DreamWorks plans to release Tropic Thunder this week with no changes or cuts to a movie that disability advocates consider hateful and harmful:

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.”

This is disappointing news from a studio whose top executives should know all about marginalization and discrimination, Steven Spielberg and David Geffen, but apparently it was far more important to make a buck than consider the consequences of their decision to approve this farce.

Obviously, I won’t be attending this movie, but I’m seriously considering standing outside the theaters showing it and handing out the marvelous card Dave Hingsburger’s team developed, Words Hit Like A Fist. Dave has generously shared his files so that you can do the same if you’d like -

Words Hit Like A Fist card front
Words Hit Like A Fist card back

DreamWorks blatant disregard for the very real discrimination and harassment people with disabling conditions face is maddening, but we have the power to chose how we’ll respond. Big thanks to Dave and the folks at VITA for providing us with a powerful tool to educate and inform.

Update

We are donating a print run of 10,000 of these cards to get them into the hands of people who would like to distribute them (responsibly, yo!). If you’re interested in receiving some, please contact us and let us know how many you would like and where you would like them sent.

Update II

Thank you for the wonderful emails and kind words. So far, 18 people have requested a total of 1,260 cards to help spread the word that we’ve had enough - what an amazing commitment to ending prejudice and discrimination.

We’ve still got another 8,740 chances to educate folks - if you’d like cards to hand out, just let us know via our contact form. We’ll need the quantity of cards you’d like as well as a mailing address to send the cards. Your information will be kept in strict confidence and used only for this.

Help spread the word by linking to this post - you can also use the “share this” link to mail this page to a friend.

Posted by Sue on Monday, August 11th, 2008 at 12:31 pm.