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Bamboozled

Threat advisory: Elevated - Significant risk of entertaining activities

Movie propaganda

You've been hoodwinked. You've been had.
You've been took. you've been led astray, led amok.
You've been bamboozled. - Malcolm X

Television gets a bold new viewing in Spike Lee's Bamboozled. Spike's latest film is a blistering satire of network television's pitfalls and prejudices, a humorous look at how race, ratings and the pursuit of power lead to a television writer's stunning rise and tragic downfall.

Damon Wayans stars as Pierre Delacroix, a hip, young, Harvard-educated writer who is the sole person of colour working for an upstart network with floundering ratings. Despite several attempts, Delacroix has yet to see any of his concepts go into production. Now his boss, the ratings-hungry, culture-vulture Dunwitty (Michael Rapaport), issues him a searing ultimatum: come up with a hot, trend-setting, headline-making, urban hit or get fired.

Feeling doomed, Delacroix decides to present the most outrageous, unbelievable farce of stereotypical comedy he can imagine - hearkening back to the old days of "black-face" minstrels with a variety show featuring Manray (Savion Glover), a homeless tap dancer, and his sidekick Womack (Tommy Davidson).

Incredibly, Delacroix' spoof turns into a ratings bonanza, a cultural phenomenon that has the media pundits raving and audiences of all types howling. But, for Delacroix, the runaway success of Mantan: the new millennium minstrel show is the start of a rapid unravelling. Despite trying to defend his hit show, Delacroix comes under attack from all sides, not least if all from his own beautiful assistant Sloan Hopkins (Jada Pinkett Smith), who is falling for Manray, and her radical hip hop rapper brother big black (Dante Beze). Delacroix' ratings keep rocketing, but they peak on a day that will change everything.

Bamboozled mixes comedy with intrepid social commentary about the way the media works. "Two of my favourite films are A face in the crowd and Network and I used both as a platform, and as inspiration. This is a piercing look into the past and future of film and television," says Spike.

Also starring Julie Dretzin as Beth, David Wain as Bunning, Charli Baltimore, Canibus, Gano Grills, Kris Park, MC Serch and Matthew Cole Weiss as the young white male. Written and directed by Spike Lee.

Cinematic intelligence sources

Download the 800x600 desktop image of The very black show dancers
Studios and distributors:

New Line * Roadshow Films

Intelligence analyst

Secret Agent Acid Thunder

Theatrical report

This one is sure to make it onto the syllabus of film study classes. It has a famous black man playing a black man who speaks like a white man. It's a documentary on the past, present and future of black performers on white TV. Spike has finally created a film that I appreciate not for its entertainment value but for its content.

While I enjoy Bamboozled's creativity, it's definitely not a Saturday night flick. Watch it, study it, learn it.