Bamboozled

Movie Info

Genre(s): Drama

Written by: Spike Lee

Directed by: Spike Lee

Release Date:
Theatrical: October 6, 2000
DVD: April 17, 2001

Running Time: 135 minutes, Color

Origin: USA

Summary

RATING: R for strong language and some violence

Starring Damon Wayans, Savion Glover, Jada Pinkett, Tommy Davidson, and Michael Rapaport

An Ivy-League educated writer (Wayans) joins a comedy show at a major network. The show includes an all black cast, but is written by mostly white people. One of his first ideas is to have a skit where the cast wears "black face," and the show becomes an instant smash.

Also On Metacritic

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Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 7.8 (out of 10) based on 17 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Alessio P. gave it a4:
Basically, it's a mediocre film, like could be one made by college students. And I'm not talking only about the technique (the camera is always shaking, and the p.of views are questionable) or the acting (amateurish at best) but of the theme itself. Everyone is a caricature, a forced portrait of a stereotype. The end leaves you unsatisfied, because no one of the character is worth to stand up and worthy express an opinion: they are all stupid or out-of-reality regretful about racism. This is my first Lee movie, and since now i thought he was a great director since he is so famous. Until now.

Stephen gave it a9:
It boggles my mind how a film like "You don't mess with the Zohan" can have a metacritic score higher than that of Bamboozled. How does that even happen? If anything, it shows the current state that we are in as a society -- where a quick fix of laughter is more "enjoyable" than a brooding dark comedy/tragedy. For all the reservations I have of Spike Lee as a director and a spokesmodel for everything that is "colored", this film was excellent in almost every way. I am fully aware that Lee fails to answer his own questions on race. Unfortunately, that is the problem with the whole notion of race. It being a social construction, there really is no "solution" for it. Using a rather postmodern approach, Lee explains this in an eloquent manner.

Andrew H. gave it a10:
This is the most moving film I've seen in years. We had a party at my college where students wore "blackface" and, you know, I couldn't figure out what to think about it. On one hand, they were well meaning kids just going for yucks and trying to have fun - and it was funny. On the other, it seems like they, like the white tv producers in this film, perhaps love hip-hop culture themselves but as a joke they don't seem to quite even understand - and there's a certain horror in that. Lee is criticized for not having a clear answer to his problem, well, and for not being clear in general. I disagree. There are certainly ambiguities along the way - Wayans' character development could've gone smoother. But Lee's great strength in dealing with race, and what made Do the Right Thing so great, is that he portrays all the nuanced positions in the debate in relation to each other, so that all the truths and all the absurdities of positions you actually identify with come through. The film is actually best (not worst) at its finish (although the action sequence is agreeably a bit much - perhaps fashioned after Natural Born Killers). In the very end, the tone we are left with is mournful. Lee profoundly asks, "What would it take to grieve our past so that its ghosts no longer haunt us?" Those reviewers who felt the film was confused just think there ought to be easy answers. Do the Right Thing, one of the greatest films ever made, did much of what this film did better - but this is as close as Lee has come to repeating himself as prophetic, bittersweet, funny, charming, greek tragedian. Underneath all the vitriol that gets tossed around is still the profound humanity of that film - but only in the end and "backstage". Is there a filmic sequence more poignant than when various members of the audience of the minstrel show, in black face (at first you are horrified they are in black face at all, and using the word nigger) stand and announce that they too are "niggers." You start thinking, well, it's not demeaning to black people then; it's a white fantasy and people are really joining together. But then that romanticized dream of universal-niggerdom comes quickly crashing down, when you remember the horror of what "niggerdom" actually means, when you realize the most authentically unique character in the film will be erased as a person by this movement. It's just so heart rending you can't help but join Lee in quietly letting go of the judging anger, the tittering glee, the capitalist free-for-all, the romantic conformism and you just have to sit still and watch and allow yourself to feel grief. He's got it nailed.

John T gave it a0:
In his other films, Lee makes fun of white people who belittle the contribution of blacks to American culture. In Bamboozled, he makes fun of white people who are obsessed with and revere the contribution of blacks. You can't win: It's almost as if Lee is saying there's no way a white person could ever admire a black celebrity for the right reasons. When the network brings in a Jewish consultant named Myrna Goldfarb (Dina Pearlman) to advise on a public-relations strategy, her mere presence is treated as an affront. In an attempt to defend her perspective, she mentions having lived with a black man and adds that her parents had marched with Martin Luther King Jr. at Selma, Ala. But Sloan and De-La don't buy her empathy, and neither does the movie. I'd like to say that any Jews who'd appear in a Spike Lee "joint" are traitors to their people, but I'm afraid I'd sound too much like Lee. Does he want that to be his legacy? He makes it so much easier to resign ourselves to our racism.

Spongeee gave it a10:
Top 10 movie of all time. So many layers to enjoy this film on. Captures the struggle of African Americans in a white world, esp. when it involves billions of dollars, the media, and our culture as a country.

Young Y. gave it a 5:
Some brilliant moments. That is about it. A massive dosage of self-proclaimed profundity of Spike Lee's -- unfortunately, he lacks both philosophy and narrative palletes to materialize and expand the issue. It is as though Spike is full of self-pity when it comes to the issue of racism and its history and angry at everyone but himself. I advise Spike not to take interest in the issue he has never been genetically part of. Can you dig my philosophy, Spike? Then, why shoud we dig yours? Amazing abundance of miscasting and hence bad performances culminated by Damon's, for which I have to question Spike's sincerity as a director as well (no doubt of his "sincerity" as a visionary and issue raiser). How can anyone miss that Damon's character may lose interest after only 5 minutes from the opening? Without Womack and Honeycut, the film is dead, and they are given only a few moments of short personal conflict and comic relief respectively. To keep it short, I can conclude only that 1) as a visionary, Spike is full of self-grandeur and self-pity, which he channels into anger at every direction and eventually buries, in a spectcularly masturbatory, contradicting manner, what to do about the issue, and 2) as a director, he lost a grip in this movie and made it into a string of disjointed events. On the dvd, Spike made a short comment to the effect that his portrayal of a Jewish publicist does not indicate that he is anti-semitic. But, after watching the film, I can't help but get impressed that Spike would call a racist anyone who portrays a black publicist in the manner you did the Jewish counterpart. This suggests that Spike lacks objectvity, which I suspect is the main reason that Spike fails to expand the issue both philosophically and cinematically. In other words, too much subjectivity in observation and self-pity in himself to be even satiric. I would give only 3 out of 10 if not for the audacity to bring the issue out. I just hope someone would make a more meaning obsrvation of the issue on screen. Oh yeah, a white or asian director may do because it does not take first person experience to see the universal humanity in the issue. It may not be as direct or as personal. Yet, the lack of directness and being personal may do more good.

Tom gave it a 10:
Brilliant! IT really makes you think.

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