Offensiveness is a funny thing. Or a not funny thing, depending on which side of the offensive material your beliefs lie.
"Tropic Thunder," a spoofy film that boasts an all-star cast taking broad swipes at a number of Hollywood and cultural aspects, has generated a lot of controversy in the past few days for being so offensive. The main controversy over the film is its liberal use of a derogative term for the mentally handicapped.
If this film didn't use this word about 20 times in the span of two minutes, "Tropic Thunder" could possibly be seen for what it is: a slightly above average comedy featuring an all-star cast with the likes of Ben Stiller (who also co-wrote and directed the film), Robert Downey Jr., Jack Black, Matthew McConaughey and a bald Tom Cruise (note to Tom: Do absolutely anything — anything! — necessary to hold on to those luscious brown locks of yours for as long as you can, bud).
With the publicity this word has brought to "Tropic Thunder" come the expectations that this movie could be the most offensive thing ever brought to film. Make no mistake: There's plenty else here that could be taken for being at least as offensive as that one word. Downey Jr. in blackface, for one.
And "Tropic" is likely to offend a majority of those with any tendency to be offended. Depending on one's perspective, everyone from veterans to religious types to mental handicapped advocacy groups to blacks to whites to people who "¦ well, people, may find something here to take issue with.
But I'd say the controversy, as is so often the case with controversy, has been largely overblown. To these eyes and ears, "Tropic" is no more offensive to the mentally handicapped than another Stiller flick which never caught too much guff for its offensiveness, "There's Something About Mary." It's not like "Tropic" is going to spawn a catchphrase ("Frank and beans!") to associate with an entire group of people.
Make sure you get to the theater early. "Tropic" starts off with some of the most shocking "previews" this side of the ones sandwiched between "Planet Terror" and "Grindhouse." For a minute, I had to ask myself, "Wait, did he just say what I think he said? What kind of a preview is this?!" I figured it out eventually.
In "Tropic," Stiller plays Tugg Speedman, an action movie star headlining a war movie featuring the likes of Kirk Lazarus (Downey Jr. playing a white Australian guy playing a black guy) and Jeff Portney (Black), an Eddie Murphy-like comic known for playing about seven fat characters in one film.
When the director decides to get the most out of his pampered "troops," he drops them in the middle of a dangerous mountain region, where the people pointing guns at them are not acting — unbeknownst to our would-be war heroes.
The film takes a number of well-placed jabs at traditional war movies such as "Apocalypse Now" and "Platoon." You know the old "pretending to urinate next to a guy who's really urinating so you can tell him your secret plan" trick? "Tropic" has it. Or the heartstring-tugging "I'm going to stay here. You tell the world what happened here" scenario? Yep, "Tropic" covers that one, too.
At its best, "Tropic" is spot-on in its sense of humor, and Stiller deserves some credit for this. I'm not one to be offended easily, so I can admit to laughing out loud at some things here that probably wouldn't be filed into the "politically correct" file.
At the same time, comedic attempts with the sole purpose of trying to be offensive usually doesn't turn out so funny after all, and "Tropic" occasionally falls victim to this tendency as well.
At its most elementary level, comedy is about making us laugh at that which we know we aren't "supposed" to laugh at. Of course, their "above joking" nature can make talking about them all the more funny.
"Tropic Thunder" realizes this, managing to get the laughs right at least half of the time.
Joel Sensenig is news editor of the Review Times.