Bamboozled

Plot synopsis:
In a New York City residence, Pierre Delacroix (Damon Wayans) rises to begin his daily routine. Brushing his teeth, he gives us by voice over a definition of satire. He tells us that with the rise of the Internet, video and interactive games, his field as a television writer has seen a drop in popularity. Meanwhile, in a dilapidated building, squatter Womack (Tommy Davidson) wakes up his friend Manray (Savion Glover) for a day of work. This consists of travelling to the CNS (Continental Network System) building where Delacroix works, and Manray tap dancing to entertain the workers. They then collect money from the workers. The men see Delacroix walk by, and ask him for monetary help in the form of work of some kind.Delacroix walks into a staff meeting late and is immediately castigated by his boss, Thomas Dunwitty (Michael Rapaport). Dunwitty informs the staff that CNS has poor ratings. He says he wants them to write funnier material, and ends the meeting. In the privacy of his office, Dunwitty tells Delacroix that the material Delacroix's been writing for him seems like it's about white people with black faces. Dunwitty asserts that Delacroix is an "oreo" with his Harvard education, because he won't write a "n----r show."The next day, Delacroix and his assistant Sloan Hopkins (Jada Pinkett Smith) talk. They've decided that Manray is the solution to his problem. Delacroix plans to write a show that will be so "offensive and racist," it will prove his point that the network only wants to see black buffoons on the air. Delacroix simply hopes to be fired, so he can be let go of his contract with CNS. Manray and Womack ask at the receptionist's desk for a "Delapoint" and the men working there tell them to step outside. However, Sloan steps into the lobby, sees what's happening, and escorts Manray and Womack to Delacroix's office. Delacroix explains to them that he has an idea for a television pilot, and they can make money with it. His main request is that Manray changes his name to Mantan, in an apparent homage to black character actor Mantan Moreland.On Sloan's walk home, she runs into her big brother Big Blak Afrika F/K/A Julius (Yasiin Bey). In Sloan's apartment, Julius and Sloan argue about his values, and he tells her to introduce him and his political hip-hop crew, the Mau Maus, to Delacroix.Delacroix has another meeting with Dunwitty. Delacroix proposes that the network start a variety show called "Mantan: The New Millenium Minstrel Show." Delacroix says that new faces are needed for the show, and has Sloan bring in Manray and Womack. The two men, respectively renamed "Mantan" and "Sleep'n Eat," will exhibit a range of stereotypical traits, Delacroix explains. Sloan is opposed to the proceedings, and suggests that there will be protest of the show they are planning. To seal the package, Manray dances atop a table in front of Dunwitty -- who immediately leaves to try to sell the show's concept to his executive bosses.Delacroix, Sloan and another woman hold auditions for the show. The first group of people (The Roots) audition to be the show's house band, The Alabama Porch Monkeys. After they perform, a dancer, a vulgar man shouting "I be smackin' my hoes," and a didgeridoo player all audition. The next hopeful is Honeycutt (Thomas Jefferson Byrd), an actor who bungles Shakespearean quotes and proclaims "N----s is a beautiful thing." Sloan's brother's group, the Mau Maus then do a fiery, confrontational performance; Pierre states via voice over that there is no place for them in his plan.Delacroix looks over a revised script for the show and confronts Dunwitty and his co-writer, Jukka about their alterations to it that even he finds racially offensive. Delacroix says that he won't be responsible for their changes, which Dunwitty says are to make the show funnier. Dunwitty says he knows black people better than Delacroix does, telling him, "Look at all the brothers on the wall" (referring to numerous pictures of famous black men hanging up in Dunwitty's office). Dunwitty tells him not to interrupt them, and Delacroix expresses impotent rage at this before leaving.A dressed-up Honeycutt steps onto a stage and introduces himself to a TV studio audience. Backstage, Womack and Manray create blackface from burned cork, put it onto their faces, and apply fire-truck red lipstick to their mouths. Mantan, Sleep'n Eat and the Alabama Porch Monkeys are then unveiled to the audience. People in the audience are shocked and dismayed, as the two actors employ self-deprecating racial humor while Mantan tap dances. White people in the audience are mostly scared to laugh or show their enjoyment, but black people around them clap and laugh. The white people thus feel sanctioned in enjoying the show. A sign near the stage says "Howl!" and the non-black people, seeing the approving black people around them, applaud.To Delacroix's disbelief and displeasure, the CNS executives order 12 shows of "Mantan" for a mid-season replacement. As the show becomes more and more popular, sides are chosen in the resulting battle over representation, and finally, tempers fly, resulting in a tragic conclusion.

Tags: tragedy, avant garde, satire, murder, melodrama

Review:
The film "Bamboozled" has caught a lot of heat for it's portrayal of blackface (an issue that wasn't really talked about until the release of "Bamboozled") Writer Pierre Delacroix (Damon Wayans) sees his pitches for TV shows being rejected one after another.
Add to this the fact that, besides clips of Good Times and The Jeffersons, both of which, I ought to add (in my own opinion), Lee is taking out of context (he would have been much better off to feature Diff'rent Strokes, which is somewhat offensive), all of the clips he uses to demonstrate the abuse of his race must have been downright difficult to dig out of film archives.
We all know they exist, and, as Sloan (Jada Pinkett Smith) says in the film, we oughtn't to forget whether we're black or white, but it doesn't work as satire to show these things.
I think it would have been better to have had a minimalist score, which would have made the film seem even more immediate.Like I said, there are many major and legitimate complaints against Bamboozled, but critics and audiences forgot what's going for it: it is EXCELLENT CINEMA.
With films such as Do the Right Thing and Jungle Fever, he shows his passion and understanding of situations such as racial feelings between all races, not just whites and blacks as well as how outsiders view interracial relationships.
Here, his target is the entertainment industry, specifically television and he cuts right to the core because he knows how important and complex this issue is and wastes no time of this 135-minute film to stuff every frame and scene with a message and relating what he has seen in this country and how he feels about it.First off, the acting is near flawless.
Damon Wayans gives his best performance ever as Pierre Delacroix, a successful producer upset that he is not considered black with his fancy dress and white accent.
The end is in fact a rehash of many other movies seen before, even ones self-consciously referred to here such as Network and The Producers.Spike Lee is a gifted and fearless director and I cannot say this is a boring or uninspiring film.
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.
Add to that a clichéd friendship-not-surviving-success subplot and big ideas apparently lifted from The Producers and Network, and there seems little left to praise.But while it fails on many levels, the good ideas remain and allow Lee to explore two main themes  the past degradation of black performers and the position they hold today.
And although much of Lee's argument can be countered by a number of positive roles or by seeing gangsta rap as only a small part of the black music that dominates the charts, these are the things Bamboozled wants to make us think about.
Had Bamboozled boasted that intensity throughout, had it not been let down by a script that fails to make its points, by Damon Wayan's superficial take on the lead role, and its betrayal of supporting characters for its finale, it would have been a fascinating film.
As it is, the message is powerful; the film is not.But when his films work and when they don't, Spike Lee is at least consistent in one thing; he makes you think long after the credits have rolled.
Towards the end of Bamboozled, Spike Lee lets go of his narrative for a minute and turns to the film over to a parade of archival material.
But for every time Lee educates us, he bashes us over the head with references to his own movies (even though Bamboozled is shot on digital video, it has moments clearly borrowed from Mo' Better Blues and Do the Right Thing) or, even worse, he makes too-obvious references to Network (Including a repeated misquoting of the famous "mad as hell and I'm not going to take *this* anymore" line).
Read most of the reviews for this flick and you can tell that they are written by people who are saying more about how they feel about Spike Lee and racial issues than this movie.
"Do The Right Thing" on the other hand was pure Spike Lee brilliance, but none of his films following that one (and "X") were worth viewing much...
Director Spike Lee has a big quantity of people who love his movies and people who hate them.The people who critic him say his movies which contain a message about racism produce damage.The people who love his movies say that Lee gives that messages to remind the people the facts with the intention that they have not to repeat anymore.Personally,I think Lee is a unique and extraordinary director who makes films with a big stylistic and narrative impact.And,the best thing of all,Lee leaves the spectator thinking after watching his movies.Bamboozled is another great film directed by this awesome director.Bamboozled is a very powerful movie with brilliant dialogs.The performances are perfect.Damon Wayans is a great actor very natural and expressive.Jada Pinkett Smith is excellent on her role.Michael Rapaport is a brilliant actor and,here,he brings the best performance of his career.Bamboozled is a great,fun and totally intelligent film directed by an awesome director..
It's the kind of movie where one may like it more for what it could have been rather than what it is.Bamboozled is meant to be, as Lee's character Delacroix (Damon Wayans) points out more than once both to the audience in dictionary definition and layman's terms, a satire.
Maybe Wayans has done some good work in the past (ironically, as it's mentioned in the film as a point of reference for black variety shows, in In Living Color), but he makes the character sound totally off-key, sounding like a nerd with a bad accent and with mannerisms that are just awful.
Whether or not the blame is Wayans or Lee's writing and direction is a 50/50 split; others like Davidson and Glover fare a little better, and Jada Pinkett Smith arguably delivers the best non-unreal performance of the lot.
Bamboozled goes up and down in its level of pretentiousness and ineptitude: for the first half an hour I wondered if I was really watching a movie by Spike "Do the Right Thing" Lee, as it's mostly shot in mini-DV camera style like some amateurs from a college film program in their first year.
Then it starts to get slightly more interesting, though still problematic in filming style and performances (albeit I did enjoy, as filmed in 16mm, the Mantan sequences as a hyper-stylized set-piece, and the one scene with Delacroix and his stand-up comic father played by Paul Mooney).But as Lee's polemic grows more dire and more serious, and as the circumstances of Womack and Manray's disagreement about what they're doing leads to a somewhat predictable, horribly melodramatic and preachy finale, I was ready to chuck my diet coke at the screen.
Yet I stuck through to the end, and realized something during the final five or so minutes as the cavalcade of images in montage went by of American TV and movie history of black stereotypes (including the infamous Birth of a Nation racism); had Lee done much of what he's presented in Bamboozled as a real documentary- which is just as much if not more-so history lesson than satire- then he might be on to something with a better grip on minstrel shows and media-stereotypes.
All of the scenes showing the black face performances on the "Man-Tan Show" and the montage of blacks in entertainment at the end of the movie are quite poignant, and frankly left me speechless and fixated on the television screen.The bad: The acting and script left a lot to be desired.
This made it feel rushed at times and completely ludicrous at others.Overall, if you want to be made to think about race in America and in entertainment, this is a good movie to pick up.
Overall, Spike Lee's "Bamboozled" addresses a series of issues including the influence from media, racial profiling/discrimination, corruption, etc., and also alludes to the conflicts of the past regarding the origins of the "black face" as well as racism itself.
This film is incredibly loaded and I feel it takes one with substantial passion and intelligence to organize and create a story as powerful as Spike Lee's.
His boss, who "has a black wife and half-white children" is repugnant, and thinks that this gives him the right to say and think anything about African-Americans he likes which is utter nonsense.Jada Pinkett Smith is wonderful as the conscience after-the-fact and you wish to see her in more controlled, intelligent, roles as this.But the standout, to be sure, is Savion Glover whose dancing is quite simply mesmerizing; it is quite easy to forget the rough ground we are treading and just revel in this man's talent.
With a cast of over 90 (not counting the hundreds of extras including Al Sharpton and Johnny Cochran) and a crew of more than 300, Lee marshals a massive army on "Bamboozled," though the film always feels like an up close, personal story that happens to take on national proportions.
His audience could have easily started to sport a black face too and proclaimed loudly to the press, "See we aren't racist!" The Herman Cain train exemplified everything that Spike Lee was saying in this dark comedy.
I don't know.Not only would the entire unfolding of the plot never even come close to happening, but the acting (especially Damon Wayans) is terrible and unrealistic.In a nut shell, Spike makes up some super-racist BS, snowballs the situation so you feel like crap for watching the hateful, degrading movie, and unnecessarily makes blacks hate whites for making such degradation possible, and makes whites hate blacks for trying to make real an unreal situation of hate, blame, and guilt.
It's as though he doubts that white America is smart enough to get his message and concerned that black America may have forgotten it while climbing up the assimilation ladder.And while I may squirm at his intellectual contempt for the audience, and be irritated that he plays his usual double standard, where EVERY white character as a racist stereotype), I'm drawn to the single - minded courage of his view.Bamboozled grits and grates on every nerve and then does a deft tap-dance on our last one---stretching it for all it's worth.
And it leaves this viewer hoping he did this on purpose, but knowing its just the same old lack of self-control.And yes — we got the point, Mr. Lee — no thanks to your sledgehammer method of directing, that blacks who play roles to serve a racist stereotype are "the enemy" and deserve only death.I've seen almost every film that Spike Lee has created --- The Girl's Gotta Have It, Malcolm X, Girl 6, Do The Right Thing, Jungle Fever, etc.
— Same Old Stereotype - and create something truly original.In a way, Faizon Love is right on target — for while Spike Lee is an Oscar-caliber director, with piercing insight and uncommon talent, he still lacks any objectivity to truly "direct" that vision to it's desired end.For rather than just making a point that's obvious to all, we'd rather see whats' beyond that one-dimensional image to embrace a more three-dimensional viewing experience.
So two years after it came out, I said ok, I'll give him ONE more chance and rented "Bamboozled." What a mistake.The funny thing is, like with most of Lee's films, the premise of "Bamboozled" is actually quite promising and probably would have worked if only a capable filmmaker was behind it.
(However, the fact that the whole country went ballistic when Ted Danson put on blackface that one time doesn't do the premise any good.) The truth is, Lee is a horrible filmmaker and that's why his movies bomb.For whatever reason in the world, Spike Lee still has that "pimply-faced know-nothing NYU film student" mentality, where he feels if he does a few odd things with the camera and audio and goes for an "artsy" feel, that it'll be a success.
Some may say, "he's camping it up." Well if he is, he's doing it very poorly.Watching this movie felt like watching some kid from heck, not just NYU, any high school film class who threw a whole bunch of garbage together in the guise of "profoundness" and "deepness." There is no message in "Bamboozled" no matter how much someone wants to say there is.
It appears the only reason this "film" was made in the first place, was as an excuse to remind the ten people who saw it in the theaters that there were such things as minstrel shows and people performing in blackface.I wonder how many of the few viewers actually even realize that there actually was a real actor dubbed "Sleep 'N Eat" (more originality by Mr. Lee).But, I'm glad I did finally see this film.
Spike Lee fails to deliver his message in this video filmed satire that exploits the imagery of the minstrel show while failing to deglamorize it.
Although Spike Lee fell up his own ass several films ago, this one takes the cake.Instead of a tribute to the fine actors who were subjected to silly stereotypes by white producers he has insulted the artists, who show more talented in the few clips near the end than that exhibited by the two previous hours.Is the movie anti-black?
However the show becomes an unexpected hit.A fascinating failure of a satire, Lee succeeds in making his audience think, even if he produces a slightly messy plot and leaves himself open to accusations of the pot literally calling the kettle black.
This is best seen in the way the plot sort of spirals out of control towards the end; it was like the film had finished making all it's points and wasn't really sure what to do then.There are some humorous moments but really this is a hard film to enjoy because it does feel like a little ball of anger for most of the time.
Spike Lee insults the audience's intelligence by making a complete minstrel show that no person (black or white) with a conscience (and a brain) would find entertaining in the 21th century.The only thing I liked was Damon Wayans and Savion Glover.
I couldn't shake the creepy feeling that Spike Lee, who was born and raised in a wealthy, prosperous, and privileged family (compared to the majority of Americans, white and black), might have been pandering to the audience.
But I do feel that other voices commenting on Spike Lee's movie need to be heard.Pointed humor in general, and satire in particular, is proper and successful only when it is directed toward the powerful, on behalf of the weak.
All it made me think about was how much more interesting it would have been if it was about black actors in white-face making white stereotypes.The biggest problem i had with the movie was the miscasting of Damon Wayans in the lead role.
The movie "Bamboozled" directed by Spike Lee was definitely a film that dealt with race, which is nothing new for this director.
Daman Wayans plays a network writer that needs a hit, so he comes up with this completely racist show which pokes fun at the old black face films of the early twentieth century.
Bamboozled is obviously Spike Lee's best film ever.
One interesting scene was the group meeting on the new minstrel show, where you had young people who even admitted to not knowing very many blacks, but felt confident that they understood them through shows like 'Good Times'.
But if you're patient enough to get throught the whole movie, you'll see that Lee does nothing more than picturing the stereotypes which are related to races, and the fact that people are many times racist without being even conscious of it.
But watch some of Spike Lee's other films first so you don't get a bad taste in your mouth for the man (I personally recommend Do the Right Thing, and Jungle Fever)..
Spike Lee presents one of the most racially driven movies of our time with Bamboozled.
But instead of so many African American movies where every one else seems to be criticized, uses R&B music, and involves some conflict with white people, Spike Lee held back with no one; everyone was fair game for criticism.Bamboozled was unexpectedly suspenseful, and I found the final scene with murder and death interspersed with  the sequence of black television scenes to be absolutely horrifying.I was pleasantly surprised by the acting.
The point that Spike Lee seems to be making is that African-Americans will only be accepted when they fit into their stereotypical role in society.
And -- speaking as whitey again -- doesn't it infuriate many blacks to see middle- and upper-class whites co-opt that culture when their lives are so far removed from the experience that creates it?No matter what you think of the rest of the movie, when you see the montage at the end, pretty much all you can do is drop your jaw and say, "OK, Spike, you made your point."This is a good film for people who don't want to forget what they just saw as soon as the credits roll.
I think this film was Spike Lee at his best, but unfortunately the issues it deals with are so controversial, dangerous, and deep-rooted in American culture that the power structure obviously feels really threatened by it, because (correct me if I'm wrong) it came and went like girl 6.
Spike Lee has a great movie in "Bamboozled".
Spike lee  makes  a very  good  and  funny  film.
Bamboozled had got to be one of the most if not the most controversal movies ever made by Spike Lee besides Malcolm X.
I had great expectations for this movie being that I love Spike Lee's works.