Jeremy’s Tophunder №62: Tropic Thunder

6 min readApr 6, 2020

Here’s a question that I’m probably not qualified to answer:

Is Tropic Thunder an offensive movie?

There are two components of the movie that have been the subject of a decent amount of controversy — the use of blackface, and its depiction and discussion of the mentally handicapped. But when the movie is a comedy about the making of another fake movie, and serves as a satire for the Hollywood process in general, does that change things?

Yes, the use of blackface is racist. But, is depicting and satirizing racist behavior racist? There was an episode of Mad Men where Roger Sterling wears blackface and sings “My Old Kentucky Home.” The episode takes place in 1963. Is Roger Sterling racist? Yes. But is the show itself racist for using that as part of the episode? I don’t know. I genuinely don’t.

The same thing happens here. Robert Downey Jr. plays Kirk Lazarus, an Australian method actor (in the vein of Daniel Day-Lewis or Christian Bale) who undergoes “skin pigmentation alteration” in order to play a black character in the fake movie that Tropic Thunder is about. Are the fake movie and the fake character racist? Again, unquestionably yes. But are the real movie and the real actor racist and offensive?

Similar questions arise surrounding Ben Stiller’s character Tugg Speedman’s fake movie Simple Jack. Tugg Speedman portrays a mentally handicapped character in an objectively offensive way. Then Speedman and Lazarus have an offensive conversation about the way Speedman offensively played the character. But when all of that is layered into a satirical take on real-life actors who take themselves too seriously, is it still offensive? Again, I don’t know.

My first instinct is to say no, depicting fictional racism is not racist, and depicting fictional ignorance about mental handicaps is not ignorant. But I’m also approaching this from a position of privilege. I’m white. I’m not mentally handicapped. Of course it’s convenient for me to say that it’s satire, and therefore okay, because I don’t have to confront issues like racism and stigma surrounding the mentally handicapped on a daily basis.

The filmmakers, to some extent, did their part to respond to the controversy. They previewed the film for the NAACP, and several black journalists reacted positively to Downey Jr’s character. On the other hand, several disability advocacy groups, including the Special Olympics, were still offended by the film after their own private screening, and publicly protested the film. Stiller, who wrote and directed the movie, said, “in the context of the film I think it’s really clear, [we] were making fun of the actors and actors who try to use serious subjects to win awards.” For the most part, I buy that. But again, it’s not my place to decide what is and isn’t offensive to a group of people that I’m not a member of.

Setting those questions aside, however, leaves us with the movie itself. It’s a genuinely funny movie throughout, with great performances from just about everyone involved. The high points are probably Downey Jr (he was nominated for an Oscar in a straight comedy movie, which almost never happens), but in fact, for as high-profile as the three leads are, most of the biggest laughs come from the supporting cast. Danny McBride is hilarious as the fake movie’s pyrotechnics and explosives expert, especially the opening. Matthew McConaughey as Tugg Speedman’s agent fighting tooth and nail for his client’s TiVo, and Tom Cruise as studio executive Les Grossman. Cruise is probably my favorite performance in the movie — I remember seeing it in theaters, going in not knowing that Cruise was in the movie. With all the prosthetics he’s wearing, it actually took me a minutes to realize who it was.

Cruise is fantastic. After Speedman gets kidnapped by heroin manufacturers in Southeast Asia and try to hold him for ransom, Cruise goes on a screaming tirade of threats before hanging up and calmly asking his assistant, “will you find out who that was?” Probably the biggest laugh in the movie for me.

More than the performances, the way that each role was designed as part of the fake movie within the movie. The fake Tropic Thunder is a very stereotypical take on big-budget ensemble war movies. You’ve got the Oscar-winning serious actor to give the movie artistic credibility (Downey Jr’s character), you’ve got the A-List action star to help the movie sell tickets (Ben Stiller), you’ve got the comedy star to bring in that crowd (Jack Black’s character), the rapper trying to make it as an actor (Brandon Jackson), and then the young actor just happy to be along for the ride (Jay Baruchel). Then, of course, you have the over-the-top studio head (Cruise), the grizzled war veteran who wrote the book (Nick Nolte), and the young director who’s in over his head on an expensive and ambitious project (Steve Coogan). Everything just fits together. It’s a really well-conceived idea.

Some elements of the fake movie are inspired by the real-life movie The Island of Dr. Moreau — in which an aging Marlon Brando and an in-his-prime Val Kilmer stumbled their way through a comically troubled production due to various personal issues, and director Richard Stanley (just 29 years old at the time) was fired three days into filming. The movie is absolutely horrible, but at the very least it’s worth reading about on Wikipedia.

I remember being pleasantly surprised by Tropic Thunder when I saw it the first time — I was expecting it to be funny, but not funny enough that I still think about it 12 years later. As I re-watched it earlier this week, as with most comedies, it wasn’t quite as laugh-out-loud funny as it once was. Still, though, it actually holds up reasonably well as an absurdist war movie. Ben Stiller is actually a pretty underrated director — I also really enjoyed The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, and Stiller managed to get some good visuals into both movies. As I watched Tropic Thunder, I found myself less impressed with the comedy than I remember, but much more impressed with the cinematography than I ever really noticed before.

To come full circle, Tropic Thunder is a movie that has stayed with me ever since I first saw it. In recent years, however, it’s been staying with me for the reasons I mentioned up at the top. I’m not sure if it’s a movie we should still be celebrating. Do I think Tropic Thunder will be looked at by history in the way Song of the South is now? No. But I can’t think of any other recent mainstream movies in which a white actor portrays a black character, satire or not. It’s a movie I still like a great deal, but I’m open to someone changing my mind about it. Until then, it’s №62 on my list.

(For a refresher on the project, I introduced it in a Facebook Post on Day 1)

Here’s our progress on the list so far:

6. The Fugitive

9. Saving Private Ryan

11. The Big Short

13. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

17. Ocean’s 11

22. Remember The Titans

24. Apollo 13

27. All The President’s Men

31. The Lost World: Jurassic Park

34. Catch Me If You Can