Activists for Disabled to Protest 'Tropic Thunder' Movie

Published Aug 15th, 2008 The Boston Globe

Activists say they are staging protests at three movie theaters today to protest the depiction of people with disabilities in the new movie comedy "Tropic Thunder."

The activists plan to rally at theaters in Randolph, Bellingham, and Framingham, expressing their objections to the use of the words "retard," "moron," and "imbecile" in the movie.

"We are urging the general public not to spend their hard-earned dollars on this film because of its deplorable and demeaning view of a person with intellectual disabilities," Fred Misilo, president of The Arc of Massachusetts, said in a statement.

In the movie, Ben Stiller plays a fading action star desperate to be taken seriously as an actor. He has just made a box-office bomb called "Simple Jack" in which he played a severely mentally disabled man, and he embarks on making a Vietnam War movie called "Tropic Thunder."

Leo Sarkissian, executive director of The Arc of Massachusetts, interviewed by phone from the Randolph protest this afternoon, said that the film "reinforces the worst stereotypes."

"This just highlights all the teasing when you're a kid. 'Hey, there's the retard over there' ... It's a real disappointment," he said.

He said activists would like a scene cut from the movie where Stiller discusses his role in "Simple Jack" with another of the actors. But if that doesn't happen, activists plan to use it as an opportunity to educate people about intellectual disabilities, he said.

"It's a comedy," Stiller told CBS-TV's "The Early Show" on Thursday. "We're really making fun of ourselves. The whole movie is about actors, and actors who try to do things to be taken seriously. So, in the context of the movie, I'm really comfortable that's how it comes off."

Another critic of the film: Timothy P. Shriver, chairman of the Special Olympics. He said on Huffingtonpost.com last week that the movie was "an unchecked assault on the humanity of people with intellectual disabilities -- an affront to dignity, hope, and respect."

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2008/08/activists_for_d.html