![](/img/wiki_up/Tropic Thunder Final Poster.jpg)
TROPIC THUNDER
US, 2008, 107 minutes, Colour.
Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr, Tom Cruise, Matthew Mc Conaughey, Nick Nolte, Steve Coogan, Brandon T. Jackson, Jay Baruchel, Bill Hader. Cameos: Tobey Maguire, Jon Voight, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Alicia Silverstone.
Directed by Ben Stiller.
I was very taken by a colleague's way of dealing with the fact that so many broad American comedies these years are both funny as well as often exceedingly crass. He wrote that Tropic Thunder was appallingly funny. That is right.
This is a Ben Stiller film. He knows comedy and he knows how to be provocative through comedy. However, one of the difficulties with this film is that its production values seem to be far too big and expensive for the kind of film it is. With a top cast including Robert Downey Jr, Nick Nolte, Jack Black, Steve Coogan, Matthew McConnaughey? and Stiller himself and with an extraordinary performance by a fat and balding Tom Cruise as a monstrous Hollywood producer, it seems that the film should be funnier and better than it is (and more modest).
There is a great deal of satire at the expense of Hollywood and its megalomania and the tantrums of stars which put production over-budget and overtime as well as the lengths some actors will go for performance.
The film opens with three funny trailers featuring the central characters: Scorcher VI, an action hero environmental epic with Stiller; a highly flatulent comedy with Jack Black aping Eddie Murphy and his disguises in The Nutty Professor films; the third is a medieval drama with two monks (Downey and Toby Maguire) infatuated with each other, Satan's Alley. Then there is the film that is being made, a war mission and rescue adventure with apologies to Apocalypse Now.
Stiller wants to be a star but is on the wane having appeared in a film, Simple Jack, where he is mentally impaired. These episodes and scenes from the film (with Stiller's wife, Christine Taylor) raised the hackles of US organisations who felt that the film demeaned the mentally impaired. They have a point – maybe more. The defence argument is that what is being satirised is the Hollywood portrayal (and Oscar wins) of autistic characters like Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man and Forest Gump.
Then there is Robert Downey Jr as an Oscar-winning Australian actor (Downey said that it was not a take-off of Russell Crowe – but it has to be!) who undergoes pigmentation change to play an African American soldier.
When the director and the effects supervisor put the actors out in the jungle and leave them to their own devices while using hidden cameras and explosives, the group is set upon by drug-dealing guerillas. Things slow down a bit. There are some jokes and funny situations but it has to build up to a rescue of Stiller who has been abducted and has been re-enacting this Simple Jack role because the film is the guerillas' only and favourite cassette.
There is the gross, the crass and the hilarious (but not as much as hoped for). Tom Cruise, channelling his settee-leaping energy into dance during the final credits, is worth watching, a high point of comic absurdity.
1.The success of the film as a comedy, spoof?
2.Big budget, big cast, stunts, effects, big score?
3.The comic style: the cast, the initial trailers, the satire on film-making, stars and their tantrums, producers, reality and acting, producers and agents and performance, crass jokes, language? The issue of the retarded?
4.The humour of the trailers, introducing the film and the mood, the characters? The spoof on the big action shows? On the Eddie Murphy-style comedies? On the dramas, religion and sexuality?
5.The reportage for TV programs, gossip programs, interviews with Tugg Speedman? The comments on Kirk Lazarus? The blunt questions to Tugg by Tyra Banks?
6.The film, the books and the information about the episode, survivors, the books written, published, the film with the book? Four Leaf and the script? His being on-set? Tough stances with the director? With Cody, the helicopter? His arms? The truth, never been in action? Captured, in the final siege, going into action with the explosion, heroism?
7.Les as the producer, Tom Cruise and his impersonation? His assistant and his toadying to the producer? Seeing him on the screen, getting the grip to punch Damien? His tantrums, the arguments, the budgets, exercising power, the agent and his appeal? His not wanting to rescue Tugg, the Oscar and his assistant and the banter, the final dance during the credits?
8.The initial action, the group, the rescue, Tugg and his trying to get tears, Kirk and his slobbering? Cutting the filming, the tantrums, issues of careers, the carry-on, the explosions and the cameras not rolling?
9.Damien and the spoof on the British? His not being able to control the stars, the explosion, Cody and the special effects? The confrontation with Les on-screen, his being punched, the discussions with Four Leaf and Four Leaf dominating him, the plan, Cody setting up the cameras in the jungle, on the helicopter, stranding the group, letting them act? His stepping on the mine and his death? The macabre scene with Tugg holding up his head?
10.The group, stranded, their arguments, the action and the drug dealers’ troops? Their trek? The special effects frightening the drug dealers? Tugg and the map, going the wrong way, going off on his own, being captured? Kirk, getting Kevin to read the map, going in the correct direction? Their interactions?
11.Tugg and his being wrong, his character, the interview, the scenes from Simple Jack? The discussions with Kirk about how to impersonate somebody with mental disability, the discussion of performances, film references? His stubbornness on the map? The fight with the panda, the panda’s head? His being captured, recognised, the young leader, his performance as Simple Jack, his being brainwashed, the adoptive son, his not wanting to leave, coming to his senses, the repetition of the opening scene, his tears, receiving the Oscar?
12.Kirk and the Australian background, accent, the imitation of Russell Crowe? The makeover to become an African American? His scene with Tobey Maguire in the trailer? His comment on what dude he was? With Tugg, the tears? The tantrums, the discussions about acting? His five Oscars? His leading the group, Kevin and the map, his impersonating the Chinese with the buffalo, his being exposed, his taking off his black makeup, the end, the heroics, presenting the Oscar?
13.Jeff Portnoy, the trailer, breaking wind, his drug-taking, the confrontation with the bat, his drugs being taken? His performance, being tied up, cold turkey? The buffalo, on the back, the impersonation, his being captured, his decision not to take the drugs? His participation in the escape?
14.The issue of African Americans, Robert Downey Jr’s impersonation, the interactions with Alpa Cino and the issues, the spoofs, Hollywood treatment of African Americans?
15.Kevin, people not knowing his name, the sensible person in the group, reading the map, exercising leadership?
16.The drug dealers, their troops, in the jungle, their love for Simple Jack, their only video, the re-enactment, the young leader and his performance? The members of the group, their being taken in by Kirk as the Chinese? The final battles?
17.The infiltration as in the book, the special effects, the escape?
18.Successful humour, spoof, reaching its targets?