Pleasure and Principles: Why I Won't Be Seeing Tropic of Thunder
Box Office returns be damned, I wouldn't watch "Tropic Thunder" if a pristine screening copy was left on my doormat. That critics pens are bleeding love for this ill conceived comedy makes no difference to me. That at least one of them pronounced it not racist annoys me to no end. There is this compulsion today, among folk of every color, to pronounce events, behavior and other forms of entertainment "not racist" if they are amusing. Foolishness in the form of a epithet-laden outburst or a reductive stereotypical imitation occurs and then a level headed individual, who may count members of oft discriminated populations as friends or even lovers, steps in and condescends to the offended, be they Black, single-lidded or adherents to religions other than Christianity.
But Obamanation, you multiculti, a-hair-left-of-center progressives and neo-cons with soft spots for overachieving Blacks, that you find something funny doesn't make it inoffensive. Fun and fairness do not go hand in hand. Lunch counters were not sat in because their food was bad, they were challenged because their service was inequitable. And contemporary racists (I see you Spain) be advised, some bigots have always held those those they discriminate against in deep affection.
Now "Tropic Thunder" doesn't seek to just be comic but tongue in cheek, which is the escape clause for Robert Downey, Jr.'s hammy, tawny, baritone soldier. I don't buy it, even with scrawny incredulous Black sidekick Brandon Jackson in the picture and I know for a fact that the majority of filmgoers aren't in on the joke.
I like goofy comedies as much as the next gal but speaking as an anti-racist, a laugh or even two hours worth, won't ever account for sensationalism and exploitation.
Tags: Film, Race, Tropic Thunder
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