“With a wide range of incisive, sardonic, hyperbolic humor and drama, Lee sketches the circular connections between racist images, racist policies, and the lack of leadership to resist them.””
Nigel’s introduction to the film, shown at The Lord Palmerston, 4 June 2019
Bamboozled is Spike Lee’s 15th feature. It was made in 1999 and came out in 2000. It received pretty mixed reviews and did middling business at the box office but I do genuinely think it stands up incredibly well today and sadly - at least with regard to the issues it’s tackling - it’s still very relevant.
Right from the opening voice-over the film is very explicit that it’s a satire. And like many satires it targets can be a little hit and miss.
The film’s genesis came from Spike Lee’s own frustrations as being labelled ‘an angry black man’ by the media after making films like Do the Right Thing and Malcolm X. The film’s images are at times jaw-dropping but ultimately it’s Lee’s considered reaction against the negative representation of black people on film and television. From a film point of view he’s said his main influences were Elia Kazan’s A Face in the Crowd (which I’ve not seen), The Producers and Network so if you’re familiar with those films you’ll see the influences I think.
One of the recurring points Spike Lee made in interviews at the time was that that black performers have a choice now: “We don't have to do clownish or cartoonish portrayals in sitcoms or "magical negroes" like in The Green Mile” (where you might remember Michael Clarke Duncan’s character cures Tom Hanks’ bladder infection).
But I think he’d argue that many actors are still in those roles. You might remember last year that Spike Lee said the “ref made a bad call” when Green Book won the Oscar for best picture. That was a film that was widely criticised as showing that racism can be cured by watching a successful black person suffer.
The critic and programmer Ashley Clark has written a book about Bamboozled and interviewed Spike Lee about the film a few years ago. He said:
“So many themes in the film made me think it could have been made today. A lack of diversity in media organisations, debates over the representation of black people on screen - the fact actors like Lupita Nyong'o and Mo'Nique win Oscars for roles as a slave and a welfare queen, or in the case of Octavia Spencer in The Help, as a maid. It also touches on excessive police force against black people, and cultural appropriation foreshadowing the bizarre story of Rachel Dolezal the woman who headed the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) in Washington by claiming she was black but wasn't.”
Echoing something you’ll see in the film Spike Lee’s said “I've had white executives tell me that they know black people better than I do.”
A few interesting points about the cast and production. It’s worth remembering what a surprising role this was for Damon Wayans who plays the lead. He was a very successful mainstream comedian in the 90s in movies and the TV show In Living Color (now he’s in the Lethal Weapon TV show) and Spike Lee wrote the part with him in mind. Jada Pinkett Smith was also a big star. There are lots of musicians in the film - The Roots play a band called - brace yourselves - The Alabama Porch Monkeys and there’s a bunch of hip hop stars like Mos Def in the film too.
Savion Glover who plays the tap dancer in the film became famous for starring in and being the choreographer for the Broadway hit Bring in 'Da Noise, Bring in 'Da Funk.
Weirdly the film has something in common with the Agnes Varda film we showed a few weeks ago. Most of this film was shot on the same handheld digital camera Varda used to make The Gleaners and I. So it was also Spike Lee’s first digital film (although the performance sequences were filmed on 16mm film).
Seeing anyone in blackface is disturbing and it’s even harsher to see a black person in a minstrel show. Lee said that while making the film the actors said the process felt dehumanising and that “they felt part of the soul taken away” each time they wore the makeup. His point being they only had to do it a few times and it made them feel like that, so imagine the anguish it must feel to do that day-in day out as black minstrels did pretty much from the 1840s right into the 1940s.
The other particular racist imagery that becomes overwhelming in the film are all the stereotypical toys and other paraphernalia Delacroix the main character has in his office as the film goes on. I watched Spike Lee’s commentary on the DVD and at one point he just stops and says “what kind of hateful, troubled mind would make a toy like that.”
I’ll finish with another quote from Spike Lee:
“We did this film around the time of the 10th anniversary of cinema and the 50th anniversary of television so I wanted to look at what has transpired in that time. You think about Bamboozled what a lot of people didn’t get is that you can make the same film about women, you can make the same film about gay people, the same film about Native Americans, Hispanics of how people have been dehumanized in cinema and television.”
