My fellow MoFo’s, I have a confession to make. I am a White man. And while due to a few of my characteristics, the women I date, and things I enjoy; I have been the subject of many a joke by my friends and co workers in my Squadron that I am “Black.” We all have a few laughs, but let’s face it I am White as hell. It is impossible for me to know firsthand the experiences a Black person faces. As such I can only see the world from the perspective as a White person would. Maybe that is a handicap for me with going into this movie. Or maybe this movie is just a terrible film.
Bamboozled is a Spike Lee film from the year 2000, about Pierre Delacroix (Damon Wayans) who is working for a fictional TV company called CNS. Pierre is Harvard educated and more than a little rigid. Rigid in the sense that Delacroix is portrayed by Damon Wayans to be very well… White. I know what Damon Wayans sounds like in real life, and his manner of speaking for this character sounds like a voice a Black comedian does to do a caricature of a White person. Insert your own joke from Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy or Dave Chappele here. Delacroix’s boss is a White man played by Michael Rapaport named Dunwitty. Dunwitty is portrayed to be a very annoying person who while despite being very pasty White, tries to talk street. And even though he is married to a Black woman; he adorns his office with pictures of Black sports stars and African tribal statues, and he even says the N word a lot. To make things even more offensive, he claims he is more Black then Delacroix and he even says the line “Quentin Tarantino was right, N****r is just a word.” I could not help but feel like this line was written with a degree of animosity given the very public feud between the two film makers. Dunwitty wants a new TV show with a Black focus. But he rejects all of the TV shows pitched by Delacroix that have Blacks portrayed in a positive light and in the middle class, he wants something other than so called “Cosby clones.” Dunwitty also puts out he wants a new hit show, or Delacroix will be fired. Delacroix becomes very upset by this, and he hatches a plan. He is stuck in a contract with CBN, so he cannot just quit his job without getting sued. He instead plans to get fired by putting on the air something very racist and shielding it as “satire.” He expects a public backlash, he gets fired, and then he can go work for another studio. He does this with the help of his assistant Sloan Hopkins (Jada Pinkett Smith). The first step of the plan is to find a concept, and Delacroix comes up with one.
BLACK FACE!
Delacroix decides a Minstrel Show for the new millennium is just the ticket he needs out of his contract. Step two hire the talent! He finds street performers and tap dancers Manray and Womack outside on the street. They are homeless and dance for change and donations. All the while they stay in illegal housing. Manray has his name changed to Mantan (a reference to Mantan Moreland, a Black Vaudeville actor) and Womack becomes Sleep N’ Eat. Step Three pitch the show! He pitches the show to Dunwitty and proposes many of the very blatant and racist aspects of the show. Dunwitty loves the idea and quickly greenlights the show. The show goes on, and we are presented in a montage that shows the step by step process to make traditional “Black Face” make up. And then Mantan and Sleep N’ Eat finally take the stage in their pilot episode. And it is every bit as offensive as the term minstrel show can be. It is two Black men, in Black face, acting like stereotypical buffoons, singing, dancing, shucking, jiving, and talking in a very racist dialect while in the cotton fields and watermelon patches of Alabama. Delacroix waits patiently to see the visceral reaction from people who are watching the show. Problem is… the show becomes a hit, and 12 more episodes are ordered.
Now immediately I realized; this is very similar to one of my favorite movies The Producers. In that movie two Jewish Broadway producers raise one million dollars in cash, intend to put on a $60,000 dollar play so offensive it is sure to fail, and then pocket the rest of the money. The show is Springtime for Hitler, a show guaranteed to fail. Problem is the show becomes a hit and they now must pay off the financial backers, thus leading to financial ruin. This movie follows the same basic premise. But when I heard one particular line, I realized this movie was very similar to another film. In Bamboozled, one of the characters says the line “Open up you windows and shout I am sick and tired of all these N*****s, and I’m not going to take it anymore!” At this point I realize this film also shares a loose similarity to Network. A frustrated TV worker pitches a controversial new show, it becomes a hit, and then certain events spiral out of control. Unfortunately this movie is neither as good as Network; nor as funny as The Producers. Mostly because Mel Brooks is very good at telling jokes and Spike Lee is just not funny.
Now satire does not need to be laugh out loud hilarious, but it does help. In fact the movies I consider the very best of satires have me laughing in the aisles. Dr Strangelove, Blazing Saddles, The Producers, and Team America: World Police all have the ability to split my side. This movie makes me groan. For starters, The Producers, IS HILARIOUS! This movie barely has any laughs in it! The funniest part of this movie is Paul Mooney (who plays Delacroix’s dad). The best part of the movie is when he is doing his stand up bit at a comedy club, and he was a laugh riot! Problem is he is in the movie for less than 5 minutes! You take away Mooney, and there are only two funny lines in the damn movie! This sure as hell was not written by Mel Brooks. And then we come to the biggest issue I have with the movie. In The Producers, it was the Nazis were the ultimate butt of the jokes from the movie. Mel Brooks’ philosophy was you are never going to win an agreement with a racist person. To take away the power of racism (the Nazis in the case of The Producers) you have to make fun of them. And Mel did that by poking fun at Hitler. Spike Lee’s target for this movie is how Blacks are portrayed on TV. He takes issue with many Black characters portrayed as buffoons and uneducated comic relief. He seemed to take issue with shows like Good Times or anything made by Tyler Perry. But Bamboozled does not ultimately poke fun at the source of racism or the TV guys. Mostly because this does not feel like a comedy; it comes off as a lecture. Delacroix is in part a representation of the creative teams that put on shows Lee finds offensive. And while we see a tragic rise and fall, Delacroix is not the butt of the jokes; mostly because there are no jokes to be had. Another attempt at heavy handed lecturing is at the audience of this new show. The audience loves the show, it becomes a hit, and it even gets to the point when live audience members begin to show up in Black face themselves. This is not only not funny; it is condemning anyone who might be a fan of Tyler Perry or old Shows like Good Times. And then there is the targeting of the minstrel show itself. The minstrel show in the movie is very over the top and very racist. Which is the intention, but it is also not funny.
Now some of you might be wondering, hey Gunslinger, isn't one of your all time favorite movies Tropic Thunder? The movie where Robert Downy Jr. is in black face? Yes it is, and I am glad you bring it up!
In Tropic Thunder Robert Downy Jr. plays an Australian actor named Kirk Lazarus, who opts to take the role of a Black US Army Sergeant instead of a White role. And being a crazy method actor, he undergoes a skin pigmentation surgery to become dark skinned. And his portrayal of a Black person is done based on a man who knows very little about African American culture as a whole. As such, the character Robert Downy Jr. plays can be said to be stereotypical. And that would be fair. And you know what? That movie calls that point out with the inclusion of the role of Alpa Cino, a young rapper who constantly calls out RDJ’s character for doing his schtick. And there is one other difference between the two movies. Tropic Thunder… is subtle compared to Bamboozled! RDJ’s Black make-up actually makes him look like a Black man. The hair matches, the skin color is appropriate, and the lips are not over exaggerated. And while RDJ may over indulge the Black character a bit, he still is shown to be one of the smarter members of the group. And when he does go too far with his character, Alpa Cino is there to call him out. Bamboozled on the other hand, to borrow a phrase from Tropic Thunder, “Went full minstrel show. You NEVER go full minstrel show.” The black face make up there is the old fashioned burnt cork way with extra large red lips, huge white gloves, and buffoonish behavior set to 11! You cannot compare the two. One is much more restrained in the Black face and is funny, while the other movie is unfunny and downright offensive.
In addition, going back to The Producers comparison, the protagonists Max Bialystok and Leo Bloom both have a very clear goal in mind. Put on a flop so they can get the money. In this movie the motivations and reactions of certain characters is more than a little confusing. When in the process of development, Sloan’s character shows more than a little apprehension to the idea, as does Womack. But Womack even though he performs, never shacks the feeling that his show is wrong. Sloan on the other hand shows indignity one moment, but is seen laughing at the show the next. This makes her character a tad confusing. Even more confusing is Dunwitty. Dunwitty is portrayed to be very ignorant and I guess the intent is racist. But I find it hard to swallow him being a bigot if he does have a Black wife. I mean why marry something you hate? It makes no sense. Second, as a man who is married to a Black woman one would think he might be a tad more sensitive to these sorts of issues. I credit this to the poor writing than anything else. And that does seem to be the major flaw here. This script was just not put together very well. This script needed to be much better written, motivations more clear, and more importantly WRITE A FEW JOKES! Some of the worst movies I have ever seen have been comedies that were not funny! And this was not a funny movie! And with a movie with Paul Mooney in it, you have no excuse. In fact this movie should have been retooled with Paul Mooney having a much larger part.
To sum up, Bamboozled is a movie with a decent concept, but a very poor script. I like my comedy when the humor is in poor taste. This movie had plenty of poor taste, but without the humor. I cannot recommend this movie to anyone, unless you like seeing people in Black Face.
I'm kinda curious about this one. If it were someone like Michael Bay or Roland Emmerich I probably wouldn't pay it any attention, but with del Toro at the helm I am intersted to see what it's like. I'm also really surprised by the amount of good reviews it's getting
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