Spike Lee’s Bamboozled (2001) was not one of his most famous films and not even a successful film, earning only $2,463,650 on a $10 million budget. However this film is important because it creates conversation for the viewers to discuss this idea of blackness and the stereotypes of being black that have been shown in past movies/film and even to current day films. Mocking Black culture is a recurring theme throughout the film The characters in Spike Lee’s film are key components of sending the message about performing blackness and demonstrating how although times have changed, African Americans are still not portrayed correctly due to the entertainment industry being run by white people who stereotype blacks and black culture.
The Satire …show more content…
With his frustration of all his proposals for television shows getting denied by the white executive for not being an interesting show, he decides to make a show based off of an early minstrel show. He gives his boss and the entire company exactly what they want: “a coon show.” Using this show he wants to expose the racism that exists in the whiterun entertainment industry, but he gets so involved with the show and obsessed with the money and fame he’s getting and the success the show is receiving that the message he wanted to get across gets forgotten. In the middle of the film, Sloane Hopkins, Delacroix’s assistant, gives him a black faced caricature that’s a coin bank. When the bank opens his mouth Delacroix can feed money into him. The image is fed by money and after Spike Lee begins heightening the exaggeration in the film, the image starts to move by itself. This is symbolic of Delacroix’s creation going out of control. The bank starts to have a mind of its own. Although Delacroix is very intelligent, he gets blinded by the popularity of the show he doesn’t realize how much it is starting to get people upset and angry. He is very contrasting to his white boss, Dunwitty. Dunwitty claims he is blacker than Delacroix because he has a black wife and biracial children, and knows more about black culture than Delcroix. Dunwitty tells Delacroix “Brotherman, …show more content…
Fans of the show literally paint blackface on themselves to showcase their love of the show. Anyone watching the film is on the tips of their seats, feeling very uncomfortable by the film. It’s a hard thing to watch but it’s something that people need to do because although this was just a satirical show, this really happened in history. This is a representation of what happened in history and Americans now cringe as they watch it now but they need to face it and realize that these are the extremes of how African Americans were portrayed in cinema a hundred years ago. In the film, there are recurring montages of real scenes and clips from cartoons, and films that show the awful and upsetting way in which blacks have been DEPICTED on screen throughout history. Due to the fact that real footage of popular shows are used that show the massive racist portrayal of African Americans it should be something that should open the eyes of American people because it cannot be denied that African Americans were awfully portrayed and treated in cinema. I believe Delacroix knew what he was doing and at the end takes responsibility for his actions because of the last words he says as he is dying. He states “As I bled to death, as my life oozed out of me, all I could think of was something the great Negro James Baldwin had written ‘people pay for what they do and still more
The Satire …show more content…
With his frustration of all his proposals for television shows getting denied by the white executive for not being an interesting show, he decides to make a show based off of an early minstrel show. He gives his boss and the entire company exactly what they want: “a coon show.” Using this show he wants to expose the racism that exists in the whiterun entertainment industry, but he gets so involved with the show and obsessed with the money and fame he’s getting and the success the show is receiving that the message he wanted to get across gets forgotten. In the middle of the film, Sloane Hopkins, Delacroix’s assistant, gives him a black faced caricature that’s a coin bank. When the bank opens his mouth Delacroix can feed money into him. The image is fed by money and after Spike Lee begins heightening the exaggeration in the film, the image starts to move by itself. This is symbolic of Delacroix’s creation going out of control. The bank starts to have a mind of its own. Although Delacroix is very intelligent, he gets blinded by the popularity of the show he doesn’t realize how much it is starting to get people upset and angry. He is very contrasting to his white boss, Dunwitty. Dunwitty claims he is blacker than Delacroix because he has a black wife and biracial children, and knows more about black culture than Delcroix. Dunwitty tells Delacroix “Brotherman, …show more content…
Fans of the show literally paint blackface on themselves to showcase their love of the show. Anyone watching the film is on the tips of their seats, feeling very uncomfortable by the film. It’s a hard thing to watch but it’s something that people need to do because although this was just a satirical show, this really happened in history. This is a representation of what happened in history and Americans now cringe as they watch it now but they need to face it and realize that these are the extremes of how African Americans were portrayed in cinema a hundred years ago. In the film, there are recurring montages of real scenes and clips from cartoons, and films that show the awful and upsetting way in which blacks have been DEPICTED on screen throughout history. Due to the fact that real footage of popular shows are used that show the massive racist portrayal of African Americans it should be something that should open the eyes of American people because it cannot be denied that African Americans were awfully portrayed and treated in cinema. I believe Delacroix knew what he was doing and at the end takes responsibility for his actions because of the last words he says as he is dying. He states “As I bled to death, as my life oozed out of me, all I could think of was something the great Negro James Baldwin had written ‘people pay for what they do and still more