So maybe using the tag line, “Once upon a time there was a retard,“ on mock promo posters wasn’t such a good idea. Yes many found it funny and even more didn’t notice, but not Timothy P. Shriver, chairman of the Special Olympics, who is pushing for a boycott of the film and is gathering the troops to picket the movie’s premiere this evening in Hollywood.
The film’s repeated use of the word “retard” to refer to a character, Simple Jack, who is played by Mr. Stiller in a subplot about an actor who chases an Oscar by portraying a Forest Gump-like character is as bad as a white man in a pink Polo sweater draped around his shoulders dropping the N-word.
Mr. Shriver is incensed and he’s on the war path to protect the intellectually disabled by asking members of Congress for a resolution condemning what he called the movie’s “hate speech” and calling for stronger federal support.
“The most disappointing thing, the most incredible thing, is that nobody caught it,” said Mr. Shriver, who, as a co-producer of the DreamWorks film “Amistad,” is no stranger to the studio. He spoke of what he described as the studio’s and the filmmakers’ blatant disregard for the disabled even as they stepped carefully around other potentially offensive references, notably in a story line that has Robert Downey Jr. playing a white actor who changes his skin color to play a black soldier.
In a statement on Sunday, Chip Sullivan, a DreamWorks spokesman, said the movie was “an R-rated comedy that satirizes Hollywood and its excesses and makes its point by featuring inappropriate and over-the-top characters in ridiculous situations.” Mr. Sullivan, in the statement, added that the film was not meant to disparage or harm people with disabilities and that DreamWorks expected to work closely with disability groups in the future. But, he said, “No changes or cuts to the film will be made.” - NYTimes
