Bamboozled (2000)

User Rating:

6.3/10   

Director:

Spike Lee

Writer:

Spike Lee (written by)

Release Date:

20 October 2000 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Tagline:

Starring the great negroe actors

Plot:

A frustrated African American TV writer proposes a blackface minstrel show in protest, but to his chagrin it becomes a hit.

Plot Keywords:

Minstrel Show | Blackface | Television | Satire | African American

Awards:

1 win & 6 nominations

Cast

Damon Wayans	...	Pierre Delacroix
Savion Glover	...	Manray / Mantan
Jada Pinkett Smith	...	Sloan Hopkins (as Jada Pinkett-Smith)
Tommy Davidson	...	Womack / Sleep'n Eat
Michael Rapaport	...	Thomas Dunwitty
Thomas Jefferson Byrd	...	Honeycutt
Paul Mooney	...	Junebug
Sarah Jones	...	Dot
Gillian Iliana Waters	...	Verna
Susan Batson	...	Orchid Dothan
Mos Def	...	Mau Mau: Big Blak Afrika (Julius Hopkins)
M.C. Serch	...	Mau Mau: 1 / 16th Blak (as MC Serch)
Gano Grills	...	Mau Mau: Double Blak
Canibus	...	Mau Mau: Mo Blak
DJ Scratch	...	Mau Mau: Jo Blak

MPAA:

Rated R for strong language and some violence.

Runtime:

135 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Finland:K-15 | USA:R (certificate #37684) | USA:TV-MA (TV rating) | France:U | Germany:16 | Netherlands:12 | Norway:15 | Spain:13 | UK:15 | Iceland:16

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Company:

New Line Cinema

Trivia:

Most of this film was shot only on digital (Mini DV) camcorders, the kind you can buy at any electronics store. While this sacrificed quality, it allowed them to shoot with 15 cameras at a time, and it also allowed Spike Lee to get all the footage he needed shot within the film's modest budget. The only scenes shot on film were the "Mantan: The New Millennium Minstrel Show" sequences, which were shot on 16mm film.

Quotes:

Dunwitty: Sorry I'm late. I had trouble catching a cab.
Pierre Delacroix: Perhaps they thought you were Danny Glover.

Movie Connections:

Features Any Bonds Today? (1942)

Soundtrack:

2045 Radical Man

Uneven but interesting

This could have been a brilliant film. The problem I had with this film is that Spike Lee had too many ideas he was trying to pursue, and should have kept to the single focus. Yet, there were some brilliant scenes. We see a black gangsta group of hip-hoppers and one scene shows a member drinking out of a bottle shaped like a rocket. Later on we see a commercial for this product. Subtle and interesting. The film clips from old films and the display of of toys during the endtitles, were fascinating and could have made an interesting documentary.

One thing I didn't like, besides the stereotypical white bigots, was Lee's focusing upon 40s black comedian Mantan Moreland as the epitome of black humiliation. Moreland was a brilliant comic who stole the show from the white actors of the day. Whites and Blacks turned against Moreland during the civil rights movement and the man could hardly make ends meet. Before he died in the early 70s, opinion changed again and he was seen as a pioneer. He once again managed to get some work in films and tv before his death. A better target for Lee should have been Stepin Fletchit, who made a career out of playing a lazy black freeloader.

I have to agree with Lee on hip-hop as a minstrel show. The gold chains, oversized sport jerseys, and baseball caps worn sideways are clownish and not far removed from the olden days when blacks played buffoons to entertain white people. The show is still going on....