Robert Downey Jr. In Blackface For Tropic Thunder

So Peter you have no problem with Booty Sweat? Jack Black addition to drugs, or the opening sean where legs and bodies are blown apart. This show has 99 problems but Black Face is not one. The show is meant to be funny. It uses offensive material as its modality. Why would you single out the Black Face part. What you are saying is anything goes unless it upset you. "a stereotype and I don't like it". In the USA we have solutions to things we don't like. We also have a saying about what to do when you don't like something. In the south we say, "Dont get mad, just scratch your ass and be glad". I learned that in Sav. GA. The show is funny. Its not a show about a black sargent, its a show about a white guy playing a black sargent. You have a responsiablity to yourself not to see things that offend you. An educated consumer would have never seen the movie if he thought it was offensive. Don't go see a wrestling match and then say it was too brutal. The brutality in a wrestling match is as important to the experiance as Downies role is to this movie.

Peter, would you go to a wresling match and say it was to brutal? Then dont go to a movie about a white guy playing a black guy and cry about it. If you were an educated consumer you would have never been in position to be offended.

What their doing is Blackface 2008 point blank. Just because the original idea of the Blackface looked different back in the day, does not mean that this is not the same thing happening all over again. I don't care how they meant it in the movie! It is inappropriate and NOT responsible. What kind of message are we putting out into the world. What Jr. is doing here is playing towards a stereotype and I don't like it. This is the same Buffoonery that Black men are trying to escape even today. Bottom line I have a Big problem with the concept of even suggesting Blackface!!!!!!

OZBEATZ

Please look up the definition of a phrase before you use it. Downey is NOT in blackface in that movie! I've studied theater for 15 years and know how to make and apply true blackface. It's the ridiculously degrading looking muck paint, typically applied with white or red lips. It's disgusting. What you see in TOT is NOT blackface! It would be offensive to call such talented make-up work blackface.

Im am black, and this movie is great! R. Downey Jr played his role 100% to me......Blackface/Whiteface, it is nothing but some words...And its true, he is in a blackface

While the world tries to tell Black people not to get offended, we each have our own sense of sensibility and sensitivity based on our particular life experiences. I have not seen the movie and will reserve judgement. As an earlier comment expressed, I did see Birth of a Nation, and even had a white officemate tell me what a great film it was!!, so ignorance is still with us. However, I have not seen the movie yet and will reserve judgement till then.

In the past, I would not watch Archie Bunker, or NYPD Blue because I thought of the racist rhetoric of Archie and the NYC type cop sipowicz in NYPD blue who had issues with Blacks. However, once I watched Archie, and saw how if anything, he was showing how ridiculous racist views were through his own flawed personality and intelligence, and SipoWicz' portrayal as a complex person who had issues, racism being just one of them, I've learned to wait on the actual viewing.

Blackface (again, not done like that in this film from what I see), was horrific, I saw the Fred Astaire movie and yet he is one of our most celebrated performers..really shows what is valued in America. Unfortunately, the dichotomy of having a Black man (actually mixed-race) run for President, while continuing to have police kill blacks with impunity will always be with us, hopefully this movie will at least help to advance us as a nation one step in the right direction.

I'm Black too and saw the movie last Monday, and no, Downey Jr. didn't offend me at all - he was quite funny and even touching toward the end, actually.
Now, if there's one guy that could offend you while watching Tropic Thunder, well it could only be one dude: ... Tom Cruise. Oh yeah. I ain't kidding. Check out Cruise completely stealing this movie away from Robert while going totally ape-sh*t.

I am Black, and damn proud of it, but when it comes to stuff like this I pick my battles. For those of "us" who have overly righteous views, please read the plot of the movie before you judge it. Or better yet, go see it for yourself... If you know the actual plot of the movie, than you wouldn't find such a trivial reason to get offended. Downey's character is actually a White Austrailian actor who basically thinks he is God's gift to acting. He decides that he will push the envelope by playing a black man. He goes through a process similar to the author of Black Like Me. His role is not meant to mock or degrade us.

Now it would be different if he broke out into some Sambo bull, but he's not. His character's role in the made up film is a Black man during the Vietnam War. Now if I see the movie and find anything offensive, I'll make my judgement then. But until I actually see it for myself, I have nothing to say.

Hell, my dad was even fooled watching the commercial today. I had to tell him who it was.

A. Morgan, do not quote wikipedia if you want people to take you seriously...

Anyone who truly wants to know what Blackface really is. The legacy behind “Jim Crow “ or the “darky� or the “coon� or the “sambo� should have a history lesson. I encourage you watch Bamboozled by Spike Lee or even check out the definition of Blackface on Wikipedia. They have a really good article and I have posted the link below.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackface

Even better watch Birth of A Nation or Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Watch them. And then think about our country, our wider world and the problems that still exist today and you tell me if this film helps. You can't reclaim blackface. It was never good. It was something created by White America to degrade, satire, and debase African-Americans. It became so mainstream that in order to work Blacks had to wear blackface. African-Americans had to become “black�. You can never make that good. Moreover, Robert Downey's portrayal still involves a White Man "becoming black� (if one can ever become a race). It is rooted in a sad and tragic history. If Hollywood really was going to take on a look at Blackface, a practice they upheld for years then they should take a serious look at it first, before a “comic� one.

Moreover, no one has the right to tell a member of a racial group that someone’s depiction of their race is okay. Don’t tell anyone to “chill out� or “get over it�. Today we all pretty much have accepted the fact that a specific culture or race can speak about themselves in a way that a member of another cultural or racial group can not. Thus an African-American or Latino or Asian comedian can speak about the Black or Latino or Asian race in a way that someone else might not. If you are white and were offended by “White Chicks� then you should speak out about it. For some reason the majority of White America were not angered by the film. Nor by Eddie Murphy’s or Dave Chappelles’s portrayals. That is not anyone who is offended by this movie’s fault. Blacks have a right to be angry and offended by this movie. Asians have a right to be angered and offended by this movie. I would also like to add that “yellow-face� the supposed act of “becoming Asian� also exists. No one can tell someone, how they should feel about this.

I am a black person and I can't be mad at him, because Dave Chappelle, Jamie Foxx, Martin Lawrence, Eddie Murphy plus countless other black comedians have comically portrayed white men. Its seems that the character that he is portraying is an oblivious idiot that decides to play a role written for a black man as authentically as he can. Now, that is pretty funny. As long as he does do incorporate a Black Bubba impression, he just may be okay. Oh yeah, he is HOT as a white guy AND a black guy!

Looks like he has been studying the facial expressions of black people. Everyone in my family as a serious look on their face even with they are happy. I think he is respecting his role. However, what-is- up with that! Give a brotha chance. They already don't put black men in good roles in main stream media. This going to give people some bad ideas- skip the black man all together...paint a white man.

I am an African American man and Downey's depiction (make up) looks great. The only and I mean only problem here is calling it black face. Its like the people calling it this are getting a cheap thrill because they get to use the phrase over and over again. He is simply in black "make up" . Stop tyring to get the poor guy in trouble, you people are old enough to know the term is where the offense begins.

For one I'm Black and I truly understand the underpinnings of this satire so please don't kill me when I say that DAMN! Robert Downey Jr. really looks like a brutha from the 60s!

So much so that I wouldn't even belittle their efforts by calling it blackface. They've obviously got some real talent in their make-up department. No cynicism intended.

The only thing that offends me about this story is the use of the term "Blackface" clearly this is a complete make-up job, and the shorthand or referring to it as blackface is that it is clearly a pejorative term. Ted Danson appeared in blackface, and got castigated for it, but it was truly blackface, and a pretty bad lack of judgement. Let's not stir up a hornet's nest when one doesn't exist. Or better yet, give Stiller the free Publicity he's probably hoping for.

Wow, yeah Im shocked, if not for his eyes, I wouldnt believe it...

Love that guy's work. Nobody would back it, but Downey would be a great Othello.