| | |
Features: DVD
Television gets a bold new viewing in Spike Lee's Bamboozled. Lee'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 color working for an upstart network with floundering ratings. 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's 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 unraveling. Delacroix's 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 favorite 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 Lee.
"A comedy of shocking gravity." Talk Magazine
"A political parody of media...it's Network meets Bulworth." Richard Corliss, Time Magazine
Editor's Note
Spike Lee turns up the controversy notch once again with BAMBOOZLED, a sizzling satire on race and racism within the modern media world. Harvard-educated writer Pierre Delacroix (Damon Wayans), the only black employee on the staff of a struggling television network, suggests the most absurd idea for a pilot that he can possibly imagine, hoping it will convince his tyrannical boss, Dunwitty (Michael Rapaport), to terminate his contract and fire him. However, his plan backfires and his idea--MANTAN THE NEW MILLENNIUM MINSTREL SHOW--finds great success. The show is a stereotypical and racially charged depiction of the tap-dancing Mantan (Savion Glover) and Sleep 'n' Eat (Tommy Davidson), two lazy, homeless black men who spend their days in a watermelon patch. As the show becomes a national sensation, Delacroix, his assistant Sloan Hopkins (Jada Pinkett), as well as her older brother, aspiring rapper Big Black Af' (Mos Def), begin to see the harm the show is causing the community, triggering outbursts with deadly consequences. Shot on digital video, Lee uses his basic premise to mock and accuse today's entertainers (including Chris Rock, Ving Rhames, gangsta rappers, and Lee himself) for being modern reincarnations of the stereotypical caricatures that were so offensive in the past. The result is a biting commentary that is at turns hysterical, absurd, and poignant.
| Features | Original Theatrical Trailer | | DVD-ROM | | Cast And Crew Filmographies | | English 5.1 Surround Dolby Digital | | English 2.0 Stereo Surround Sound | | Music Videos | | Original Documentary On The Making Of Bamboozled | | Animated Gallery Of Artwork Created For The Film | | Widescreen Version | | Feature-Length Commentary With Director Spike Lee | | Deleted Scenes |
| Technical Info
|
Release Information
| | Studio: New Line |
| Release Date: 5/10/2005 |
| Running Time: 136 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 2000 | | Catalog ID: 5197 | | UPC: 00794043519727 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English [CC], English | | Available Subtitles: English | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | 2.35:1 |
| Cast & Crew
|
| | Professional Reviews | New York Times
"Spike Lee has grabbed a tiger by the tail in his scabrously risky new comedy, BAMBOOZLED. The wonder is how long he succeeds in hanging on..." 10/06/2000 p.E14Entertainment Weekly
Ranked #8 in Entertainment Weekly's "Owen Gleiberman's BEST MOVIES OF 2000" -- ..."Giddy with outrage, Lee tears off the mask of propriety and stomps up and down on it..." 12/22/2000 pp.106-17 Rolling Stone
"...[BAMBOOZLED] isn't afraid to shoot comic darts at its targets until blood is drawn....Damon Wayons brings vigorous wit to [his] role..." 10/26/2000 p.122 Sight and Sound
"...BAMBOOZLED is a picture of genuine importance....BAMBOOZLED ranks among the director's finest pictures..." 04/01/2001 p.42-3 Total Film
"...Challenging....Brave and contentious..." 05/01/2001 p.97 Los Angeles Times
"...Savage, abrasive, audacious and confrontational, BAMBOOZLED is the work of a master provocateur..." 10/06/2000 p.C1 Salon.com 9 of 10
...a fascinating, enigmatic and, yes, shocking film, a near masterpiece ambiguously balanced between brilliance and incoherence... the totality of Lee's scabrous vision here is marvelously executed. In fact, Bamboozled is finally a classic satirical broadside against anyone and everyone in the media... - Andrew O'Hehir
The New York Times 7 of 10
The nifty concept behind this dangerous free-for-all satire on race, television and black images in the media is demonically inspired and uncomfortably to the point... the laughter it provokes is the kind that makes you squirm. But that is what good satire is supposed to do. Out of discomfort can come insight. - Stephen Holden
|
| |
|
|
|
