[DSALF] Tropic Thunder Movie

[Guest guest]

Passing this on..please take a couple of minutes to post a comment

on Pat’s website:

From: DSALF

[mailto:DSALF ] On Behalf Of Amy

Sent: Monday, August 04, 2008 12:11 PM

To: DSALF

Subject: [DSALF] Tropic Thunder Movie

Please read the note below from Pat Bauer which

was forwarded to me

to post on DSALF. We need to make some noise here folks! Go post

your comments, suggestions, and disdain for this film at the link

provided by Pat.

Amy

Executive Director

Down Syndrome Guild

of Greater Kansas City

Hello DS Affiliate Leaders-

I wonder if you could help me with something.

First, take a look at the following link:

http://www.patriciaebauer.com/2008/08/04/readers-advice/

This post is my attempt to get people to engage on the debate over

Tropic Thunder, an upcoming R-rated comedy starring Ben Stiller. The

movie includes many repetitions of the word " retard, " and includes

the line " Never go full retard. "

A quick recap: The film features Ben Stiller, Downey Jr. and

Jack Black as actors filming a war movie on location. Stiller's

character is a fading action star who earlier made a bid for

fame in a movie called " Simple Jack, " in which he played a man with

an intellectual disability.

" Simple Jack " is featured as a film within a film, with Stiller in

character in an institutional bowl haircut and bad teeth. The movie

within a movie has its own marketing website, www.simplejack.com,

featuring the slogan " Once upon a time ... There was a retard. "

Since I started posting about this last week, a coalition of

disability rights group has come together and secured a meeting this

coming Wednesday with studio executives to voice concerns about the

promotion of hurtful stereotypes. I'd like to assemble a good stack

of comments from thoughtful people in anticipation of the meeting.

The studio people are reading my website, and I'm hoping film

critics will, too. If people comment there, their voices will be

heard.

I would greatly appreciate anything you could do to push this link

out ASAP to people far and wide -- by column, by listserv, by email --

you name it.

Many, many thanks for your help!

All the best,

Pat Bauer

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