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In a Comic Book, the Line Would Have Been Followed by TFFHTWAANG!
Ever since Robert Downey Jr. let it slip that he does not gargle progressive ideology when he wakes and rub it into his skin before retiring, you might have wondered if Hollywood would turn on him. Not the studios; he makes too much money. No, the Hollywood press. Well, here’s a story I’m seeing on Digg:
Robert Downey Jr. Criticized For ‘Racist’ Remark During Press Tour For ‘Avengers’
Uh oh. Did he go full Mel? You never go full Mel. The excerpt:
In an interview with The Guardian, the “Iron Man” star was asked what he thought about Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu’s comments regarding superhero films, and he answered, “Look, I respect the hell out of him, and I think for a man whose native tongue is Spanish to be able to put together a phrase like ‘cultural genocide’ just speaks to how bright he is.”
Here’s the quote to which Downey refers: the director of Birdman is asked why he doesn’t like superhero movies.
The problem is that sometimes they purport to be profound, based on some Greek mythological kind of thing. And they are honestly very right wing. I always see them as killing people because they do not believe in what you believe, or they are not being who you want them to be. I hate that, and don’t respond to those characters. They have been poison, this cultural genocide, because the audience is so overexposed to plot and explosions and sh*t that doesn’t mean nothing about the experience of being human.
These are the insights you’d associate with people who are admired in their circles for gluing a handle to a bong to make for easier tokin’. The sort of person who would stare at Downey after hearing his remark, not quite getting it, but suspecting something bad just happened.
It seems obvious what Downey is saying: Dude, if the Crusades have been recently evoked for their relevance to current events, you might not want to be throwing around “Cultural Genocide.” It may have sounded jarring to the interviewer, who possibly thinks that the Iberian relationship with Central and South America cannot be called a Spanish thing, when everyone knows the problem was Christianity.
The actual E! story is headlined “Avengers Press Tour Continues to Fail as Robert Downey Jr. Makes Tasteless Joke During Interview.” Quote:
“Many are displeased with RDJ’s comment, deeming it racist and offensive by implying that native Spanish speakers couldn’t be as smart as native English speakers. “
Another tweeted, “F–k you, Robert Downey Jr. and your surprise at how Spanish-speaking people can ‘put together a phrase.’”
Funny. And meaningless in the end; Avengers will gross thumdidy billion dollars and 63 cents, but the media got “Downey” and “Racist” in the same headline, so it’s all good.
Published in Culture, Entertainment
Even worse, Hawkeye and Cap are sexists! The first few seconds of this clip has outraged many on Twitter. In an interview with Chris Evans (Captain America) and Jeremy Renner, they were asked which of the two characters Black Widow would be interested in. Renner said, “Both, she’s a slut.” They both were called on to apologize, of course.
Evans atoned with: “Yesterday we were asked about the rumors that Black Widow wanted to be in a relationship with both Hawkeye and Captain America. We answered in a very juvenile and offensive way that rightfully angered some fans. I regret it and sincerely apologize.”
Renner with the much better: “I am sorry that this tasteless joke about a fictional character offended anyone. It was not meant to be serious in any way. Just poking fun during an exhausting and tedious press tour.
Will the show trials begin after the movie premiere, or before?
It is ironic for the director of Birdman to complain about other movies having nothing to do with the experience of being human.
Apparently Inarritu attended an advanced screening of Straw Man: Dawn of the Darkness Rising, because I can’t think of a single recent superhero movie this could possibly be applied to.
I like RDJ even more!
I may be the only man in America who has never seen a Robert Downey Jr. movie. I knew he was a famous Hollywood star who had drug issues but that doesn’t narrow the field much. Was Robert Downey Sr. a star? I can’t remember anything about him either. I am sure I have seen Junior in news stories on TV but he never made any impression on me. I watched the brief video where he went Diane Sawyer on the interviewer and thought OK. This is a cool guy! Having never noticed him before I can say that he is very handsome and I wish more celebrities would walk away from BS interviews. In fact I hope his example will lead all celebrities including politicians to say Screw this, I don’t need to answer your asinine question.
Whatever happened to “If you can’t stand the heat get out of the kitchen”?
Watch RDJ in the movie that got him noticed: Chaplin made in 1992
RD Senior directed a couple of absurdist comedies in the 60s, “Putney Swope” and “Greaser’s Palace” come to mind, both of which I saw in the theater and enjoyed, because I was a kid who liked outrageousness. Thinking about them today, I don’t know if I could watch either one all the way through.
The premise of “Putney Swope” was that the token black on the board of directors of a fictional auto manufacturer is elected chairman, and proceeds to change the company in a hundred ways reflective of black stereotypes. This is a film that probably couldn’t be made today.
I like him even more than before. He is such a wonderful actor. Every time I see one of his films I am so grateful that he got his act together. And what a treat to see him and one of my other all time favorites, Robert Duvall, in The Judge!
I agree! He is an inspiration. Here is my track record, over the years:
Less Than Zero (1987)–good enough, given the source text.
Two Girls and a Guy (1997)–no good!
The Singing Detective (2003)–better than the original! (I am biased against remakes, but in this case I don’t care for the first version.)
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)–very good!
Scanner Darkly (2006)–not bad.
Tropic Thunder (2008)–my favorite RDJr performance, even against Avengers.
I loved Chaplin, and I also love the Iron Man movies. RDJ rocks! I also saw a web video of him (found via Kim Komando) helping deliver a 3D-printed prosthetic arm to a kid who was born without one. He was great. Kid was thrilled.
Yeah, it seems like every other day there’s some viral video of RDJ showing that he’s a thoroughly decent guy. How dare he?
Remarkably, I read this post immediately after I finished watching Birdman. (I mean, the end credits were still rolling up the screen.) I wish I’d read it before, because it might have saved me two hours. There’s a film that I can admire on a technical level, but I’m damned if I see the point. Give me an Iron Man movie any day.
I loved Tropic Thunder. Both Robert Downy and Tom Cruise were fantastic. Matthew McConnaughy was great in that, too.
Well, Mr. Downey, Jr. is a marked man since he had the audacity to ask Hollywood to forgive Mel Gibson. And so it doesn’t matter what a decent human being he is and how he’s helped other people, everything that he utters will be examined for any deviation from an accepted Leftist ideology about diversity, social causes, the LBGT community, global warming hysteria, what have you. We are reliving the 1930s in so many ways.
Go read his Wikipedia page, there’s lots of surprising details of decency in there. Here’s one quotation it features from Downey Jr himself:
And yet Joss Whedon is celebrated for saying stupid things on Twitter. Go figure.
Yes, clearly that is exactly what motivates the comic book Hero v. Villain dynamic, a matter of diverging opinions…
Superman: “I don’t think you should teraform the Earth killing its 6 billion inhabitants, Zod.”
Zod: “Well that is just your opinion, really. Now, Kneel Before ZOD!!”
—–
Thor: “Loki why do you keep trying to kill our father and enslave the Earth.”
Loki: “You see, Asgardian cultural hegemony has long suppressed my native Frost Giant heritage of enslaving inferior races of humanoids.”
—-
Joker: “I just want Gotham to burn!”
Batman:” Well I rather like it not burned.” POW! BAM!
Joker: “Help, Help, I’m being repressed! See the violence inherit in the system.”
—-
Captain America: ” Come on Bucky we can’t just let the NAZIs be themselves, despite the fact that their world view is clearly equally valid to our own.”
Bucky: “America [expletive] YAH!
True, but the heroes at least wait until the villains beliefs/desires turn to actions…and even then rarely kill anybody.
I remember loving Putney Swope though I only saw it once. I’d like to see it again just to judge if it was actually a good movie or one of those things that was exactly right for its time but has no staying power and looks ridiculous and dated only a few years later. At least it was low budget. I might be odd, but I can enjoy cheap crap but get irritated by grossly expensive crap. What did Avengers cost?
In the past cinema plundered great literature, or at least popular literature, for its ideas. Sometimes the results were great and sometimes not. Today Hollywood gets most of its ideas from Marvel Comics. With a start like that the only possible direction is down. I have enough to depress me in the stuff I can’t avoid.
When Hitchcock said “Actors are cattle.” he was insulting cattle.
RDJ will do just fine in Hollywood despite this bit of common sense on his part. Like Selleck and Sinise, he’s an action star, and gets the same tacit pass that Eastwood has had for decades. The industry isn’t stupid; when people who play astronauts, cops and soldiers have a conservative streak, it’s good for business. Bruce Willis is another example and so was Steven Sagal before he went Putinized.
Of course, that wouldn’t apply for Broadway actors–a different business, different group of people.
Gibson got by just fine until he went nuts.
#7
Does it matter whether the heat source is the oven or just some fool using a flame thrower to stimulate your backside?
I like RDJr as an actor he is extraordinarily talented. Check out Chaplin. Case closed.
Does anyone here have any idea what it is like to be rich, talented, sucessful and handsome and intelligent at a very young age? I didn’t think so.
Of course that’s going to lead to problems with drugs unless one is super-heroic. So all the more admirable that he cleaned himself up.
Apparently his experiences and smarts have allowed him to see through the artifice that is left-liberalism, which they see as a threat to thier cult and are trying to discredit him lest they lose more credibility with their mindless followers.
1.Event. 2.Outrage. 3.Response to outrage.
The hope is that the response to the outrage will lead to changing or preventing the original event. So if you want to change an event, you manufacture outrage. It’s fraud, really. It’s emotional embezzlement.
I’ve decided that I’ve come across so many manufactured outrages, even about matters I couldn’t care less about, that I no longer respond to them. They’ve cried wolf too often. So no matter how passionate the outrage, it will evoke no response from me. There is therefore no incentive to manufacture outrages, nor to pour on emotional intensity, because I’m not going to respond to your outrage anyway. Don’t waste your time.
But doesn’t that mean that I could be accused of … brace yourself … not caring?
Yeah. So what?
He’s talking about 300 or Batman or both.
All anyone needs to know, however, is that this director is so incapable of understanding poetry that he complains about plot.
I think he said they should be treated like cattle. Supposedly, he also told an actress who asked about her motivation, vis-a-vis the character–money.
Yeah, that was when he came back, helped by this strange writer, a Mr. Shane Black, who famously wrote Lethal weapon. Mr. Downey, Jr. seems to have helped out the man who helped him out–Mr. Black has since directed him in Iron man 3. That’s why it’s a Christmas story–all his movies are set during Christmas.
The issue is never the issue.
Despite regularly getting their butts handed to them by fascist Progs, conservatives seem not to have learned a single lesson from them. It’s the noise you make that lasts, not the inconsistency or outright falsity (“Hands Up, Don’t Shoot!”) of the message you convey.
There’s a scene in Iron Man where Gwyneth Paltrow slut-shames RDJ’s one night stand . . . actually calls her “garbage.” Where’s the outrage? It’s wrong when men joke about it (see comment #1), but not when women take it seriously.
If organized as effective political operatives, we’d funnel money to front groups running a boycott of this new movie. We’d be promoting headlines about the “institutional sexism” of slut-shamers. We’d get Hillary onboard; she wants to change the subject right now!
We should be amplifying the Left’s ludicrous whining into loud buffoonery. Then you hit them with the Hypocrisy Bomb—the neutron weapon of politics. It destroys the people, but leaves their organizations standing to act as a convenient focus point for more ridicule.
Eventually, the general public learns to ignore the Left’s inanities. As KC does now. But we need to get people who have never heard of and wouldn’t care for Ricochet to do the same as KC.
To get your opponents to self-marginalize with their own incessant yammering is the goal.
In this case, the issue is Robert Downey, Sr. giving his son his first hit at age 8.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Robert Downey, Sr. can be grateful he’s never bumped into me in a dark alley.
Thanks for that James. What a riot! Seems to me that the best part of Downey’s comment is the simple fact that he doesn’t give Inarritu’s actual remarks the dignity of a response. Cultural genocide? Uh-huh.