There’s a movie that seems to be in the early stages of causing an uproar over a racial issue. Apparently in this movie, someone of one race will be wearing realistic makeup to make the character seem like he is of a completely different race.
Besides the obvious outcry that this is demeaning, is the accusation that work has been taken away from someone of the target race who could just as easily have been hired to play the part in the film.
If you’re curious about what I’m talking about, see below.
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The African American Wayans Brothers play two white woman in White Chicks
I can totally see the outrage over this, I mean with all the white, young blonde actresses trying to get a break in Hollywood, how could these guys possibly be so racist as to take work away from who could be the next two big starlets of Tinseltown? I mean… um, what?… You mean this isn’t all about White Chicks? There was no outcry over the race reversal in that movie?
Oh… sorry. My bad.
I guess the worry is about a different movie. This summer another comedy movie using the cross-race gag will be coming out: Tropic Thunder. In this movie Robert Downey Jr will play a white man playing a black man in a movie within the movie (got that?).
Robert Downey Jr. plays a black man in Tropic Thunder
From what I’ve read, the comedic part of Downey Jr.’s role depends upon the fact that he is a white guy playing a black man, much as the humor in White Chicks was supposed to come from a couple of black men playing white blonde women.
According to Entertainment Weekly:
“Robert Downey Jr. plays Kirk Lazarus, a very serious Oscar-winning actor cast in the most expensive Vietnam War film ever. Problem is, Lazarus’s character, Sgt. Osiris, was originally written as black. So Lazarus decides to dye his skin and play Osiris, um, authentically.”
Here’s the picture that started the whole thing:
The movie has nothing to do with finding humor in racial stereotypes, rather the goal (which I’m 100% behind) was to poke fun at pampered Hollywood stars by having the director of the film within the film drop them into a live war zone in Vietnam so they could get a taste of real hardship.
I’ll fess up right here and tell you that before I knew that this was the plot of the film, I had been offended by the trailer. I thought that it was portraying a band of actual soldiers as “wacky guys” in the middle of the conflict. But now that I know the context, it does indeed look like it may be pretty damned funny.
If you want to see the “red band” trailer (for language), you’ll need to provide age verification information over at the official website.
Personally I think any racist accusations raised against this film in the media will be from the usual bunch of attention-hungry talking heads that pop up at every opportunity.
Tropic Thunder opens on August 15th and stars Ben Stiller, Jack Black & Robert Downey Jr.
Source: EW via First Showing
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71 Comments
Vic-
Thanks, that means a lot! I am a happy-go-lucky type of guy so maybe I have an advantage over a lot of people. I just don’t spend a lot of time thinking about things that don’t really matter.
Bill Cosby was 100% and I have a feeling he wasn’t just talking about Black people. Personal responsibility is something most kids of any race lack these days.
I must admit, I have used that crusade argument now and then. I’m not just anti-Christian, I’m anti-religion. With 11,000 distinct religious beliefs on earth and even more distinct and complex denominations of each, everyone thinks they’re right and everyone else is wrong….but let’s not get into that! I respect anyone’s personal beliefs beliefs. If it helps you get through the day that’s fine, as long as you do not try to implement them in a government environment.
Again, thank you for your kind words!
I think the important thing here is that we all agree “White Chicks” sucked because it wasn’t funny…
Regarding the crusades, I think it’s a bit of a different issue than race discrimination. Christians are a self-identified group of people and much easier to blame for iniquities of the past than…whoever you might view as being responsible for slavery now. White people? Americans? The descendants of slave owners? None of these people choose to be any of these things, like Christians do.
Granted, modern Christians are no more responsible for the Crusades than modern white people are responsible for slavery. But many modern Christians (not just in radical groups) still defend the crusades. This includes the appropriately-named Campus Crusade for Christ, a massive group of religious college students in which I was once involved.
I know these comments have become completely derailed at this point, but it’s such an interesting discussion I can’t help myself.
Brad,
Yeah, absolution of personal responsibility is a disease that seems to be affecting EVERYONE these days.
And Liz, I don’t defend the Crusades except as far as the purpose behind them was to stop Muslims at the time from converting Europe to Islam by the sword, which is something that I rarely hear mentioned.
I’m sure there were political and other motivations besides that one and that I don’t agree with at all. Let’s not even talk about the inquisition…
Vic
I don’t agree that racial distinctions are merely superficial. They are cultural and innate. If not, the world would be all one cuisine, one culture, one boring place.
There really are overbearing jewish mothers (Everybody loves Raymond).
There are indeed loudmouthed pushy blacks (Starkisha [Finesse] from SNL).
There are myopic white bigots
(Archie Bunker)…
and hot blooded italians, drunk irishmen, lazy latinos…bleeding heart liberals and cold blooded republicans…
Not to mention internet geeks who need to “get a life.” ( I don’t agree that racial distinctions are merely superficial. They are cultural and innate. If not, the world would be all one cuisine, one culture, one boring place.
There really are overbearing jewish mothers (Everybody loves Raymond).
There are indeed loudmouthed pushy blacks (Starkisha [Finesse] from SNL).
There are myopic white bigots
(Archie Bunker)…
and hot blooded italians, drunk irishmen, lazy latinos…bleeding heart liberals and cold blooded republicans…
Not to mention internet geeks who need to “get a life.” ( <–that would be me)
I’ve given up making everybody happy about race. Why should I, when there’s so much to laugh at?
***Edit
Not to mention internet geeks who need to “get a life” (that would be me)
Jim, of course all stereotypes come from somewhere, but we shouldn’t let the minority (of any group) define the majority.
I think I’m about done talking about this, although I’ve been impressed with the civility of this thread.
We’ve got good visitors here!
Vic
Sci-fi internet geeks rule!!
“Sci-fi internet geeks rule!!”
At least in “World of Warcraft.” lol
Vic
Aaahhh
I should have said sci-fi tv, and film geeks rule.
“World of Warcraft” is not worthy.
“Sci-fi internet geeks rule!!”
Are you talking to me? Are you talking to ME?
Didn’t mean to cast aspersions. I’ll get even by casting Annette into the sea.
Hey there goes another one, “hold your fire, there’s no lifeforms aboard”….
The whole wikipedia thing is a bit of a joke- that’s why I cant believe the co-writer of The Passion of The Christ is using it as a source in his lawsuit against Mel Gibson- see this :
http://screenrant.com/archives/hollywood-a-town-called-sue-1366.html
Niall
Love the sarcastic reference to “White Chicks”.
Anyone pulling double standards needs to dig back to the movie “Watermelon Man” it did a great job of showcasing racial stereotype as well. All within intelligent limits.
Wow! I’ve never seen a discussion on this topic that has been soo civil. Bravo guys!
Brad,
You sound like a guy I used to work with when I worked for the government. His name was also Brad. Did you ever work at the National Imagery and Mapping Agency?
While I agree that race relations are better, we have a long way to go. Not too long ago, in Luoisville, KY., I was walking down the street going to a friends house. A white woman on the other side of the street looked at me and ran away. I turned to see why she was running and found nothing. Today, people have confessed to me that I frightened them when I wore my scully, shades, and black leather jacket; I laughed because I am 6′1”, black with a van-dyke, and weigh over 300 pounds. My son says I would be a perfect bouncer, as long as I don’t talk (he says I sound white, whatever that means LOL). As long as we have men and women who commit crimes instead of being lawful members of society, these stereotypes will always exist.
I did not hear any outcries when “Soul Man” came out, so why this film. These are comedies, not some movie on the social problems of the world.
As a Black man I just cant stop laughing at these photos. They’re so damn hilarious. Whoever gets offended by this humor should examine their priorities. I mean really, if you read the plot, you have to say, it’s rather innovative.
Who cares! Lets worry about who is pulling the strings for Obama and McCain. Ahh… who cares about that too
Ooh oooh South Park is on
lol…. Are you serious??… Am Black and I think Robert Downey Jr. is just being funny, besides i don’t feel offended and I shouldn’t think you should either ….
And am gonna be lined up 2 see that MOVIE!!!
It looks like it will be a very entertaining film. I am a black woman and see nothing wrong with either Eddie Murphy playing a an old white man or RDJ playing a black man. They are actors and that’s their job and it also makes us…the human race take a closer look at ourselves and we see that everybody no matter what is somebody. And we get to analize sterotypes and rise above them and even laugh at them.
This film is yet another racist attack on the people of Africa. There is nothing funny about this.
http://truthfirstnow.blogspot.com
Up: Robert Downey Jr. in blackface which seems very lulzy…as blackface always is.
Down: Jack Black
@Truthfirst I’m probably an idiot for responding, but you’re wrong. See the movie and you’ll find out that it actually pokes fun at the ACTOR Robert Downey Jr is portraying, not at blacks.
IMHO it’s people like you that actually help perpetuate racism by constantly calling attention to race.
Vic
I’m surprised,Vic that its not the Rev.Al Sharpton or Rev.Jesse Jackson causing the most uproar over this film,but group’s who support the mentally disabled for the reference to the movie within the movie,Simple Jack.Who would have thought that?
Yeah, didn’t see that one coming, of course at the time this post was written I don’t believe there was any hint of Ben Stiller playing a mentally handicapped character in the film.
I understand THAT concern (use of the word “retard”) but really within the context of the film it’s the actor portraying the character that is made fun of, not the character. (If that makes any sense)
Vic
white chicks did not take away roles from potentially upcoming actresses….the point of the movie was FBI agents going undercover as young women and that would have been a hell of a lot funnier if the FBI agents were men, and even more of a contrast if they were of a different race
I agree with james burgham, they didn’t take away any role from actresses because they wern’t looking for actresses to play the role.
and Robert downey jr isnt being racist at all just funny
im african and im not at all offended.
Thanks for stopping by my post. I wanted to tell you how right you were about RDJ, but you failed to mention Tom Cruise!
But to remain in the context of your post (that’s going strong since march, amazing), I appreciated RDJ’s performance in the movie. There are more offensive portrayals about Black people by Blacks themselves, and RDJ didn’t fall into any typical acting mechanism when he did this role.
build a bridge and get over it to all the people thoroughly offended by this genius work.
Dude shut the hell up. You’re making an issue when there isn’t one. It’s the 21st century, it’s done because it’s funny, there is nothing in any of these movies to be taken seriously. It’s anal people like you who create the issues, someone can impersonate another race without any hard feelings, it’s a joke, alright, a joke. There is nothing racist about it, it’s when people like you get butt hurt, stick your nose where it doesn’t belong and slap the racist sticker on here. I’m sure the “next two big stars of Tinseltown” will fine another gig, if they are the next big thing then they won’t be missing any meals. Stop pointing the racist finger at bullshit things like this, it’s just a MOVIE, seriously.
The reason we go to movies is to escape such uptight antics in our society. Honestly it is just a movie to where we are just meant to laugh and not take things so seriously. there arent any true personal attacks and if we are unable to laugh at ourselves or not be so serious all the time then its a personal problem
Ok I’m black and I thought it was funny. Its a joke and I can understand that, I don’t know why people such a big deal of it nowadays. It is 2008, shut the hell up about race, everyone is different let it go. But anyways, does anybody think Robert’s character look a little like Tyson Gay, but without the afro lol, take a look and you decide
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29601881@N05/2787191037/
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