BAMBOOZLED: Spike Lee's New Millennium Satire
UNIVERSAL
Spike Lee is often painted as a provocateur, dating back to the controversy surrounding the release of his third feature, Do The Right Thing. All the controversy has often overshadowed a black filmmaker using their platform to highlight and discuss the many (and neglected) issues with race in the United States. One of Lee’s most controversial films, 2000s Bamboozled, is a provocative look at black representation in media and the history that goes with it.
The film follows Pierre Delacroix (played by Damon Wayans with a peculiar accent), a TV producer for the network CNS, who despite trying to make many shows with positive portrayals of black people, is more than often dismissed by white network head Thomas Dunwitty (Michael Rapaport), who goes as far to tell Delaxroix he is more black than he is and can say the "N" word because of his marriage to a black woman and having biracial kids. In a attempt to be fired and released from his contract, Delacroix, with the help of his assistant Sloane (Jada Pinkett Smith), create “Mantan: The New Millennium Minstrel Show”. The two hire two homeless street performers who perform outside of the networks building, Manray and Womack (Savion Glover and Tommy Davidson, who give two of the films best performances), to play the shows main characters, forcing the two to change their names to Mantan and Sleep n' Eat (the names being references to two real black actors popular in 30s and 40s). Delacroix is excited that Dunwitty loves the pitch, hoping to prove the racism of his boss and the network. The show quickly becomes a runaway success. As the popularity of the series begins getting to those close to the series, a militant hip hop group, the Mau Maus, who are led Sloanes brother, Julius (Mos Def), become increasingly angry at the show for its depictions of black people and eventually turn to violence. They kidnap Manray and kill him in a internet live stream. After the group is killed, Sloane blames Delacroix for everything and not watching a tape she wanted him to see. As he tries to grab a gun she has pointed at him, it goes off, striking him and she runs away. He wipes her prints away to makes the gun shots look self inflicted and sits backs to watch a video tape Sloane made before dying.
For those unfamiliar, minstrel shows were popularized in the 1800s and would more than often feature white performers in black face performing racist and stereotypical skits about black people. Though white performers helped popularize the shows, many black performers found fame through the same acts, for a moment in the 30s and 40s becoming some of Hollywoods biggest and most in demand stars. Some of the most famous were Mantan Moreland, Willie Best (Sleep n' Eat), Stepin Fetchit, and Hattie McDaniel, who became known for the mammy character before the archetype won her a Oscar for Gone With the Wind.
One of the first noticeable things about Bamboozled is its aesthetic. Shot using a mix of 16mm for the minstrel shows and Mini DV digital video cameras for the rest of the film. The new 2k restoration done by criterion and overseen by the films cinematographer, Ellen Kuras, does a wonderful job at showing the stark contrast between the two formats, with the colors of the minstrel shows beaming out while the muted look of the Mini DV gives the reality outside of the show a almost bleak look, which fits well with the often nihilistic nature of the film. Lee has never really been known for subtlety in his films and Bamboozled is his blunt nature turned up to eleven, having long been a opponent of sanitizing his films for audiences. The film, when released, was met with widely mixed reviews. Many of those reviews questioned Lee on many fronts; the many plot lines and tonal shifts (a common criticism of Lee’s), whether he hated Hollywood and white people, why he always has to discuss racism so often, and some saying that in trying to satirize offensive and racist imagery, Lee was being offensive and racist in the process, mostly based off his use of black face in the film. Much of the recent reappraisals surrounding the film have been around its still relevant discussions surrounding black representation and the craziness in the fact that a film of this nature is still relevant in the first place.
The films views are always evident throughout its whole 136 minute runtime (the opening minutes has Wayans character reciting the definition of satire as a Stevie Wonder song about the history of black people in America plays in the background). Throughout the film we’re shown clips and given history lessons of the minstrels and how deep racism ran in those times, including a collection of racist toys that gradually fill Delacroixs office and an in-depth look at how blackface was originally applied (a sequence repeated throughout the film that becomes increasingly unsettling). The films views are best shown in a three minute montage in the final moments of the film that display the most racist portrayals of black people from many Hollywood films and cartoons from the first half of the twentieth century. The montage is further expanded on during the end credits when racist toys and collectibles (some featured in the film) from throughout the twentieth century are shown, showing how casual racism and stereotypical portrayals of black people became.
Spike Lee’s Bamboozled continues to be a forceful reminder of the United States long history of racist, stereotypical portrayals of minority groups and the lack of representation many still face in media. The film is one of Lee’s most challenging, offering no easy answers in its runtime and leaving the audience to ponder the many questions it asks. Despite this, it manages to be Lee’s darkest, most confrontational, and funniest film. Often at the same time.
