PC Whiners Aside, Downey Jr. Deserves His Oscar Nod
On the heels of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announcing the nominees for their 81st shindig, there were the usual nontroversies over who was named and who was ignored.
Among all that, Hollywood trade paper Variety noted that Robert Downey Jr.'s nod for Best Supporting Actor in Tropic Thunder "marks the first time since Laurence Olivier's 1965 Othello that an actor has been nommed for playing a role in blackface."
Not quite true. Forrest Whitaker darkened his skin to play Idi Amin for his Oscar winning performance in The Last King of Scotland.
Slightly different circumstances, yes. But...
What Variety alludes to in their piece is that the Downey Jr. role is offensive. Mincing no words, Scott Feinberg over at the LA Times just comes out and says as much. Apparently bucking for a nomination for Best Performance by a White Guy Who Takes it Upon Himself to be Offended For Black People, Feinberg writes:
"I guess I just can't imagine any circumstance under which a blackface performance would be acceptable, any more than I can imagine any circumstance under which the use of the N-word would be acceptable."
Really? Can't imagine any circumstance to use the word Nigger? You mean, like in a Ralph Ellison novel?
Trustees of the Liberal Plantation aside, Downey Jr.'s performance is sharp, smart satire. Clever, but aimed squarely for the gut, in the way the New Yorker's Barack/Michelle-as-radicals cover was aimed at some other Brahmin organ that giggles with delight when it's self-manipulated.
My take away from the Kirk Lazarus/Lincoln Osiris is a comedic finger giving a hard wag at Hollywood; an industry that has no problem writing big checks for Barack Obama, but then can do no better than spend tens of millions of dollars offending minorities. Seriously, was Notorious the best ode to blackness Hollywood could give us for the King Day/Obama Inauguration long weekend?
I can't speak as to whether or not the Simple Jack story line or Les Grossman were offensive to their intended targets. But I can say that while I'll be putting what little energy I can muster for the Oscars into good wishes for Viola Davis and Taraji P. Henson, I'll have no problem if "Kirk Lazarus" gets the award he deserves.
For more perspective please go to That Minority Thing.com
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John Ridley displays lazy logic by dismissing out of hand African Americans and others who are offended by the use of Blackface in modern media. The history of Blackface as a method to tell the American story by intentionally excluding, lampooning and stereotyping people of African decent is still with us today(every weekend on Saturday Night Live for instance). Furthermore it is difficult to look at the dearth of racial diversity among all the nominees during award season(Emmy, Golden Globe, SAG, Oscar....) and not be sickened by the obvious lack of consistent opportunity that still exists in Hollywood.
I applaud Mr Ridley for the incredible artist that he is. But there are times when his iconoclastic views on Race in America give license and comfort to those who still want to wallow in blissful ignorance.
It should be noted that, unlike Laurence Olivier, Downey was not playing the role of a black man. His role was a white guy disguised as a black guy, like in the '80s movie Soul Man. I don't see the big deal. Eddie Murphy plays non-black characters all the time. None of them Oscar-worthy, but he does it. Not that I think Downey deserves an Oscar nod for Tropic Thunder. I enjoyed the movie, but c'mon, that was not Oscar material.
RDJ put in a good effort, but it ain't Oscar material. But not due to the 'blackface'.
The real problem was with his Australian diction adn accent. He was pretty good most the time, but Americans in particular have an unfortunate habit of getting the Ocker drawl a bit wrong, and end up sounding like a Londoner instead. I'm half-Australian, mate. Reckon I'd know.
Another thing was his choice of swearing: never in my life have I heard the epithet 'Crikey-F**k.' Now, if he'd subbed in something like 'Kennoath, mate' when agreeing with something, then I would have known RDJ had done is research.
That's probably because Kirk was originally written to be Irish, and Downey asked to have it changed to Australian because he could improv better with an Australian accent.
The movie was dumb. No knock against Robert but he didn't do anything fayasic that made him even stand out in this silly movie.
mel brooks did this 30 years ago with a movie called blazing saddles...i am sure that the pc crowd hates that movie because of richard pryors use of the n word...
Richard Pryor wasn't in Blazing Saddles
But he did co-write it. The use of the N-word was all him.
I don't think one magazine wagging their finger at Downey's performance is some sort of mandate against the performance. Let's not give their sole opinion any more gravitas then it deserves. After the movie premiered I did not hear one more grumbling word about Mr. Downey's performance from any ethnicity or race.
The first thing I said after viewing the movie was he deserved an Oscar nomination at least, but that I didn't think he woud get one just because of the role. Glad that he did. It was comic and acting genius. I was never a fan of Downey's maybe because he seemed to squander his opportunities so easily. But he won me back in his corner for that simply brilliant performance.
His performance was fantastic and the character was brilliant satire. The critic misses that entirely. It's not the same as Othello (Olivier played an jealous husband manipulated by his insecurity and a scheming friend; and his transformative makeup was no different that his transformation for Hamlet). Not even the same as Angelina Jolie in Mighty Heart (Marianne Pearl wanted AJ to play her so what are you going to do?) A black actor couldn't play an Australian actor who undergoes cosmetic surgery to play a black man in an effort to prove what a good actor he is. I wonder if the critic saw the movie or just the previews.
I'm Jewish. Am I supposed to get offended when non-Jews play Jews?
Je w s were upset with Mel Gibson's portrayal of them in "The Passion of the Christ."
*So* not the same!
"Tropic Thunder" sound very interesting and I do want to see it. But Downey deserves an Oscar for "Iron Man" in my humble opinion and it also deserves Best Picture.
RDJ deserves a little award for his part-- a real actor can do any part, under any circumstances. The Wayans Brothers can do "white chicks" with the same peek through the fingers funny. Comedy is based on tragedy first, and it seems the funnier something is, the closer it touches the parts of people they want to evade. Every one of the characters were "something" other than they seemed, as was the movie.
Despite his personal problems, Robert Downey Jr. is one of the better actors working today.RDJ's role was about the funniest part I have seen in years. Yeah, I know it was predictable, as it was a take-off of every war flick ever made, but it never took itself seriously. The cinematography was gorgeous, the actors all were at the top of their games, as a comedy, it never let me down--
You know, good point about White Chicks!
Forrest Whitaker doesn't really count - numerous white actors have darkened their skin tone to play Middle Easterners, Persian, mediterraneans, etc.
Know of several people who had no idea the character was played by a white guy! He did an awesome job purely from an acting stand-point!
RD Jr was hilarious (only reason to watch the movie).
I thought Downey, Jr should have also been nominated for best actor for Iron. Without his solid performance as Tony Stark, Iron Man would have been nothing but colorful eye candy. With his performance it's one of the best science fiction movies released this year.
Sorry but Iron was not Oscar work, but it was solid RDJ
The movie was so-so and Downey is a good actor.
The movie was pretty much hit and miss for me, but when it did hit my funny-bone, it put me on the floor. .
Mr. Ridley is exactly right. Downey and Nolte obviously "got it" and their brilliance was possible because they completely embraced flipping themselves the bird. I grew up in Hollywood and I'm still a solid liberal Democrat so I can objectively say; Feinstein perfectly, if unintentionally, illuminates the uber-liberal a**holiness at the scripts premise.
Downey and Nolte prove why Liberals will always prevail, we have the ability to recognize and embrace our foibles. We can laugh at ourselves without feeling the need to encourage our mobs to kill our critics.
"Tropic Thunder" was lame, stupid, boring, and predictable. As a 'satire,' it impaled itself on its own petard. Watching the film I really got the impression that Stiller was trying to play down to the "Pineapple Express" crowd....bleccch. Stiller must've given "Zoolander" all he had, because that was funny.
I watched the whole dvd for RD Jr's performance -- which was good -- but not even that could take away the feeling that I'd wasted 2 hours watching crap.
Tropic Thunder was great crap. Stupid? OK. Predicable? Sure. But not lame or boring. It was funny as heck. It was the first Ben Stiller movie in ages that I loved ( although I did enjoy Dodge Ball but I think of that as more of a Vince Vaughn movie ).
Now, Takavl and anyone else, you can disagree with me and you might even be right, but how can you watch Tropic Thunder without knowing what you are about to watch? Did you think it was a movie about the Vietnam War? Takavl, I think you have finally motivated me to see Pineapple Express, which I have a feeling is not strictly about pineapples.
BTW Robert Downey Jr doesnt deserve an Academy Award for his role in Tropic Thunder.
Husband & I just saw Pineapple Express, it was hilarious. There was quite a bit of "making-fun-of-itself" since of course, various events/situations were way over the top!
If that isn't understood, then it wouldn't be so funny! Absolutely not about pineapples!
RD Jr was "a scream" - only reason to watch Tropic Thunder!
garlicpowder said: "you can disagree with me and you might even be right, but how can you watch Tropic Thunder without knowing what you are about to watch?"
I disagree with you -- the movie stunk. Whether or not that makes me 'right,' I dunno...it's just a movie. Opinions regarding art differ. However, I never said that I'd no idea of what I was going to watch -- a Stiller movie, a spoof of Hollywood and clueless actors making an action film.
garlicpowder said: "Did you think it was a movie about the Vietnam War?"
No.
garlicpowder said: "I think you have finally motivated me to see Pineapple Express, which I have a feeling is not strictly about pineapples."
Knock yourself out.
One point is that the acting nominations are made by the actors, and they picked RDJ's performance. It also proves they have a sense of humor about their craft.
One actor I know said about the character, "I KNOW guys who are just like that!"
I find it funny that no one mentions the actual black guy (gangster faker on the low down no less) who called the actor Kirk Lazarus out on his fakery. This was the first of two clues as to Ben Stiller's intentions with the Lazarus character. The other clue --- Lazarus: "I'm the dude playin' the dude disguised as another dude." or I'm Downey Jr. playing Kirk Lazarus 'disguised' as Sgt. Lincoln Osiris (the part KL goes black face for, yeah he had a name, wasn't just 'a black guy').
Some people get satire, some people don't.
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