Movie Review: Bamboozled

The movie, Bamboozled, by Spike Lee, is as Andrew O'Hehir describes "explosive, near-masterpiece media satire balances between brilliance and incoherence." It's about a T.V. writer, Pierre Delacroix, who creates a blackface minstrel show for his fictional T.V. network. "On one hand, it's a furious protest against the persistent media stereotyping for blacks that has existed throughout American history. While on the other hand, its ultimate subject is the mass media as a soul-destroying force of corruption and conformity that turns all intentions, good and bad, toward its own ends."

Delacroix's entire personality pretty much is performance, constructed as much for his own benefit as for the outside world's. When Delacroix's boss, Dunwitty tells him that he's "fatally confused and out of touch with his own anger," Delacroix responds with his idea for a new show that will be "different, impactful, and cutting edge": black actors in blackface and classical minstrel get-ups, playing "real coons" who sing, dance, and frolic in a watermelon patch. The minstrel show becomes a smash hit; however, it gradually drives Delacroix insane, while he's surrounded by his collection of vintage racist toys. Mantan, the star of Delacroix's show, Mantan: The New Millennium Minstrel Show, is kidnapped by the Mau Maus, an only slightly ridiculous stereotype of the urban black culture in their gold chains, 'do rags, and baggy FUBU jeans. It then concludes with the murder of Mantan and Delacroix, the "black" characters. Simply put, "it's a very controversial film that will leave the audience with a flood of furious questions that will be irresolvable and confusing."

Each of the main characters in this movie contradicts what their character represents. A white boss who thinks he's black, a successful black man who tries to get fired and would rather be white, and a poor black man who tries to become famous and ends up a sell-out, turning on his best friend and partner. Therefore, Bamboozled is a Two-faced Minstrel show.

To begin with, Dunwitty, Delacroix's "jive-talking white boy boss" thinks he's blacker than Delacroix. Though, Dunwitty does have a point, even Delacroix's father isn't sure about his race, he honestly thinks he has the right to call Delacroix and himself a Nigger. One scene shows Dunwitty's office decorated with photos of black sports heroes, he also has a black wife and biracial kids. Once Delacroix pitches the idea of Mantan, Dunwitty goes nuts over his "fresh" and "dope" idea for a new show, and has confidence that it will be a hit. He fully supports the show, even shows up in blackface a couple of times. However, once he finds out that Mantan wants to be Manray again, and refuses to play along with the highly racist minstrel show, he kicked him to the curb, but yet expresses sympathy for him, while on the air after discovering his kidnapping. It's amazing at what lengths this wanna-be black man will go to get his network to number one.

Next, is Manray or Mantan, a sidewalk performer who gets casted by Delacroix as Mantan on The New Millennium Minstrel Show. Manray, a poor, ignorant black man who lives with his best friend and partner, performs in front of Delacroix's office everyday with his self-learned tap routine. The personality of the character he performs as isn't too far from his own: ignorant, lazy, and unlucky, yet free of the restraints and obligations of the so-called "white society". He is also the choreographer and lead dancer in the minstrel show. Once bribed and tempted by the rewards of his new job, such as: fame, fortune, and an even a new pair of shoes, he changes for the worse. He pushes aside his buddy, Womack, and talks down to his dance partners. Finally, during the very last episode of the show, he comes out to dance, without blackface or costume; proclaiming that he doesn't want to be black anymore. His fame-grasping ignorance got the better of him and he traded his talent and his best friend just for a piece of the American dream and ended up dead and ashamed of whom he had become.

Finally, we conclude with Delacroix, "an uptight buppie with a Harvard coffee mug and a dubious Francophone accent. With his bespoke tailoring, Pilates classes and border-line effeminate mannerisms, Delacroix seems to belong to a thin sketch about a social-climbing black professional eager to forget his roots." At first creating his genius show to get himself fired and teach his racist network a lesson, he ends up getting caught up in the stereotyping famous TV show, and changes for the worse. He thinks of himself almost better than his father, who is a once-famous black comedian working at night clubs. Ashamed of him, Delacroix decides to enjoy his fame, even though he disagrees with all that it represents. He ends up being shot by his assistant, after dismissing his family and friends to pursue a rich, lonely, and guilty life.

I think this movie was racist, yet funny; angry, yet sad. The characters were realistic people with once good intentions who turned into monsters and received a punishment as treacherous as murder for whom and what they had become. This movie was exactly what the Minstrel show was set out to be originally: "different, impactful, and cutting edge."