Bamboozled makes itself immediately apparent that it has something to say and a way to say it. The opening scene of Pierre speaking to the audience with his interesting voice in front of what looks like a greenscreen while loud music plays doesn’t leave any room for subtle atmosphere building. It is obviously bombastic. The movie sometimes has long dialogue sequences before something jolting occurs, like a loud musical sequence, as if what we’re seeing is a cold and clinical television studio system with more honest expression sometimes coming out, only to be soon after shut down. Those dialogue sequences are often scored with serious or otherwise attention grabbing music, which evokes the feeling of community theater. Those elements make the film entrancing and memorable in its strangeness.
The look of the film is distinguished in how it’s undistinguished, a little glossy from its digital camera that looks unprocessed and rugged. It doesn’t look very good, to be fair, but it works at showcasing this world as gross and uncomfortable. Scenes like Pierre describing “colored people’s time” goes on longer than you’d think, also showing the same effect of being unnatural and disturbing. It establishes the dynamic where black people’s failings are emphasized or exaggerated by white people, or by black people because of white people. The references to modern media, fashion, etc showcase the dichotomy between that and the idea of a minstrel show. Some even modern tropes if you go back enough are shown to be rooted in minstrel show humor.
The justifications used by white people to say or do the obviously extremely racist things they support use the sort of logic you hear today to justify such things. A character even directly gives those justifications at one point in how negative feedback can be challenged. Methods are suggesting this modern show is better because its cast and crew are really black, acting like critics are taking away viewers’ choice to decide what they watch, acting like critics are demanding power or control, obfuscating what “black” means, calling the show a satire without explaining how, evoking well known black figures, evoking there being a nebulous sense of “community”, and acting like every representation of black people is criticized unfairly, so this shouldn’t be seen as any different. These reasons can be hard to quickly dismantle, but a general issue is that they are sidestepping the nature of what’s being criticized, as well as the arguments by said critics. One particularly amusing moment is when Pierre says that slavery ended four hundred years ago, which is simply false.
The film goes on a little too long given how many scenes hit the same beat of “exposing a social bias” without much to add to that intended message. This isn’t a very significant problem, but one that takes away from the impact more than if the film was punchier, especially as punchy as moments like Pierre’s first scene. About thirty minutes could and should have been cut. At one point, Dunwitty asks Pierre to name a person on his wall. We never see who he’s referring to, which seems strange. Maybe we were supposed to see, but that never got shown for whatever reason?
The character “Big Blak Afrika” describing why he wants his chosen name to be respected is delivered poorly, with the actor almost mumbling. The point of this scene of him isn’t clear, possibly that black people are not beyond being bigoted themselves. That is later shown when some black audience members are the most receptive to the minstrel show. Sloan asking her brother to leave her apartment has really weird hammy acting, with her pointing to the door with both hands. Her character is usually more subtle, so maybe this was intentional? The title screen for Spike Lee’s production company in the last seconds features the phrases “Ya Dig” and “Sho Nuff”.
SPOILERS
Moments like an apparent dream sequence of Pierre beating up Dunwitty for saying the n-word show the frustration minority groups often feel when having to tolerate such behavior. Pierre seemed to have wanted to create his minstrel show to get him fired and to be offensive, but he is later shown defending it. When Pierre’s boss adds in more jokes to the script to make it “funnier”, Pierre complains about how racist they are, as if the point and original concept isn’t already extremely racist. When Womack is exposed to how racist the show will be, he says he’ll need more money. His value system is in effect to a degree, but he is willing to suppress it for money.
Womack seems to understand that what he’s doing is horrible, but when he’s performing as “Sleep ‘n Eat”, he seems enthused and like he likes the material. Pierre and Sloan also seemingly randomly are either supportive or against the show at points. One of the more biting lines in the film is, “I say n**** a hundred times every morning. Keeps my teeth white.” A modern commercial of a group of black people advertising a soda shows some minstrel mannerisms in their behavior. Racism intersecting with sexism is depicted when Sloan is upset at the suggestion that she couldn’t have gotten where she is without sleeping with powerful people.
A scene of a mixed race audience repeatedly using the n-word goes on to the point that the word loses much meaning, reflecting that it only has meaning because culture applies one to it. When Pierre is damage controlling a situation after Manray makes a scene in front of a studio audience, he says horribly racist comments about him, as prejudiced media like this conditions people to think of who is being targeted in a more negative or mockable light. This dehumanization is taken to a more extreme point when video of Manray being murdered is allowed to air on national television, like that sort of behavior against black people is acceptable, at least in a way. A moment of less subtle social commentary is when a group of black criminals are gunned down by the police, while they don’t shoot and only arrest the one white member.
One of the final notes of the movie is when there’s a montage of real anti-black jokes throughout filmed history is shown. The montage shows how unchanging racist imagery can be, with certain patterns emerging. It also suggests they’re recent enough that they were filmed and sometimes in color. The score that plays during it mirrors the earlier scenes of conversations going on long tangents, like how this material becomes numbed in our minds due to its unchanging and cold nature. The somber score plus the subject matter is probably intended to educate those who wouldn’t understand the harm of these depictions, just like how ways of obfuscating racist media was discussed earlier.
Scenes like the commercial for “Timmi Hillnigger” earlier in the film show the materialistic, exploitative, and stereotypical nature of hip hop culture, at least to director Spike Lee, using black people for the purpose of emphasizing a rich white person or depicting black people as something novel to be envious of. “Everybody wanna be a n****, but nobody wanna be a n****.” And why do black people appear and endorse this media? The reason why is because of money. They need it, so they’ll do something like a minstrel show if that means financial stability. That being said, the honest opinion black characters have to racism varies. Why can be debated, but it may be that a young person of modern times wasn’t alive in the most pointed eras of slavery-the 1950s or the desire to fit in with a bigoted culture can make those minority groups be willing to let things slide for the sake of fitting in. They can also honestly not understand the problem. As an example, Pierre doesn’t like his father’s standup material, thinking he’s lost his principles, despite him literally creating and supporting a minstrel show.
OVERVIEW
It seems clear that there is a desire to have your comfort zones challenged. This can be manipulated by those who put out a harmful product and act like those worthwhile “get it”. The masses who don’t really understand it will support it to fit in. This is shown in the film when the minstrel show is called groundbreaking. When Dave Chappelle would actually do satires of racism on his show Chappelle’s Show, he felt people weren’t getting the point and only liking the show when it was making fun of black people on a surface level. There is certainly a lot that can be taken from Bamboozled and it can be especially good for those that may not understand the nature of racism, so this makes fun of some common issues effectively. Another recommendation for this type of movie is The Watermelon Woman.
ON THE CORNER AND OFF THE WALL
For the record, this has been a pretty depressing film to write about. It’s taken a while for me to finish because of its nature, being easier to distract myself with the Three Stooges! It is a worthwhile work, but maybe don’t review it, like I did.
The Filme Diary 