Bamboozled
Short description
Spike Lee wrote and directed Bamboozled, a satire centered on Pierre Delacroix, the only Black writer at a struggling television network. Under pressure from his boss, Thomas Dunwitty, to deliver a hit or lose his job, Pierre proposes a deliberately offensive modern variety show built on the minstrel tradition, expecting the network to reject it. Instead, the program goes on the air and becomes a runaway success, turning the lives of everyone involved upside down.
The film stars Damon Wayans as Pierre, with Savion Glover, Jada Pinkett Smith, Tommy Davidson, Michael Rapaport and Thomas Jefferson Byrd in supporting roles. Lee wrote the screenplay and produced alongside Jon Kilik, and the film runs 136 minutes. It was released in October 2000, arriving between Summer of Sam and 25th Hour as the twelfth of the twenty-six features Lee has directed.
Made for a budget of about 10 million dollars, the film earned roughly 2 million dollars worldwide, a fraction of its cost. Audience response has been moderate: it holds a 6.7 rating on IMDb from around 13,000 votes and a 6.3 on TMDB from far fewer votes, while a critics' rating of 6.5 draws on 107 reviews, placing professional and audience assessments in similar territory.
What's left behind the scenes
- Both the name and the manner of speaking of Pierre Delacroix (played by Damon Wayans) are a parody of actor Sidney Poitier (1927-2022), who also became a director in his time, and whose speech and pronunciation reflected his culture and upbringing.
- At the end of the film, during the shootout with the police, there is a reference to a real event that took place in California in the early 1990s, when only two white gang members survived a shootout between a street gang and law enforcement.
- A significant part of the film was shot using digital mini-cameras from ordinary electronics stores. The image quality suffered somewhat, but the availability and low cost of such equipment allowed the filmmakers to shoot with 15 cameras simultaneously. This provided director, writer, and producer Spike Lee with footage from several angles at once, which was an undeniable advantage given the film's modest budget. Only the minstrel show was shot on 16mm film.
- Alec Baldwin was supposed to appear in a cameo as himself, but he did not show up for filming, and Matthew Modine was invited to play himself instead.
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