Bamboozled (2000)

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:

At the end of the film where the rap group The Mau Maus get shot and killed in a shootout with police and the only survivor was the only white member of the group, was based on a true account from the early '90s where a California street gang was also in a shootout with police. Instead, there were two survivors, both were also white. One had been shot in the leg but he lived.

Quotes:

Pierre Delacroix: I don't want to have anything to do, with anything black, for at least a week

Movie Connections:

Features Any Bonds Today? (1942)

Soundtrack:

2045 Radical Man

another bright burning joint by spike lee

This picture is so much deeper than most things i give a "10" vote to, i'm completely blown away. Spike Lee is undoubtedly one of America's least appreciated geniuses and "Bamboozled" firmly re-establishes his claim as a thinking man's cinematic artist. A dizzying pontification on race relations and the subjugation of blacks through media image, "Bamboozled" is more than a movie; it is a graduate thesis with plot, pyrotechnics, and tap dancing. It even comes complete w/ multi-page bibliography in the closing credits. Forget the flashy "handmade-ness" of "She's Got to Have It," now that he's done more than twenty films, Spike's "joints" are now some of the finest crafted films made. 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. Once again working with Ellen Kuras (who did phenomenal work in Lee's 1999 "Summer of Sam" and again astonished in Ted Demme's 2001 kaleidoscope, "Blow")Lee's cinematic style has evolved to the point of seamless artless glide of sumptuous images. As per usual Terence Blanchard's score (he's done 8 Lee films) is multi-faceted, haunting, evocative, appropriate and stands up as music on it own in addition to being background noise. Lee's ear for dialogue from a wide variety of social strata and on an equally wide variety of subjects is spot on and his script pays great homage to hundreds of original sources of film in general and black exploitation in particular. For example, Lee freely mines that 70s pitch perfect piece of agitprop, "Network," to keep the focus on the fact that above all this film is a discussion of media. Further the immense number of actual historically degrading black artifacts (films, toys, posters and other objects) Lee displays boggle the mind, not just for their variety (and occasional ingenuity), but also as proof of how pervasively insulting white america has cast black america. Seeing how few film fanatics here have weighed in on this film is a bit embarrassing, not for Lee, but for the supposedly educated cinefile audience that attracts to this site. We need to correct this problem. Tell your friends to rent this one, but be prepared: the history of american oppression of blacks, especially in our media, does not make a pretty picture, but in Lee's hands it adds up to a powerful one. Also recommended: all Spike Lee in general, but in this same vein, "Get On the Bus," the volcanic epic "Summer of Sam," and Lee's immortal prize winning masterpiece: "Do the Right Thing."