Spike Lee examines the persistence of racial stereotypes in a biting Hollywood satire. [R]
By: Kam Williams
Spike Lee has always struck me as a frustrated filmmaker, as if artistically constrained by a medium unequipped to effectively articulate his highly-politicized vision on screen until Bamboozled. Finally, Spike has produced the perfect Spike Lee movie by taking an unblinking look at the state of race in the media. Bamboozled works by way of a thoroughly engaging story line offset by an equally captivating cattle-prod of a subtext.
The comical front-story follows the woes of an affected, African-American television executive who has compromised himself beyond recognition to climb the corporate ladder. Meanwhile, the provocative back-story, one accusing the entertainment industry of complicity in the persistence of age-old black stereotypes, unfolds as an unsettling indictment of Hollywood.
The film stars Wayans brother Damon (Major Payne) as Pierre Delacroix, the only black writer at a floundering television network desperately in search of ratings. The network hired Harvard-educated Pierre to come up with an idea for a hip, colorful, urban-oriented show. But the experiment failed because the bourgeois Delacroix lost touch with the inner-city black sensibility.
At his wit’s end, the despondent Delacroix decides that he wants out. But rather than quit, he plans to get fired so that he can collect unemployment. He deliberately mounts the most racially offensive show imaginable, resurrecting an assortment of stereotypes such as the buck, the coon and the mammy for a New Millennium Minstrel Show.
Of course, the show, instead of flopping, is a runaway hit. If this theme sounds familiar, you might be thinking of Mel Brooks’ The Producers. In that film, a pair of Broadway impresarios concoct a plan to stage a production certain to fail. But the musical, "Springtime for Hitler," is a hit. They forgot the maxim that no one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public.
Consider Bamboozled‘s "New Millennium Minstrel Show" a "Springtime for Hitler" in blackface. Using black actors as minstrels, replete with darkened faces and red lipstick, the offensive scheme presents blacks as ignorant, dimwitted, lazy and unlucky. Its stars, the tap dancing Mantan (Savion Glover) and his shuffling sidekick Womack (Tommy Davidson), are down-and-out street performers thankful for any legitimate break into show business. The suddenly successful Delacroix experiences a crisis in conscience when everyone close to him, it seems, starts to challenge his motives, each from a slightly different perspective. The rudderless writer loses his bearings, awash in a black sea of accountability.
The supporting cast includes Jada Pinkett-Smith (Scream 2), Michael Rapaport (Small Time Crooks) and rapper Mos Def. But the flick also features cameos from the likes of Reverend Al Sharpton, Mira Sorvino, Matthew Modine and O.J. dream team attorney Johnnie "If the gloves don’t fit, you must acquit" Cochran.
Director Lee, via montage, also mixes in innumerable historical clips of Hollywood stars made-up in blackface, such as Shirley Temple, Alfalfa, Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney. Spike is to be commended for fashioning such a squirmy, relentlessly thought-provoking and disturbing film. It is simply too confrontational to afford any viewer a safe haven from sincere introspection.
Rated R for incessant, offensive racial slurs and stereotypes, profanity and violence.
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