Ocalena, Hannah N.

| ABMMA-2 | FILM ANALYSIS #7: "Tropic Thunder"

Tropic Thunder is a satirical comedy film regarding a bunch of men characters most of
whom are due to film a Vietnam action film, barring to be thrown into some kind of real
life battle field without their directors and producers understanding that they have been
disconnected. The opener of the movie starts with different stand alone trailers staring
at the characters until the film transitions conversely to Vietnam where they are situated.

The starting scene provides a fast-paced environment packed with suspense where lots
of action takes place in each sequence to let the viewers know that this would be an
action movie. There are patrons in the Action genre where audiences appreciate fast-
paced scenarios including blood, brutality, tension and anticipation. And this scene
comprises all that, that is why it is good at acquiring the interest of the viewers right from
the start. The beginning scene of Tropic Thunder starts with an establishing shot of a
battle field that automatically demonstrates from the setting that the movie was filmed in
Vietnam.  The shot contains a range of fire to develop the impression of a battle zone,
emphasizing the impression that they're not really secure because they're in a war
situation. The shot requires several rapid changes to highlight the brutality of the battle,
there really is a lot of action and yelling which mostly emphasizes the concept that when
there is threat everywhere throughout creating tension giving the characters fear that
they will be alive and endure reaching their checkpoints. In order to put the audience in
the environment the protagonists have been in, the slow motion would've been set in
position to be able to switch to every other POV character. Along with being prepared to
obtain the viewer's opportunity to ponder the story and making them skeptical of what
might unfold soon, building to that of an action movie's tension. After the man gets his
hands blasted off following from the blast, the camera cuts to an end to showcase a
pair-shot of two having an emotional scene alongside.

 I believe that the use of comedy in this movie is great. To point out several aspects that
are wrong with the media in Hollywood today utilizes satire. They used two characters in
the plurality of hollywood movies to call out stereotypical racial diversity. Kirk has been
used by the director to criticize the stereotype black people frequently depicted by the
film industry in Hollywood. Wherein Kirk communicates to his cast mates, he is vocal,
blunt, and is mostly caught speaking "cool" words, phrases and symbolism. As a white
actor who's portraying as a black man, Lazarus helps the viewer to quickly recognize
when Lazarus attempts to "sound black" when he starts "A yes uh" statements and then
when he speaks regarding green beans. Alpa Chino seems to do a fantastic job of
picking out this Hollywood-used stereotypical character. He is  an excessively
masculine, philandering, rap artist. The director  launches Alpa Chino at the start of the
film, engulfed by big butt shaking females, raping and promoting his latest booty sweat
drink. I guess that the director used Alpa Chino's character as a second case to draw
out, in a humorous manner, how black people are depicted by Hollywood industry.
Tropic Thunder 's depiction of Asians often recalls the superficial and crude way in
which these forms of films usually use Asians. While subsequent action movies have
portrayed asian people as inhuman , using the race merely to American protagonists as
soulless and cruel people, but the director went too far in portraying Asians to the point
of ludicrousness. I loved how things were twisted by the filmmaker to render them
humorous, but I hope the that the audiences knows what he has been attempting to
give that with what he's portraying there are more than a shred of truth: narcissistic
producers, directors that thinks that they are the best, celebrities thinking they're larger
than the movie, and other more. 

The movie is so packed and energetic that at the end of the movie, I felt very exhausted
because of so many things that’s happening in the film. I can also remember that I even
skipped the first few scenes of the film because I thought that it was just a commercial
but later on when the film progressed, I saw some of the actors that is in the
“commercial” which gave me an idea that wait, it is not just a simple commercial, it
wasn’t an error on the link that I downloaded, it was part of the movie. I think that the
director is very genius in that part and I commend him for that. This type of movie isn’t
really my cup of tea but I appreciate it and I am happy that I get to explore other films
that are uncommon and unconventional to me.