Bamboozled (2000)

Directed by

Spike Lee

Genre

musical film, comedy drama

Country

United States

Runtime

2h 15m

Rated

R

Rating

6.3 of 10 from 158 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A Black television writer creates a modern minstrel show with Black actors in blackface as a protest but the show becomes a hit. The film follows the chaos that erupts as the satire is embraced instead of condemned.

satiricalprovocativeuncomfortabletensebleakcerebralcausticedgy

What happens

Bamboozled is a 2000 American satirical black comedy-drama film written and directed by Spike Lee about a modern televised minstrel show featuring black actors donning blackface makeup and the resulting violent fallout from the show's success. It features an ensemble cast including Damon Wayans, Jada Pinkett Smith, Savion Glover, Tommy Davidson, and Michael Rapaport. The film was given a limited release by New Line Cinema during the fall of 2000 and was released on DVD the following year. Critical reception was mixed, and the film was unsuccessful financially, becoming a box office bomb. Despite its initial reception, Bamboozled later achieved cult film status for its satirical look at stereotypical depictions of black people in both historical and contemporary American film and television productions, and, in 2023, was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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