Rated R for 145;retard146;?

Ben Stiller has courted controversy with Tropic Thunder, a comedy that satirises Hollywood
Ben Stiller handed them out to cast and crew at the conclusion of a punishing 13-week location shoot as a gesture of thanks, but also contrition: T-shirts that read 8220;I SURVIVED BEN STILLER8217;S COMEDY DEATH CAMP8221;. Sitting at a restaurant in Vancouver, where he8217;s currently filming Night at the Museum 2, Stiller8212;who co-wrote, directed, co-produced and stars in the ensemble action-comedy Tropic Thunder8212;waved it away as a riff on marquee star Robert Downey Jr.8217;s acerbic nickname for the production, most of which unfolded in the steaming jungles of Kauai last year. But according to actor Jay Baruchel, Stiller might have had a different rationale for his choice of 8220;wrap8221; gifts. He called Stiller a mensch and 8220;one of the kindest directors8221; he8217;s worked with, but continued: 8220;I think for everybody, it signalled the end of the madness.8221;

Said Baruchel, who, like Stiller and Downey in the film, portrays an actor caught in the middle of real paramilitary strife while filming a Vietnam War epic, 8220;It rained 12 times a day. People were getting sick.8221; Added Jack Black: 8220;A couple of people got bit by centipedes.8221;
The shirts provide a telling glimpse of comedy death camp8217;s head counselor. After two decades in the business, Stiller has become one of Hollywood8217;s most consistently hit-making A-listers and has made it to Forbes magazine8217;s list of the Top 10 most bankable stars. Stiller, 42, began incubating the idea for Tropic Thunder more than 20 years ago, developed the script off and on for the last decade and landed a budget from DreamWorks reported to be around 100 million. With its biting satire of studio greed, talent-agent vapidity, movie star butt-kissing and hubris, the R-rated homage to films such as Apocalypse Now and The Thin Red Line is a hugely expensive poke in Hollywood8217;s eye. Tropic Thunder marks Stiller8217;s return to the kind of edgy, take-no-prisoners humour he became known for on his early 8217;90s MTV variety programme, The Ben Stiller Show.

Tropic Thunder8217;s movie within a movie centers on a quintet of buffoonish yet instantly recognisable Hollywood types8212;Black plays a 8220;fart movie8221; comic saddled with certain chemical dependency issues, while Downey portrays a pretentious Australian method actor and a nearly-unrecognisable Tom Cruise is cast as a profanity-spewing studio boss. A real war erupts deep into the jungle; Stiller portrays Tugg Speedman, a washed-up action superstar.
Chief among the film8217;s vivid characters is Kirk Lazarus, a quintessential method actor who undergoes a 8220;controversial8221; skin-darkening treatment to portray an African-American sergeant8212;played by Downey. Stiller8217;s Tugg breaks action-hero type to play a 8220;mentally impaired farmhand8221;8212;a wild-eyed, bucktoothed simpleton who is repeatedly referred to as a 8220;retard8221; in Tropic Thunder8212;with hopes of winning an Academy Award. Stiller said. 8220;It comes back to what we are satirising: the actors and the Hollywood system. What do you do to be taken seriously?8221; Patricia E. Bauer, who blogs about disabilities issues, wrote of the film: 8220;For the 14.3 million Americans with cognitive disabilities, such arguments may be problematic.8221;
_ LATWP