‘Thunder’s preemptive strike on race sensitivity

When news leaked that Robert Downey, Jr. would be playing in modern blackface for the comedy “Tropic Thunder” a few talking heads and bloggers squawked about the move’s inherent racism.

Hard to take a chance like this in our uber-sensitive times and not expect some blowback.

So it’ll be interesting to see how the public – and the pundits – react to the actual movie when it opens on Wednesday (Aug. 13).

Saw “Tropic Thunder” last night, and I suspect sensitive types won’t like some of what they see. Downey, Jr.’s performance may be terrific, but it could play poorly in Punditland, a place where citizens live to be offended.

I’m guessing there won’t be much strife about it. For starters, the PC Police already assaulted star/director Ben Stiller for how the film portrays a movie-in-a-movie about mental retardation. And much of the “it’s racist!” charge got played out when the casting news was first announced.

(Photo: Robert Downey, Jr., center, plays an Oscar winning actor who alters his skin pigmentatin to play a black soldier in “Tropic Thunder.” Ben Stiller, left, and Jack Black, right, co-star.)

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