Review of Bamboozled (2000) by Jeff H — 13 May 2008

Coming off the success of The Original Kings of Comedy, Spike Lee took a swing and a miss with this â??low budgetâ?? ($10 million seems pretty high to me for a small DV production) racial tale of a frustrated television writer (Damon Waynes) who, in an attempt to disprove the racist programming ideology of his boss, creates an offensive television pilot exploiting black stereotypes. To the writerâ??s dismay, the show becomes an enormous success among audiences of all ethnicities. Shot for $10 million, the film barely grossed $2.2.

I liked it, despite Wayneâ??s annoying accent and theatrical ending. Hard-hitting racial commentary aside, this is probably Leeâ??s most focused narrative. No more offensive than School Daze (at this point, maybe Iâ??ve been eased into Leeâ??s films so much so that Iâ??ve become jaded) it seems the director finally found the right balance of comedy and drama to effectively implement his racial undertones, save for the abrupt, theatrical ending (once Manray gets kidnapped the film makes the mistake of taking itself too seriously. Itâ??s okay to deal with serious subject matter such as race but that doesnâ??t mean it is best served executed in the form of serious drama. After all, comedy is drama in disguise. Look at Blazing Saddles). Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Bamboozled though is Spike Leeâ??s apparent frustration with all ethnicities, including his own. As the final words of the film conclude: â??As I bled to death, as my very life oozed out of me, all I could think of was something the great Negro James Baldwin had written. â??People pay for what they do, and still more for what they have allowed themselves to become, and they pay for it, very simply, by the lives they lead.â??â?? You see, Spike Lee doesnâ??t hate white people â?? he hates everybody equally!!