Bamboozled is a 2000 satirical film written and directed by Spike Lee about a modern televised minstrel show featuring black actors donning "black face" makeup and the violent fall-out from the show's success. The movie stars Damon Wayans as Pierre Dekacroix, a Harvard graduate who is a program executive at a cable TV network. He works under a boss who is, in his own eyes, admirably unprejudiced, Dunwitty says Delacroix's black shows are "too white," and adds: "I have a black wife and two biracial kids. Brother man, I'm blacker than you." Well, Delacroix isn't very black; his accent makes him sound like Franklin Pangborn as a floorwalker. But he is black enough to resent how Dunwitty and the network treat him, when he's late to a meeting. In front of his office, he often passes two homeless street performers, Manray played by Savion Glover and Womack played by Tommy Davidson. Fed up with the news that he's not black enough, Delcroix decides to star them in a "black face" variety show set in a watermelon patch on an Alabama plantation. Spike Lee's criticism is against black performers and image makers who allow the negative representations of their people.
"Bamboozled" is a harsh indictment not only of Delacroix, for letting down the African-American community, but of the talented tap dancer, Manray, who prostitutes his talents towards the negative depictions of black people. The hubris of Manray and Delacroix is juxtaposed with the guilt and better judgement of Womack and Sloan. The greatest and most devastating aspects of "Bamboozled" lie in Spike Lee's ability to visually articulate the racial psychology that resides on several subliminal levels in minds of many Americans, some blacks, many whites and others about African Americans and their depiction in the media. Whether it be the contribution of some rap/hip hop artists to degradation of African American women in music videos or the inner-city proclivity to send money on indifferent big-name clothing fashions like Tommy Hilfiger or some African American's habit of openly calling each other the "n-word". Also how some modern-day Black entertainers will do anything to be accepted.
Bamboozled" shows all of these popular attitudes and issues "Bamboozled" has some truly disturbing scenes though it's not in a dark context, the disturbing thing is that you have the first sellout of a Black man who has these puppets that represent the terrible history of racist name-calling towards black people . Then the second sell-out is the one who depicts these puppets on TV for entertainment purposes which brings me to my second realization.The puppet metaphor in this I found to be absolutely frightening in a sense as the white executives for the TV company love the idea that Damon Wayans character proposes and decides to use him and his bad idea. Jada Pinkett- Smith plays the most difficult of these roles as the one who knows that this is entirely wrong but instead goes ahead with it. This may sound a little wrong but I understood the part where Manray is forced to tap dance because of gunfire at his feet which he eventually eats by some really angered thugs in an alley. The ending, in which cartoons are showed in conjunction with the black actors in black and white prior 1950s style, is truly unpleasant but effective with the cartoons with the monkeys being replaced by the black actor finally to fit a horrible spitting image. At first I did not notice it because I never looked at it that way but now that I see it, it really is disturbing. The central dynamic of this film was how the black audience was the pull for the fictional show, exploiting narrow stereotypes. The old stereotypes relied on blacks as stupid, lazy, sex-obsessed, lawbreaking, and fundamentally different. Both then and now have demeaning visuals, just minstrel ones are rejected by today's society and the urban ones are embraced. "Bamboozled " seems to skirt with the fact that all entertainment is pornographic and it is hard to tease out who is the exploiter and who is the exploited.
But In my opinion, "Bamboozled" is only controversial because everything hurtful happens to African Americans due to the actions of African Americans, and if you are unable to universalize the lessons, it overloads the significance of African Americans and all the stereotypical devices in the coon show, as grotesque as they are, so moviegoers may end up in twisted knots thinking about "the black thing" and what they are supposed to think of Spike Lee. Even though, "Bamboozled" may exploit a very particular venality of television, there is something very deep and eye opening harsh in Lee's critique of the business, and as didactic as many critics have called "Bamboozled" you would think more people will truly get it, but I think many will be stewing in their own juices.
"Bamboozled" is a harsh indictment not only of Delacroix, for letting down the African-American community, but of the talented tap dancer, Manray, who prostitutes his talents towards the negative depictions of black people. The hubris of Manray and Delacroix is juxtaposed with the guilt and better judgement of Womack and Sloan. The greatest and most devastating aspects of "Bamboozled" lie in Spike Lee's ability to visually articulate the racial psychology that resides on several subliminal levels in minds of many Americans, some blacks, many whites and others about African Americans and their depiction in the media. Whether it be the contribution of some rap/hip hop artists to degradation of African American women in music videos or the inner-city proclivity to send money on indifferent big-name clothing fashions like Tommy Hilfiger or some African American's habit of openly calling each other the "n-word". Also how some modern-day Black entertainers will do anything to be accepted.
Bamboozled" shows all of these popular attitudes and issues "Bamboozled" has some truly disturbing scenes though it's not in a dark context, the disturbing thing is that you have the first sellout of a Black man who has these puppets that represent the terrible history of racist name-calling towards black people . Then the second sell-out is the one who depicts these puppets on TV for entertainment purposes which brings me to my second realization.The puppet metaphor in this I found to be absolutely frightening in a sense as the white executives for the TV company love the idea that Damon Wayans character proposes and decides to use him and his bad idea. Jada Pinkett- Smith plays the most difficult of these roles as the one who knows that this is entirely wrong but instead goes ahead with it. This may sound a little wrong but I understood the part where Manray is forced to tap dance because of gunfire at his feet which he eventually eats by some really angered thugs in an alley. The ending, in which cartoons are showed in conjunction with the black actors in black and white prior 1950s style, is truly unpleasant but effective with the cartoons with the monkeys being replaced by the black actor finally to fit a horrible spitting image. At first I did not notice it because I never looked at it that way but now that I see it, it really is disturbing. The central dynamic of this film was how the black audience was the pull for the fictional show, exploiting narrow stereotypes. The old stereotypes relied on blacks as stupid, lazy, sex-obsessed, lawbreaking, and fundamentally different. Both then and now have demeaning visuals, just minstrel ones are rejected by today's society and the urban ones are embraced. "Bamboozled " seems to skirt with the fact that all entertainment is pornographic and it is hard to tease out who is the exploiter and who is the exploited.
But In my opinion, "Bamboozled" is only controversial because everything hurtful happens to African Americans due to the actions of African Americans, and if you are unable to universalize the lessons, it overloads the significance of African Americans and all the stereotypical devices in the coon show, as grotesque as they are, so moviegoers may end up in twisted knots thinking about "the black thing" and what they are supposed to think of Spike Lee. Even though, "Bamboozled" may exploit a very particular venality of television, there is something very deep and eye opening harsh in Lee's critique of the business, and as didactic as many critics have called "Bamboozled" you would think more people will truly get it, but I think many will be stewing in their own juices.
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