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starring: Damon Wayans, Savion Glover, Jada Pinkett Smith, Michael Rapaport, Tommy Davidsondirected by: Spike Lee
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9780780634053
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
ISBN: 0780634055
Label: New Line Cinema
Manufacturer: New Line Cinema
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: New Line Cinema
Release Date: April 17, 2001
Running Time: 135 minutes
Sales Rank: 23924
Studio: New Line Cinema
Theatrical Release Date: 2000
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Editorial Review:
Amazon.com:
Director Spike Lee has never shied away from controversy, and with Bamboozled he tackles a thorny mix of racism and how images are bought and sold. A frustrated TV writer named Delacroix (Damon Wayans), unable to break his contract, tries to get fired by proposing a new minstrel show, complete with dancers in blackface. But the network loves the idea, and Delacroix hires two street performers (Savion Glover, who is truly the finest tap dancer since Fred Astaire, and Tommy Davidson) whose hunger for success and ignorance of history combine to make them accept the blackface. Despite protests, the show is a huge success--but gradually, the mental balance of everyone involved starts to crumble. As an argument, Bamboozled is incoherent--but how can racism be discussed rationally in the first place? Lee takes a much braver approach: Every time something seems to make sense or make a point, he complicates the situation. At one point, Delacroix goes to see his father, a standup comedian working at a small black club. Delacroix perceives his father as a broken failure. But his father's routine is full of articulate critiques of white hypocrisy, and the older man describes refusing to play the narrow movie roles that Hollywood had offered him, while Delacroix has convinced himself that his minstrel show is actually doing some social good. And what is the effect of the show itself? Lee obviously finds blackface abhorrent, but the minstrel routines are perversely fascinating and Glover's dancing, even when he mimics Amos and Andy-era routines, is outstanding. Most cuttingly, Lee points out parallels between minstrel and contemporary hip-hop personas. By the time it's over, Bamboozled won't have told you what to think, but you will have to think about these issues--and that alone is a remarkable accomplishment. --Bret Fetzer
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - Painful, Powerful. A Spike Lee Classic.
Angry, uneven, brilliant. . . This is not destined to be remembered as a great motion picture, but it sure is powerful. How do you even write about it? Spike Lee shoves everyone around, overturns tables, and leaves you to think about it all.
Pierre Delacroix (Damon Wayans) is a "negro" TV writer who is black enough to be upset about lack of representation of people of color in his business, but "white" enought to not understand fully the ramifications of what he does. His boss, Mr. ... Read More
Rating:  - Gotta gotta see this.
This is not your typical Spike Lee film, but perhaps his most important -- so important that the film is void of the director's ego for the most part. This film speaks about race issues in America, the unique issue of descendants of slavery fitting in to the culture that enslaved them, loving the hope that the country holds, yet not being given permission to hold residual pain and residual anger. It's a film about how the cultural norm creates and defines human beings who are other than the defining ... Read More
Rating: - Spike Lee At His Best
Bamboozled has to be one of Lee's most shocking films yet.The plot about sterotyped minorities is shocking because it's true. Damon Wayans is great in his first dramatic role as are Tommy Davidson & Savion Glover. Spike Lee chose to shoot this film on digital camera and you get the feel of a real life news cast with Mr. Lee's cinematography .The film "Bamboozled" caught a lot of heat for it's portrayal of blackface (an issue that wasn't really talked about until the release of "Bamboozled") Writer ... Read More
Rating: - The Divine Comedy
This is the most provocative film Spike Lee made about racism & how the american entertainment industry has treated the image of Africans in america. I love to watch old movies from the early years in black & white even until today; the pattern is still the same. There is no major difference between Stepin Fetchit, Dolemite, Martin Lawrence, Cedric the Entertainer or the most recent incarnation of buffonery, Katt Williams.
This is not an indictment on those individuals or their talent, ... Read More
Rating:  - Spike shows he's no Paddy
Strange that Spike Lee would write an homage to Paddy Chayefsky's satirical masterpiece, but not "get it." He starts the film as a wonderfully bizarre fantasy like "Network" but then asks us to take the events seriously, forcing his actors to play heavy dramatic scenes in which they question their part in a completely unreal minstrel show. A fascinating farce degrades into embarrassing angst and finally into downright melodrama. Note to Spike: farce is meant to be fantasy, not reality.
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