The very first Spike Lee movie I ever saw was Girl 6, and to put it lightly, after viewing it I wondered why in the hell there was such fanfare for the guy.

Fortunately, soon after I discovered Do The Right Thing, Malcolm X, and Four Little Girls. That was when I truly began to understand what Spike Lee was all about. Bamboozled premiered on October 6th of last year amongst lots of controversy. Many debated on whether Spike Lee was aiming to create controversy, or to create discussion.

The critics were almost equally split. A scan of Rotten Tomatoes' Bamboozled page shows that out of 69 critics, 38 critics approved of the film, while 31 hated it. Many critics bashed the film for not being "subtle."

What does it matter how Spike Lee gets his point across? Does just hinting at what Spike wants us to know make the thing we need to know any different than if he just comes out and puts it in our face, forcing us to deal with it?

Spike Lee is not a man to just present what he thinks is wrong and let us form our own opinions, he shows us what's wrong and tell us what he thinks is wrong with it. Bamboozled may not be subtle, but that's a reason to embrace it, not reject it.

The Disk
The menus, while not lively in the least, fit the style of the minstrel posters presented throughout the film, also including the watermelon eating blackface baby on the main menu. As usual, by clicking on the New Line logo you can view all who worked to bring us this DVD.

Play Movie
Bamboozled opens up with Pierre Delacroix, played by Damon Wayons, reading us the Webster Dictionary's definition of the word satire. Much like Kevin Smith's opening commentary in Dogma, this is to let the slow people in the audience know that the movie is not to be taken literally, however, the message behind it should still hold true.

We learn that Pierre is a struggling television executive who works for the floundering CNS network, whose ratings are plummeting off the chart. Pierre's boss, Dunwitty (played by Michael Rapaport), demands something be done to remedy the situation.

He wants something funny, something fresh, something dope. His patience with Pierre is near the breaking point. He is tired of the stale sitcom pilots Pierre is giving him that involve a black man stuck in a white man's world.

Pierre is confused with what Dunwitty wants from him exactly. Dunwitty accuses Pierre of being out of touch with his "inner-blackness," and claims that he, a white man, is blacker than Pierre.

Pierre leaves the encounter incensed. Angry with what Dunwitty wants, he proposes, with the help of his assistant Sloan (played by Jada Pinkett), to make a show so over the top, so racially offensive, that he'll show that what Dunwitty wants is wrong, and in turn, get himself fired and excused from his binding contract with CNS.

He proposes to make a minstrel show for the new millenium, complete with africans in blackface and "negro antics." He accquires the help of struggling street performers Manray and Womack to make the show possible.

That show- "Mantan: The Minstrel Show for the New Millenium." Much to his suprise, Dunwitty absolutely adores the idea, and quickly gets the network beginning production. It isn't soon after that control of the show is taken out of Pierre's hands, and the true satire of the show is quickly lost.

The show unexpectedly becomes a cultural blockbuster, with viewers and critics both praising it. When the true ethics of the show are quickly questioned, Manray, Womack, Pierre, and Sloan are forced to face what they are doing to themselves and the public and none will come out unscathed.

Bamboozled is a fresh and unrelenting look at the things african-american performers were subjected to in the past, and shows how we of a society have somewhat changed, but many things remain the same.

Spike has many interesting shots in the film, such as white audience members at the first episode of Mantan watching for the reactions of the african members of the audience before making any reactions themselves. Another interesting scenes include a scene where Pierre goes to meet his dad who tours dank clubs who left his family long ago.

The entire film is shot with digital cameras, which are used in television. While used for the fact that Mantan is a TV show, they were also used due to budget concerns. The film quality therefore isn't as good, and gives an odd feeling that you're watching a tacky TV movie instead of an insightful Spike Lee satire.

Bamboozled is a great movie with a heavily recognizable message, but be warned: If you're one of those types who has a large bug residing in your anus, and were offended by even Dogma, you definately don't have the open mind needed to watch this movie.

Set Up
The sound options include: English 5.1 Surround Sound, and English 2.0 Stereo Surround Sound. There are also an option to enable subtitles, which you may need as the audio becomes hard to hear while background music is playing at certain parts of the film.

Scene Selection
There are 27 chapters separated into groups of nine.

SPECIAL FEATURES

Audio Commentary from Spike Lee

Very interesting commentary from the director that pulls no punches. Includes many interesting tidbits about the film and other such things like running into Tommy Hillfiger after he saw the "Timmi Hillnigger" ad. Great to have this included.

A Look At Bamboozled Documentary An hour long documentary that deals with everything involved with the production of the film to the ancient minstrel and black exploitation films of the olden days of cinema, the choice of filming with digital cameras, and even the actor's reactions to the things they learned on the production of the film and the feelings that arose inside them when donning the blackface make-up.

It includes input from the stars, Spike himself, the behind the scenes crew, critics, and historians. Some of the sections held no interest to me, like the digital camera filming and more techincal stuff. I was more interested in the parts that showed people's reactions to the film and the emmotions felt by all those involved.

A great companion piece to the movie in every way. It also includes a line I absolutely love: (Damon Wayans, talking about being offered the role of Pierre)- "The opportunity to play Pierre was one I was excited about, as I haven't been offered a role of someone so complex and self hating since...Blankman."

Deleted Scenes 19 scenes left on the cutting room floor:

Manray and Womack Talk About Sloan:Manray professes how he feels about Sloan, and Womack tells him his feelings on her. It's obvious why this was left on the cutting room floor, as it adds hardly anything to the plot, and the Manray-Sloan romance sub-sub-sub-plot never added much to the picture anyways.

Dunwitty and Dela Discuss Who Should Direct the Pilot:Pierre and Dunwitty arguing on who should direct the pilot episode of Mantan. Pierre insists that either he or another african american direct it, while Dunwitty insists on hiring a young white man who's fresh off directing a Madonna video to give the show a "fresh perspective." A good scene, but was cut and the events of it summarized quickly in another scene left in the final print.

Dela Meets Jukka and Complains to Sloan About It:Pierre meets the fresh new white boy hired to direct the pilot of Mantan, whom he feels is an unacceptable choice for the job in every conceivable way, as he has never even met a "negro" before in his life. He relates his hatred for the boy to Sloan, who seems to grow bored with his tirade. Once again, this scene is entertaining, but unnecessary.

Wishing Good Luck Backstage:Pierre and Sloan wish Manray and Womack good luck on the night of Mantan's first show. Nothing special.

Dela Talks To Orchid Who Holds Up Baby Picture:Pierre's mother implores him to go watch his father's comedy act. Boring and unnecessary due to a more truncated form presented in the final cut. I never much cared for subplot involving Pierre and his father, even though it introduced some of the key motivations for why Pierre acts the way he does.

Onstage At The Apollo:A rather large cut scene that involves Manray performing solo at the Apollo as Mantan. The underlying romance of Manray and Sloan is touched on heavily. Manray makes the mistake of coming out dressed not only in his Mantan blackface (which the Apollo denzens don't mind), but dressed in a chicken suit (something shown in a minstrel show footage reel earlier in the film), and the black crowd becomes outraged.

Manray is booed off the stage and escapes with Pierre, who calls him a "little bitch" for showing weakness and running away. A rather large scene to be cut, but if left in would make the final scenes of the movie less sympathetic towards Manray's ignorance, and make many wonder why anyone would care of his plight when he would do something so offensive.

Big Black and 1/16th Try To Log On:Big Black (Sloan's brother and black revolutionary) and his friend 1/16th are unable to log onto the official Mantan website due to massive traffic overload. Does nothing but show Big Black's disgust with Mantan, which is already shown heavily in other scenes left in the theatrical cut.

Manray Dragged Backstage:An extended version of the scene in which Manray is ejected from the studio. Shows more of Dunwitty and Jukka's reactions to the event, and Pierre's reactions to their outrage. A nice scene that should have been left in.

Manray's Alley Dance:After being ejected from the studio in the middle of his dance, Manray concludes the energetic tap dance in the alley outside the studio. He dances on dumpsters, sheet metal, and around the baren lot in an expression of his rage. A great scene that should have been left in the picture. I still wonder why it was taken out.

Barnett Speaks To Sloan and Dela:An udderly awful scene that involves Sloan and Pierre going to the FBI over Manray's dissapearance. The acting is horrible, the set is tackied, and it all seems completely out of place. I'm am so glad this scene was cut.

Mau Mau's Dance Of Death:A variation on the Mau Mau's Dance Of Death music montage scene from the original cut. Basically offers nothing new.

Blak Iz Blak Music Video:A variation of the Mau Mau's Blak Is Blak "music video" that offers basically nothing new.

Da Bomb Spots 1-3:Three different variations of the "Da Bomb" commercial in the movie. None of these were used.

Hillnigger Spots 1-3:Three different variations of the "Timmi Hillnigger" commerical in the movie. None of these were used.

Hillnigger Spot Dance Only Version:Another variation of the Timmi Hillnigger commercial that only involves people dancing, not the appearance of Timmi himself.

Animated Art Gallery
Includes all the "Mantan" TV show posters from within the movie as well as TONS of concept movie posters that weren't used. They're assembled in movie form, as you cannot change the pictures yourself and must wait a few seconds for the disc to do it for you. While many might not like this, I love it as I can actually use my zoom feature to get closer details on the posters, and many self cycle galleries won't let you do this.

Music Videos Includes the "music video" for the Mau Mau's Blak Iz Blak, and the music video for Gerald Levert's song "Dream With No Love" from the Bamboozled soundtrack.

Theatrical Trailer
The original theatrical trailer for Bamboozled, which features more on the lighthearted aspects at the start, but soon delves into the seriousness of the picture towards the end.

Cast And Crew
Filmographies of the stars of the film, as well as Spike Lee himself. Standard IMDB stuff.

Bamboozled has a powerful message at its center that makes us question the stereotypes and the prisons in which people are forced to put themselves in just to survive. It pulls no punches, and it outright non-subtle and in your face.

You can pick up your copy at Amazon.com here!