Disclaimer: I am no racist but I will state my business in this here review of Bamboozled and I will do it very graphically
At first, I thought this movie was really dumb but when I finally realized what Spike Lee was getting across in this film were two things even though it does have some misfiring moments. As a mixed member of the minority population in America(Black and Hispanic), It has seemed to me that black-filmmaking is only appreciated for being funny and sometimes for nothing else, now hold on to that thought. This comment will probably be barred but I'm not gonna hold back and I'm gonna tell the honest-to-god truth whether you like it or not. Back to the thought which brings me to explain the first thing that got through to me on this - the film has some truly disturbing scenes though it's not told in a dark context - the disturbing thing is that you have the first sellout of a Black man(played by Damon Wayans) who has these puppets that represent the terrible history of racist name-calling towards black people. Then there's the second sellout, played by the talented tap-dancer Savion Glover. The second sell-out is the one who depicts these puppets on TV for entertainment purposes which brings me to my second realization. The puppet metaphor in this I found to be absolutely frightening in a sense as the white executives for the TV company love the idea that Damon Wayans' character proposes and decides to use him and his bad idea. Jada Pinkett-Smith plays the most difficult of these roles as the one who knows that this is impure stuff but instead goes ahead with it. This may sound mean but I actually understood the part where Savion Glover's character is forced to tapdance because of gunfire at his feet which he eventually eats by some really angered thugs in an alley. The ending, in which the cartoons are showed in conjunction with the black actors in black and white prior 1950s style, is truly unpleasant but effective with the cartoons with the monkeys being replaced by the black actor finally to fit a horrible spitting image - At first I was blind to it because I never looked at it that way but now that I see it, it really messed up...
6.5/10 - not bad
At first, I thought this movie was really dumb but when I finally realized what Spike Lee was getting across in this film were two things even though it does have some misfiring moments. As a mixed member of the minority population in America(Black and Hispanic), It has seemed to me that black-filmmaking is only appreciated for being funny and sometimes for nothing else, now hold on to that thought. This comment will probably be barred but I'm not gonna hold back and I'm gonna tell the honest-to-god truth whether you like it or not. Back to the thought which brings me to explain the first thing that got through to me on this - the film has some truly disturbing scenes though it's not told in a dark context - the disturbing thing is that you have the first sellout of a Black man(played by Damon Wayans) who has these puppets that represent the terrible history of racist name-calling towards black people. Then there's the second sellout, played by the talented tap-dancer Savion Glover. The second sell-out is the one who depicts these puppets on TV for entertainment purposes which brings me to my second realization. The puppet metaphor in this I found to be absolutely frightening in a sense as the white executives for the TV company love the idea that Damon Wayans' character proposes and decides to use him and his bad idea. Jada Pinkett-Smith plays the most difficult of these roles as the one who knows that this is impure stuff but instead goes ahead with it. This may sound mean but I actually understood the part where Savion Glover's character is forced to tapdance because of gunfire at his feet which he eventually eats by some really angered thugs in an alley. The ending, in which the cartoons are showed in conjunction with the black actors in black and white prior 1950s style, is truly unpleasant but effective with the cartoons with the monkeys being replaced by the black actor finally to fit a horrible spitting image - At first I was blind to it because I never looked at it that way but now that I see it, it really messed up...
6.5/10 - not bad