Extreme Home Makeover and Oliver Stone

[Dean Martin]

Did anyone catch Extreme Home Makeover Sunday night? They rebuilt a house for one Sergeant Thomas, the Marine who rescued the two policemen buried in the rubble at the World Trade Center. Well, I saw Oliver Stone's WTC when it came out and Sgt. Thomas was portrayed by a white actor.

Sgt. Thomas in real life however is black. I suppose some think that's not a big deal, and it's just a movie, but it seems Stone should at least get that much of it correct.
I know they talk about 'artistic license' and stuff like that, but I just don't think it's right to falsely portray someone.
I also know that some people seem to think Stone's movies ARE documentarys, like JFK.

I know there have been several films over the years falsely portraying black characters as white, but I thought filmmakers had finally gotten over that kind of crap.

[soleft]

1. That's messed up

It's almost like a reverse of the flag photo situation, where an artist's rendition of the photo of the three firemen raising the flag had one of the firemen as an African American, even tho all the firemen in the photo were white. A lot of people, I'm going to wager all white, were outraged. Would be nice if they would be equally outraged over this. I am (I wasn't over the photo) and I would like to hear an explanation from Stone.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

2. His identity wasn't known during filming:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0469641/trivia

Also, as reported by the Associated Press on August 14, 2006, the Marine identified only as Sergeant Thomas (who disappeared shortly after 9/11) has been identified as Jason Thomas, a former Marine who grabbed his uniform and immediately drove to Ground Zero to help. Because his identity was unknown at the time of filming, Sgt. Thomas - who is black - was portrayed by William Mapother, a white man. The producers have since apologized to Sgt. Thomas for the miscasting. Thomas has laughed it off and told them not to be concerned, stating, "I don't want to shed any negativity on what they were trying to show."

[Little Wing]

3. If it was done on purpose you'd have a point

[Dean Martin]

4. I wasn't aware they didn't know who he was

I don't follow pop culture news or movie news. I was not aware that they did not know who Sgt Thomas was when the movie was made, nor was I aware they apologized to him. The film was never mentioned during the Extreme Home Makeover episode.