Bamboozled - DVD -794043519727

Price $24.99

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With his provocative Bamboozled, a raging satire on mass-media trivialization and stereotyping of African Americans, writer-director Spike Lee forces even his fiercest supporters to wrestle with troubling questions. It opens with a network big shot (Michael Rapaport) castigating a black, Harvard-educated TV writer (Damon Wayans) for his insufficient ethnicity. Charged with delivering a hit show -- or else -- Wayans swallows his pride and hires homeless street artists Savion Glover and Tommy Davidson to appear in blackface on his "New Millennium Minstrel Show." Their retro-racist routines, along with the inspired musical stylings of a house band called the Alabama Porch Monkeys, make the show a surprise hit, inducing Wayans and assistant Jada Pinkett-Smith to overlook its ugly stereotyping. Lee occasionally pushes the point too hard, but flashes of brilliance temper his self-indulgence. He makes the case that the media in general, and TV in particular, are always tempted to fall back on hurtful attitudes and icons -- especially when ratings are low. Bamboozled is occasionally draggy, preachy, and self-important -- but, like Lees best films, its also passionate and forceful. Lee supplies a commentary for the DVD, which also features a making-of documentary, deleted scenes, music videos, a gallery of artwork created for the movie, cast/crew filmographies, and DVD-ROM content. Ed Hulse

Item Number 794043519727

Product Line Movies

Height Rated R.

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