Review of Bamboozled (2000) by Candice W — 16 Feb 2008

As offensive a movie as you'll see. Uneven, but I haven't seen social satire used to this effect before. Yes, it's heavy handed, but all Spike Lee's movies are. I hated Damon Wayans stupid "white" accent. I hated Michael Rapaport. In fact, I wasn't really diggin this movie till about half way through.

Most people are going to dismiss this movie and say that Lee doesn't need to dig up the past. But I'll admit to being educated a little bit (the toys, the powerful montage at the end). I'm not sure what he wanted the audience to take away from this film, but I think he was trying to make 4 points:

1. (Obviously) Blackface is wrong. Does Spike bring up this subject just because he's an angry African American? Look closer. There is an observation at the way black people were viewed by the white audience. Has that really changed?

2. It was and is wrong for black people to "stoop to bafoonery" for the sake of entertainment. A common theme in the movie are the self morals the main characters have to deal with in the product they are producing. There is also an undercurrent about "rap" culture and the videos that are put out on MTV.

3. Never underestimate the popular audience. Would this happen in real life today? Never. Spike knows this, but he asks us to pretend it does. What if it did? Methinks somethings would play out just the way they do in the film. Americans can be fickle and blind.

4. If it's black people in blackface does that make it okay? The makeup is kind of like a metaphor for a cetrain "N" word that can be used by some people but not others. The mentality is, it can't be offensive then if being used by the offended. We hear that argument all too often, and I think ManTan is representative of that.

If you look at the characters that die, these are the people Lee feels are responsible and should pay.