The characters are also great - I especially love Damon Wayan's boss who is a caucasian married to a black woman and tells Damon "I'm more black than you are" From that point on, you know this movie is going to put a lot of stuff in your face.
The basic premise - Damon's character is tired of the types of shows with black people that show on tv nowadays. It's all very stereotypical (think this summer's "Method and Red" on fox) and he wants to do something creative. His boss wants something along the lines of "homeboys in outer space". Damon's character is so incensed that he decides he'll get fired in order to break his contract.
What could be better for getting him fired than to make the most racist and ignorant show on tv? He decides to make a show called "Bamboozled" which will recreate the blackface shows of the 30s and 40s only it will be black actors putting on blackface. There's only one problem with his plan: the show becomes a hit.
The rest of the movie shows what happens to the rest of the characters in the style of a Shakesperean tragedy. In other words, a few things don't quite go according to plan and everyone suffers. (ie Romeo & Juliet, MacBeth, etc)
Another thing that makes this movie so awesome is the fictitious commercial spot during the show Bamboozled. Spike Lee takes a pot shot at Tommy Hilfigger's alleged marketing directed at blacks with another brand whose name I can't write or my review will be banned. You'll be shocked, but in a revealing sort of way.
This film is a great statement and provides a different type of argumentation. If you can't argue with the ideas of racism by promoting positive images, go for the realm of satire and shove the racism in our faces. By doing so, our own ideas and images become absurd and much more-they become sickening. One cannot watch this film with an attentive mind and not feel sickened by the end of it. I can only fault it on a few points. First, the film feels far too long and loses steam in the middle. Fortunately, the ending of the film is quite gripping and brings it back on track. Secondly, I was not particularly impressed with Wayans's performance and would have liked to have seen a stronger actor in the role. Savion Glover, on the other hand, is quite good and his dancing is explosive and dynamic-truly the greatest tap dancer living today.
That being said, _Bamboozled_ is a film that will leave an impact on your imagination and deliver a lesson in U.S. history that will carry you forward into the present.
