Bamboozled

I assume all who are reading this blog have seen Bamboozled but if you haven't, click here for a synopsis.


Commercially and critically, Bamboozled was a flop. There are many possible explanations as to why Spike Lee's film failed so miserably. One is that the ending was too outrageous with nearly all of the main characters being killed. Another reason could be that Spike Lee failed to do his best work and rushed the making of this film. But the most likely reason it failed is that Americans did not want to relive the racist past of the American entertainment industry. Black face and the racist stereotypes that were once common in America are brought back in Bamboozled. Lee does this for one specific reason, to compare black entertainers of the past, to those of the present. When you compare them, you find that not much has changed since the minstrel shows of the past.

Spike Lee's major point in his movie is that nearly all of the entertainment industry is still controlled by the white man. Thomas Dunwitty is the boss to Pierre Delacroix and he represents white corporate America in the entertainment industry. At the end of the day, he makes the decision of what goes on the air. Pierre represents black entertainers who are just trying to make it big in the entertainment business. Pierre has ideas of a respectable black family television series but Dunwitty doesn't like it. He doesn't think that image will get good ratings. In response, Pierre sarcastically creates a minstrel show in an attempt to get fired, but to his surprise, Dunwitty likes it and approves of it. Dunwitty's approval of only this idea should remind us that nearly all of the entertainment we see today is approved by someone like Dunwitty, a white corporate man. This raises the question that if the white man still decides what kind of black people are being represented in films and T.V., is it that different than the white man directly representing black people by putting on black face?