Tropic Thunder – taking on the world’s issues
It may be hard to digest at first, and even though it’s not in cinemas anymore and has been out of the radar for a while now… Tropic Thunder starring Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jnr and Jack Black, has made some very important waves in raising awareness of social issues through the benefit of entertainment. There’s more to it then you may first realise.
But what are these underlying social issues being addressed through the comedy flick, you might ask? This can be broken down into three categories which develops interest and sparks thought into media’s perception on issues facing people today; race supremacy, simple jack and jellybeans. So let’s get down to business.
Supremacy of any race in the modern society; whether skin colour, religion, age group etc, has often been pushed to extremes for the westernised world and here’s the stance. “White man undergoing controversial skin pigmentation alteration to play the lead role of a black man”…? We might as well come out and say it! Why not cast an African American actor to play the role of an African America soldier? Tropic Thunder comically highlights white supremacy as a social issue when Robert Downey Jnr takes a risk in medical history to change the colour of his skin to play one of the leading roles. For any particular reason, you might ask? Anglo-Saxon domination. The only logical, or rather illogical reason there could be. Casters might have thought that even though the role was of an African American man, that they could not trust his abilities, talents or even his presence onset to be of the same or better standard of that of a white man, and this is highlighted and ridiculed by Tropic Thunder, bringing inequality issues to a stand point for modern society.
‘Simple Jack’ is a metaphor for the big screen movies making money and gaining fame from retelling the story of ‘simple-minded’ persons who have changed the world in one way or another., or in other words, exploiting their situation to make people go ‘aww’.
The ‘aww’ isn’t the problem with this situation but simply the way in which society exploits the stories of persons with disabilities in order to fulfil their own ambitious dreams of what reality could and should be.
Stories of overcoming adversity in tough times and especially those of people who have an ailment can be very touching and inspirational as can triumphant stories of minorities rising to the challenge, however where do we draw the line to say enough is enough and stop staring at my kahoota? Is it time to say “yes, there is something different about me that can be either a good or not-so-good challenge, but I’m capable and talented just like mainstream society with, or without a movie about me”? This of course, is up to individuals discretion, however is depicted throughout Tropic Thunder as a ‘bad career move’ to play the part of a ‘fully-retarded’ person – once again opening the vision of the mainstream movie-watching population to the inequalities within society for the portrayal of persons with a disability.
The disillusioning effects of ‘jellybeans’. Yes, we must bring up this frightfully dreaded yet mysterious subject of the effects of drugs, aka ‘jellybeans’ with the aid of a comedy twist. Although Jack Black was able to do his part to save the day in the film, taking drugs can seriously affect your health for the worse.
Big screen pressures and the paparazzi can sure give the edge for the acting and popular entertainment industry and unwanted and often, illegal habits can sometimes occur. Although comical, it’s a serious issue that affects thousands of users each day who struggle to kick the habit and bring their lives back on track. Yes, this is a realistic portrayal of uncensored issues within communities and the world wide drug trade, but it really makes you think, is there something further that we should be doing, not doing, showing or not showing?
And all of this in the days work of wanna be super-star heroic action figures, Tropic Thunder cast and crew have quite cleverly uncovered and divulged some of societies’ top issues today. Perhaps there are underlying humanitarian meanings and issues in a lot more of the films and television shows that we watch, and it’s our mission to look deeper and fight harder for the real issues in contemporary society that our future really hangs on?
