bamboozled ( 2000 ) rated r ; running time 136 minutes genre : drama ( forget what the genre labellers are sayin' ; this ain't no comedy . ) imdb site : <a href= " http : //us . imdb . com/details ? 0215545 " >http : //us . imdb . com/details ? 0215545</a> official site : <a href= " http : //www . bamboozledmovie . com/ " >http : //www . bamboozledmovie . com/</a> written by : spike lee directed by : spike lee cast : damon wayans , savion glover , tommy davidson , jada pinkett-smith , michael rapaport , mos def review copyright rose cooper , 2000 review url : <a href= " http : //www . 3blackchicks . com/bamsbamboozled . html " >http : //www . 3blackchicks . com/bamsbamboozled . html</a> you are about to read the most schizophrenically lengthy review i have ever written - which , ironically , marries it perfectly to the movie being reviewed : spike lee's controversial bamboozled . here we go . . . the story ( warning : * * spoilers contained below * * ) : black tv writer pierre delacroix ( damon wayans ) is charged by the white producer of the continental network systems station mr . dunwitty ( michael rapaport ) to come up with an all-black comedy show that will boost cns's ratings . but when the " streetwise " dunwitty rejects the harvard-educated delacroix's plans to create " the next cosby show " , dela , along with his assistant , sloane hopkins ( jada pinkett-smith ) decides to create a show so offensive that dela would be fired [and thus allowed to get out of his contract . . . since , after all , he has " a mortgage to pay " . don't ask how being fired will help pay that mortgage , though . too much logic , and all] . inspired by homeless black street tap dancer manray ( savion glover ) and his partner womack ( tommy davidson ) , dela and sloane come up with the most heinous show imaginable : " mantan the new millennium minstrel show " , in which manray would play mantan and womack would play " sleep 'n eat " ; they both would be made up in blackface ( " black actors in blacker blackface " ) , and called " two reeee-aaaal coons " . manray and womack , being in a state of poverty , agree to this ( womack more reluctantly so than manray , who'll do anything " longas the hoofin's real " ) , but dela is ultimately undone when to his surprise not only does the " nigga " -spouting dunwitty love the concept , the american tv audience eats it up . sloane and dela have a hard time living with this - but not as hard a time as sloane's brother julius , aka big black africa ( mos def ) , a member of the maumau rap group who takes issue with the " comically " blackened minstrels , at the same time as he and his fellow malt liquor-guzzling self-righteous maumaus use the word " nigga " as much if not more than the minstrels themselves . the upshot : and the schizophrenic part ? bamboozled worked for me on so many levels at first , that i was so utterly disappointed when it just kept going on and on , repeating itself without saying anything new , eventually running out of juice well before it was over . had i stopped watching it at a certain point , i might've declared it a masterpiece . as it is , i can neither fully praise , nor fully denigrate , this movie . and the funny thing is , {some} black folks will try to take me to task for that very thing [ " 'bamboozled' was dope ! , you oreo traitor ! " . . . " 'bamboozled' was wack ! , you bougie traitor ! " . can't win for losing . ] as a visionary tale , bamboozled knows few equals . spike lee nailed many of the dysfunctional issues black folks in america have as a people ( and , of course , as the many sub-cultures within the larger , mostly-undefined black culture ) , and well as the issue itself : what exactly does it mean to be black in america ? is dela less black than julius because julius is " keepin' it real " ? is dunwitty - clearly a caucasian - * more * black than dela because dunwitty considers himself " street " ? is the white maumau blacker than * all * of them ? and when it gets right down to it , is there even such a thing as one single " black culture " ? though lee's targets were many , and wide ( and , depending on who you ask - for instance , hollywood's finest black comedy stars , many of whom loudly questioned lee's " right " to do this movie - just plain off-base ) , i found his aim fairly accurate , for the most part . all the " nigga " -slinging , all the malt-liquor drinking , all the empty mau-mauing - even the mental separation of us into " blacks " and " negroes " ( or , telling it like it 'tis , " niggers " ) that too many of us ( me included ) do . . . when spike aimed , and hit , it spoke to many of the things i've long felt were cultural ills with us here in this so-called melting pot . the most heinous ill being that we so gladly supply the cork , and willingly apply the ugly blackface , to ourselves . but - and this isn't a small thing - being a visionary is only half the battle ; to have a successful movie , one must also have successful acting and directing , a tight storyline , and cohesive editing . and that is where bamboozled ultimately failed . granted , a spike lee joint doesn't always follow the typical moviemaking blueprint of your standard motion picture . to that end , the weird jumpcuts , the unnatural-feeling scenes , and the strange editing , were lee trademarks . but this film couldn't afford lee's quirks * and * his inability to cut out the repetition on the one hand and " grow " the story on the other * and * an in-your-face storyline , all at the same time . that , on top of the unbelievability of both mantan's and sleep 'n eat's instant revelations with no good cause ( except , of course , the " wake up ! " caused by looking at your cork-blackfaced image in the mirror , which should make * anybody * say " hmmm . . . maybe this isn't a good idea after all " ) , and damon wayans' bizarre choice of a one-dimensional portrayal of delacroix , almost killed the joy of the bamboozled philosophy for me . great acting by jada pinkett-smith , michael rappaport , and an interesting turn by rapper mos def as big black africa , could not overcome lee's lack of tight focus , the far-too-easy " instant " acceptance of the minstrel show by the audience , the completely incredulous " payoff " involving the maumaus and mantan ( my eyes truly rolled ) , or wayans' just plain bad acting - and worse , the bad decision to let him do the narrative voiceover . the " jolly nigger " -type collectibles , and the black actors of the past who did what they had to do - and having done so , * allowed * a spike lee , a damon wayans , et al , to be where they are today - should have supplied the final narrative . too bad they weren't really allowed to speak . the " black factor " [obdisclaimer : we are not a monolith] : " we are not a monolith " . it is my daily mantra . and it applies oh so well to bamboozled . but what , exactly , does it mean ? it means that somewhere out there , there's a harvard-educated , stick-up-the-butt , " negro " -labelling , confused dela ; and a status-seeking , hard-working , bougie , confused sloane ; and a tap-dancing , fast-talking , struggling-to-get-by manray and womack ; and a malt liquor-drinking , gun-slinging , pseudo-revolutionary julius . and like it or not , they're all black . which , of course , lays waste to the one huge stereotype we seem to be portrayed as on the idiot box that pierre set out to feed . if this , more so than the viewer's experience of the acting itself , was the ultimate point of bamboozled , then bad acting/directing/editing or not , bamboozled is indeed a masterpiece . one that , when all is said and done , should be seen , no matter your color . bammer's bottom line : bamboozled , conceptually , is something that spike lee should be applauded for . would that the finished product were as great as the concept behind it . it pains me to say that ; after all , i drove 88 miles to the hood just to see a movie that a lot of theater owners in predominantly white neighborhoods were apparently too chicken to show . i desperately wanted to love this movie for both its message and the talent behind it . the message came through loud and clear ; but judging bamboozled on its creative merits alone , we have been hoodwinked . bamboozled ( mixed rating ) : a greenlight rating for what visionary spike lee * tried * to say ; but . . . . . . a cautionary yellowlight for the way director spike lee said it . spike , i gotta go with what dela's mama said about him : you disappoint me . 
