Okay, disability rights advocates, get ready to take aim ... at me! As usual, I'm on the opposite side of an issue that sticks in the craw of the majority of disability advocates, many of whom are personal friends of mine. I generally keep my views to myself, but since the kind people in charge of this fine website community asked me to blog on a regular basis, I guess they want my opinions as well as my insight into Hollywood.
Yes, TROPIC THUNDER, the new Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr. comedy is over the top, raunchy, and overly fertilized with the F word, it is also a farce. Not a word of it is meant to be taken seriously. I did find that the so-called "controversial" scenes in it where Ben Stiller plays a stereotypical clueless actor playing a person with a mental disability made me a little uncomfortable, I still laughed, and I laughed hard. I laughed because I know that many times in private I've poked fun at my friends and family by calling them retarded. and I know most people have, and the ones who swear they never have are lying.
I would've thought that the African American community would have been more up in arms about Robert Downey Jr. playing an actor playing a black man. But, since the movie was previewed for representatives of the black community and was given their approval because Robert Downey's performance was so obviously satirical, I can only wonder if the loudest of the disgruntled voices in the disabled community were upset because they weren't afforded the same opportunity. (sorry, I digress into pure speculation.)
Part of my problem with the protests are the way people with disabilities are portrayed in the news media. Looking from the inside, I see what news footage I would choose to capture the eye of the TV viewing audience. Quite often we are made to look whiney, people with a chip on our shoulder. Unfortunately, those of us who are well spoken, who have a clear grasp of the issues and can explain them intelligently are lost on the cutting room floor. Sadly, if I was the news director I might make the same choices because the goal is to get an audience, more than it is to tell the real news. That is the truly sad state and of our times.
I'm thrilled that there are groups of us who are organized and can protest blatantly discriminatory depictions. The fact that movie and TV producers know that probably keeps them more honest. (iI know the reason I was called in as creative consultant on "Special Unit," a pilot for Comedy Central centered around a team of detectives with disabilities, was the catalyst the producers did not want to offend viewers with disabilities. Similarly, when I wrote, produced and starred in "The Hollywood Quad," thehollywoodquad.com, it was always in the back of my mind about how far to go before I was going too far.
INSIDER NOTE: Plans are in the works for a panel discussion at the Writers Guild of America tentatively titled "How Far is Too Far With Disability Humor?" The goal is to enlightened writers and producers of about our community and the way we think about ourselves and now we are perceived at that
Lastly, I'm glad we're being mentioned in movies at all. There was a time in the not too distant past when we were shoved in a closet and not spoken of, drowned at birth, shipped off into institutes for useless people or left behind our nomadic families to be eaten by wolves. Is there a time for a huge protest of our depiction in the movies? Absolutely! But, now isn't the time, we need to choose our battles more wisely.
Disagree? Bring it on, my friends, bring it on!
