Bamboozled is a 2000 satirical film written and directed by Spike Lee about a modern televised minstrel show featuring black actors donning blackface makeup and the violent fall-out from the show's success. The word "Bamboozled" means "purposefully confused, tricked or led astray". Bamboozle Is a quiz game featured on Channel 4 Teletext once page 140 now page 390; generally geared towards teenagers. ... The Bamboozle is a giant annual rain-or-shine, two-day event music festival held in New Jersey. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (400x631, 79 KB)source:http://www. ... Shelton Jackson Lee (born March 20, 1957, in Atlanta, Georgia), better known as Spike Lee, is an Emmy Award - winning, and Academy Award - nominated American film director, producer, writer, and actor noted for his films dealing with controversial social and political issues. ... Shelton Jackson Lee (born March 20, 1957, in Atlanta, Georgia), better known as Spike Lee, is an Emmy Award - winning, and Academy Award - nominated American film director, producer, writer, and actor noted for his films dealing with controversial social and political issues. ... Damon Kyle Wayans (pronounced WAYNES) (born September 4, 1960) is an American stand-up comedian, writer, and actor who began his career as a stand-up comic in 1982. ... Jada Koren Pinkett Smith (born September 18, 1971) is an American actress and singer. ... Image:Savion Glover. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Tommy Davidson (born December 18, 1965 in Washington, D.C., USA) is an American film and television actor. ... Mos Def (born Dante Terrell Smith on December 11, 1973 in Brooklyn, New York City, U.S.), is an American rapper and actor. ... Terence Blanchard (b. ... New Line Cinema, founded in 1967, is one of the major American film studios. ... is the 279th day of the year (280th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2000 (MM) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full 2000 Gregorian calendar). ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Year 2000 (MM) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full 2000 Gregorian calendar). ... 1867 edition of Punch, a ground-breaking British magazine of popular humour, including a good deal of satire of the contemporary social and political scene. ... This article is about motion pictures. ... Shelton Jackson Lee (born March 20, 1957, in Atlanta, Georgia), better known as Spike Lee, is an Emmy Award - winning, and Academy Award - nominated American film director, producer, writer, and actor noted for his films dealing with controversial social and political issues. ... Detail from cover of The Celebrated Negro Melodies, as Sung by the Virginia Minstrels, 1843 The minstrel show, or minstrelsy, was an American entertainment consisting of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music, performed by white people in blackface or, especially after the American Civil War, African Americans in blackface. ... This article is about the color. ... This reproduction of a 1900 minstrel show poster, originally published by the Strobridge Litho Co. ...

Overview

The content is intended as satirical, with its show within a show featuring its characters, all in blackface, performing in a watermelon patch. The Roots, a hip-hop band from Philadelphia, have a role as the show's house band, The Alabama Porch Monkeys. The audiences within the movie, initially baffled, come to love the show, and after a few episodes even elderly white women show up in blackface and proclaim themselves "niggers". 1867 edition of Punch, a ground-breaking British magazine of popular humour, including a good deal of satire of the contemporary social and political scene. ... A story within a story is a literary device or conceit in which one story is told during the action of another story. ... This reproduction of a 1900 minstrel show poster, originally published by the Strobridge Litho Co. ... For the political designation, see Eco-socialism. ... The Roots, also variously known as The Legendary Roots Crew, The Fifth Dynasty, The Square Roots and The Foundation, are an influential, Grammy-winning hip-hop band based out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, famed for a heavily jazzy sound and live instrumentation. ... Hip-Hop music is a style of popular music. ... For other uses, see Philadelphia (disambiguation) and Philly. ... // Nigger is a racial slur used to refer to dark-skinned people, especially those of African ancestry. ...

The script expresses rage and grief at media representations of black people, largely through the eyes of its moral center, Sloan Hopkins (played by Jada Pinkett Smith). It also satirizes many icons of black culture including Ving Rhames, Will Smith (real-life husband of Jada Pinkett Smith), Johnnie Cochran, and Al Sharpton (Cochran and Sharpton appear as themselves in the film, protesting the television series). Jada Koren Pinkett Smith (born September 18, 1971) is an American actress and singer. ... Irving Rameses Rhames (born May 12, 1959) is a Golden Globe-winning American actor. ... “W. S.” redirects here. ... Johnnie L. Cochran, Jr. ... This biographical article needs additional references for verification. ...

The movie also stars Savion Glover as "Manray" (stage name Mantan, after Mantan Moreland), Tommy Davidson as Womack (stage name Sleep n' Eat, after Willie Best), Thomas Jefferson Byrd as Honeycutt, and Mos Def, Canibus, MC Serch and Charli Baltimore as four of the activist/hip hop group The Mau Maus. Mos Def's character, who calls himself "Big Blak Afrika" (refusing to spell the word "black" with the "c" because "they don't even pronounce that shit!") is also Sloan's unemployed older brother, Julius. Image:Savion Glover. ... Mantan Moreland (3 September 1902 - 28 September 1973) was a comic and actor most popular in the 1930s and 1940s. ... Tommy Davidson (born December 18, 1965 in Washington, D.C., USA) is an American film and television actor. ... William Willie Best (May 27, 1913 - February 27, 1962) was an American actor. ... Thomas Jefferson Byrd (born in Georgia), is an American actor. ... Mos Def (born Dante Terrell Smith on December 11, 1973 in Brooklyn, New York City, U.S.), is an American rapper and actor. ... Germaine Williams (born December 9, 1974), better known as Canibus and also as Can-I-Bus and Rip the Jacker, is a Jamaican-born American MC and rapper. ... MC Serch (born Michael Berrin on May 6, 1967) is a Jewish-American hip hop MC and former member of 3rd Bass. ... This does not cite any references or sources. ... For the band formed by Rick Wilder, please see The Mau-Maus. ...

Synopsis

Pierre Delacroix (stage name for Peerless Dothan), played by Damon Wayans, is an uptight Harvard-educated black man who speaks in a nasal voice, working for a television network that routinely rejects his proposals for what he sees as intelligent shows involving black people. He is further tormented by his boss Thomas Dunwitty (played by Michael Rapaport), a tactless, boorish white man who proudly proclaims that he is more black than Delacroix and that he can use the word "nigger" since he is married to a black woman. Damon Kyle Wayans (pronounced WAYNES) (born September 4, 1960) is an American stand-up comedian, writer, and actor who began his career as a stand-up comic in 1982. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... // Nigger is a racial slur used to refer to dark-skinned people, especially those of African ancestry. ...

Facing the necessity of either coming up with a hit black-centric show or being fired, Delacroix decides to aim for the latter. If the network fires him, he rationalizes, it will release him from his employment contract, allowing him to seek work at another network. With help from his personal assistant, Sloan Hopkins (played by Jada Pinkett Smith), Delacroix decides to pitch a minstrel show, complete with black actors in blackface, in the belief that the network will reject such over-the-top racism and fire him on the spot. Jada Koren Pinkett Smith (born September 18, 1971) is an American actress and singer. ... Detail from cover of The Celebrated Negro Melodies, as Sung by the Virginia Minstrels, 1843 The minstrel show, or minstrelsy, was an American entertainment consisting of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music, performed by white people in blackface or, especially after the American Civil War, African Americans in blackface. ... This reproduction of a 1900 minstrel show poster, originally published by the Strobridge Litho Co. ...

Delacroix and Hopkins recruit two impoverished street performers, Manray and Womack, to star in the stage show. While Womack is horrified when Delacroix tells him about the show, his best friend Manray willfully agrees to star in the show, seeing it as his big chance to become rich and famous.

To Delacroix's horror, not only does Dunwitty enthusiastically endorse the show, it also becomes hugely successful. Manray and Womack become big stars while Delacroix, contrary to his original stated intent, defends the show as being satirical. Delacroix quickly embraces the show and his newfound fame, while Sloan becomes horrified at the racist nightmare she's helped to unleash. In the meantime, a frustrated rap group called the Mau Maus, led by "Big Blak Afrika" (Mos Def) become increasingly angry at the content of the show, and plan to use violent criminal action to express their disapproval. Eventually, Womack finally has enough of the show and its racist nature, as well as Manray's increasing ego due to his new-found stardom and quits after a heated argument with Manray. This causes Manray and Sloan to grow closer, which angers Delacroix. Delacroix tries to break up Manray's relationship with Sloan by accusing her of sleeping with Manray to further her career. Then Delacroix reveals that Hopkins only got her position as his assistant by sleeping with him (Delacroix). Mos Def (born Dante Terrell Smith on December 11, 1973 in Brooklyn, New York City, U.S.), is an American rapper and actor. ...

The move backfires and drives Manray and Sloan even closer together. Sloan creates a tape of offending racist footage culled from assorted movies, cartoons, and newsreels to try to shame Delacroix into stopping production of the show, but he refuses to view the tape. After an argument with Delacroix over all these differences, as well as realizing he is being exploited, Manray defiantly announces that he will no longer wear blackface. He appears in front of the studio audience during a TV taping and does his dance number in his regular clothing. The network executives immediately turn against Manray, and Dunwitty personally fires him from the show and thrown out of the studio.

After the studio kicks Manray out, Sloan's brother Julius aka Big Blak Afrika and the Mau Maus kidnap him. They then announce a plan to publicly execute Manray on a live internet webcast. The authorities work feverishly to track down the source of the internet feed, but Manray is assassinated (as a sort of sacrificial figure at his death). The police quickly catch The Mau Maus, shooting them down in a hail of bullets. They leave only one survivor, who is 1/16th black and appears white, though he tearfully proclaims that he is "still black". Furious, Sloan confronts Delacroix at gunpoint and demands that he watch the tape she prepared for him. Delacroix refuses and tries to get the gun, but is shot in the stomach. Sloan, horrified, flees while proclaiming that it was Delacroix's own fault that he got shot. Delacroix, after positioning the gun to make the wound appear self-inflicted, watches the tape as he lies dying on the floor.

The film concludes with a long montage of racially insensitive and demeaning clips of black characters from Hollywood films of the first half of the 20th century. Among the films used in the sequence are The Birth of a Nation, The Jazz Singer, Gone with the Wind, Babes in Arms, Holiday Inn, Ub Iwerks' cartoon Little Black Sambo, Walter Lantz's cartoon Scrub Me Mama with a Boogie Beat, the Merrie Melodies short All This and Rabbit Stew, and, from the Hal Roach comedy School's Out, Our Gang (Little Rascals) kids Allen "Farina" Hoskins and Matthew "Stymie" Beard. For other uses of the word montage, see Montage. ... For the 1982 film of the same name, see Birth of a Nation (1982 film). ... The Jazz Singer (1927) is a U.S. movie musical and the first feature-length motion picture with talking sequences. ... Gone with the Wind is a 1939 film adapted from Margaret Mitchells 1936 novel of the same name. ... Babes in Arms is a 1937 musical theater production which tells the story of a boy who puts on a show to avoid being sent to a work farm. ... Holiday Inn is a 1942 film starring Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire, which featured the music of Irving Berlin. ... A publicity photograph (circa 1929) of Ub Iwerks and his most famous co-creation, Mickey Mouse. ... Little Black Sambo, from the cover of the 1899 edition The Story of Little Black Sambo, a childrens book by Helen Bannerman, a Scot living in India, was first published in London in 1899. ... Walter Lantz in 1983, with painting of Woody Woodpecker Walter Lantz (April 27, 1900 – March 22, 1994) was an American cartoonist and animator, best known for founding the Walter Lantz Studio and creating Woody Woodpecker. ... Title card from the 1941 cartoon Scrub Me Mama with a Boogie Beat. ... Merrie Melodies end title Merrie Melodies is the name of a series of animated cartoons distributed by Warner Bros. ... All this and Rabbit Stew is a one-reel animated cartoon short subject in the Merrie Melodies series, produced in Technicolor and released to theatres on September 20, 1941 by Warner Bros. ... Harold Eugene Roach, Sr. ... A poster for the 1931 Our Gang comedy Love Business featuring depictions of (from left to right): Pete the Pup, Jackie Cooper, and Norman Chubby Chaney. ... Allen Clayton Hoskins (August 9, 1920 – July 26, 1980) was an African American child actor, most famous for portraying the character of Farina in the Our Gang short films from 1922 to 1931. ... Matthew Beard, Jr. ...

Film production

Most of the movie was shot on Mini DV digital video using the Sony VX 1000 camera. This kept the budget to $10 million USD. The "Mantan Show" sequences are shot in Super 16 film stock, which makes them appear to have a vastly more digestable look than the rest of the film. This could be a deliberate attempt by Lee to make the racially insensitive scenes more aesthetically attractive, and therefore appealing to us as an audience. A MiniDV tape For other uses, see DV (disambiguation). ... Digital video is a type of video recording system that works by using a digital, rather than analog, of the video signal. ... Sony Corporation ) is a Japanese multinational corporation and one of the worlds largest media conglomerates with revenue of $66. ...

See also

• Mau Mau (disambiguation)

Look up mau-mau in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

References

External links

• Bamboozled at the Internet Movie Database