear they were making fun of actors and actors who were trying to use serious items to win awards.» The rationale was clear: this is obviously a satire of smug actors, not race, disability, or any other issue, and those who are offended missed the point.
In fact, it's the film's willingness to flirt (and even go further) with various increasingly problematic poignant questions that transforms Tropic Thunder from an entertaining but one-off summer blockbuster into a satire of surprising audacity. — especially since it is a big-budget studio film with big stars.
From all the subsequent remarks by Stiller and Downey Jr., it seems quite clear that much of the humor is deliberately designed to provoke its audience. There is really no need for the character of Lazarus to spend most of the movie in blackface. Thus, its outrageousness becomes the main selling point, rather than a supposed satire of intense and overly dedicated actors.
Robert Downey Jr as Kirk Lazarus Photo: Reuters
Of course Tropic Thunder couldn't have been filmed today. 2008 may not seem like a long time ago, but a change in perception in Hollywood meant that the film would now either be so cleaned up that the jokes would lose all poignancy, or it would be canceled long before production began.
There has not been such an incendiary comedy in cinemas for many years. Jennifer Lawrence's recent film No Hard Feelings may have garnered some attention with Lawrence's unexpected nude scene, but that was a no-brainer: the major studios are now avoiding any hint of controversy in their films. Just compare the harmless, harmless humor in the recent edgy Joy Ride to the insanely non-computerized jokes in Stiller's There's Something About Mary, and it's clear that the closest modern cinema comes to this kind of film. The Deadpool series is more smirking smug than genuinely provocative.
There are occasional speculations that Cruz wants to resurrect Grossman in one form or another when he finishes Mission: Impossible. It could work (Cruz rarely has a comedic gift) or just be a smug reprise of a character that audiences have largely forgotten about. However, if by some chance another Tropic Thunder movie ever gets the green light, one can only wonder if the unrepentant Stiller, Downey Jr. and the rest will see if they can do something even more offensive. Fingers crossed.
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