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ACTION ALERT – Offensive Portrayal of People with Intellectual Disabilities

in Movie Scheduled for Release on August 13, 2008

August 5, 2008

To:  State and Local Chapter Leaders

From:  Peter V. Berns, Executive Director

The following is important information about a movie — Tropic Thunder — that includes a very negative portrayal of a person with intellectual disabilities as well as extensive use of the R-word.  Release of this movie was discussed at the NCE meeting last week, as well as The Arc Board of Directors meeting on Sunday & Monday.  We now want to make sure everyone has the most current information available.

Background

Tropic Thunder is a comedy/action/adventure scheduled for release on August 13 and promises to be one of the blockbusters of the summer. DreamWorks is the film’s producer and Paramount is its distributor.

The film features popular actors Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr. and Jack Black as self-absorbed actors filming a big-budget war movie on location. Through a series of freak occurrences, they are forced to become the soldiers they are portraying.

Stiller plays Tugg Speedman, a fading action star who earlier failed in his bid for an Oscar as “Simple Jack,” a man with an intellectual disability. “Simple Jack” is featured as a film-within-a-film, with Stiller sporting a classic institutional bowl haircut and bad teeth. The film within-a-film’s promotional poster (below) bears the subtitle “Once upon a time there was a retard.”  Elsewhere is the slogan  “What he doesn’t have in his head, he makes up for in his heart.” A satirical plot synopsis quotes a critic as saying that Speedman’s Jack was “one of the most retarded performances in cinema history.”

While we have not yet seen the movie, from what has been publicly available it is clear that the film is a very negative portrayal of people with intellectual disabilities.  There has been mounting outrage from the disability community.  For excellent coverage of the issue, you may want to visit the website www.patriciaebauer.com and review her posts and responsive comments over the past week.  Hundreds of comments have been posted on the blog expressing outrage about the movie.

Promotional materials for the movie included an offensive website www.simplejakemovie.com that now appears to be no longer operational since The Arc and other disability groups started asking questions about the film.

I am flying out to Los Angeles on Wednesday August 6 to meet with  DreamWorks Chief Executive Officer and studio executives in Los Angeles, California on Wednesday, August 6.  I will be joining Joe Meadours, The Arc board member and executive director of People First of California, as well as representatives of other national disability organizations. The purpose of the meeting is to express our concerns, request a viewing of the film, and discuss possible solutions.

Call to Action Will Follow

The Arc national staff will be back in touch with you later in the week to provide an update about the meeting.  Depending on the outcome of the meeting, one option being considered is to call for a national boycott of the film and to urge state and local chapters of The Arc to go to the movies on August 13, 2008 with protest signs as well as appropriate informational literature.

As events unfold, we will send you additional information via email alerts.  Also watch the homepage of The Arc website where we will plan to post talking points and other information to help you organize and take action.   In particular, we will soon be posting to the site talking points about why the R-word is hate speech.

In the meantime there are a few preparations you can begin to make:

– review your communications options (email lists, etc) and think about how you will get the word out about this movie,

– compile a list of local media that you will want to reach out to about the issue,

– identify parents and self-advocates that you would like to have speak out,

– begin to draft op-ed articles and letters to the editor about the issue,

– identify other organizations that may be allies (e.g. ACLU, NAACP, other civil rights groups, other disability groups) that have networks you will also want to mobilize,

– talk to younger staff about how some of the social networking sites could be used to take action.

In short, please do your best to begin preparations for a massive action.  Again, we will be back to you with further information after the meeting.

Peter