Wild Sound

What’s most notable about the film’s use of blackface is how much softer it is compared with the rather more vulgar and far less loving exploitation of what you might call Jewface. Hands down the most noxious character in “Tropic Thunder” is Les Grossman, the producer of the movie-within-a-movie, who’s played by an almost unrecognizable Tom Cruise under a thick scum of makeup and latex. Heavily and heavy-handedly coded as Jewish, the character is murderous, repellent and fascinating, a grotesque from his swollen fingers to the heavy gold dollar sign nestled on his yeti-furred chest.  link

Jewface? Huh? Other than his name (Les Grossman) there is nothing “coded as Jewish” in his appearance or demeanor, and most certainly not “heavily and heavy-handedly,” unless Manhola considers baldness, hairy chests, gold chains, and belligerent attitudes to be code for Jew. I’m afraid  Jews don’t have a monopoly on those traits, Manhola. This is what I would more precisely term as heavily coded for Jewish:

And this is what I call worth the price of admission to a film that is really not very funny and full of belabored jokes:

Filed by cynthia rockwell at 12:24 pm under Just Movies
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Filed by cynthia rockwell at 5:12 pm under Just Movies
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While I was as wowed by China’s opening cermony for the Olympics as the rest of the word was,

I was struck by how much it reminded me of the film Hero and its fascist imagery.

Only a few days later did i find out that Hero director Zhang Yimou directed the ceremonies.

I wanted to do a little “Hero or Opening Ceremonies?” photo-guessing game but either my web connection or my computer has slowed to speeds that make such a photo-finding mission unpalatable. So this taste will have to do.

Filed by cynthia rockwell at 11:47 pm under Just Movies
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