Spike Lee

Bamboozled

Bamboozled

With this blisteringly funny, unapologetically confrontational satire, writer-director Spike Lee examined the past, present, and future of racism in American popular culture, issuing a daring provocation to creators and consumers alike. Under pressure to help revive his network’s low ratings, television writer Pierre Delacroix (Damon Wayans) hits on an explosively offensive idea: bringing back blackface with The New Millennium Minstrel Show. The white network executives love it, and so do audiences, forcing Pierre and his collaborators to confront their public’s insatiable appetite for dehumanizing stereotypes. Shot primarily on unvarnished digital video and boasting spot-on performances from Wayans, Savion Glover, Jada Pinkett Smith, Tommy Davidson, Michael Rapaport, Mos Def, and Paul Mooney, Bamboozled is a stinging indictment of mass entertainment at the turn of the twenty-first century that looks more damning with each passing year.

Film Info

  • United States
  • 2000
  • 136 minutes
  • Color
  • 1.77:1
  • English
  • Spine #1019

Director-Approved Special Edition Features

  • New 2K digital restoration, supervised by director of photography Ellen Kuras and approved by director Spike Lee, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  • Audio commentary from 2001 featuring Lee
  • New conversation between Lee and film programmer and critic Ashley Clark
  • New interviews with choreographer and actor Savion Glover, actor Tommy Davidson, and costume designer Ruth E. Carter  
  • On Blackface and the Minstrel Show, a new interview program featuring film and media scholar Racquel Gates  
  • The Making of “Bamboozled” (2001), a documentary featuring Lee; Glover; Davidson; actors Jada Pinkett Smith, Michael Rapaport, and Damon Wayans; and other members of the cast and crew
  • Deleted scenes, music videos for the Mau Maus’ “Blak Iz Blak” and Gerald Levert’s “Dream with No Love,” and alternate parody commercials created for the film
  • Poster gallery and trailer
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: An essay by Clark

Cover based on an original theatrical poster

Purchase Options

Director-Approved Special Edition Features

  • New 2K digital restoration, supervised by director of photography Ellen Kuras and approved by director Spike Lee, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  • Audio commentary from 2001 featuring Lee
  • New conversation between Lee and film programmer and critic Ashley Clark
  • New interviews with choreographer and actor Savion Glover, actor Tommy Davidson, and costume designer Ruth E. Carter  
  • On Blackface and the Minstrel Show, a new interview program featuring film and media scholar Racquel Gates  
  • The Making of “Bamboozled” (2001), a documentary featuring Lee; Glover; Davidson; actors Jada Pinkett Smith, Michael Rapaport, and Damon Wayans; and other members of the cast and crew
  • Deleted scenes, music videos for the Mau Maus’ “Blak Iz Blak” and Gerald Levert’s “Dream with No Love,” and alternate parody commercials created for the film
  • Poster gallery and trailer
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: An essay by Clark

Cover based on an original theatrical poster

Bamboozled
Cast
Damon Wayans
Pierre Delacroix
Savion Glover
Manray/Mantan
Jada Pinkett Smith
Sloan Hopkins
Tommy Davidson
Womack/Sleep ’n Eat
Michael Rapaport
Dunwitty
Thomas Jefferson Byrd
Honeycutt
Paul Mooney
Junebug
Sarah Jones
Dot
Gillian Iliana Waters
Verna
Susan Batson
Orchid Dothan
Christopher Wynkoop
Massa Charlie
Jani Blom
Jukka Laks
Dina Pearlman
Myrna Goldfarb
Danny Hoch
Timmi Hillnigger
MAU MAUS
Mos Def
Big Blak Afrika
MC Serch
1/16th Blak
Gano Grills
Double Blak
Canibus
Mo Blak
DJ Scratch
Jo Blak
Charli Baltimore
Smooth Blak
Mums
Hard Blak
PICKANINNYS
Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards
Topsy
Tyheesha Collins
Aunt Jemima
Cartier Williams
Lil’nigger Jim
Jason Bernard
Jungle Bunny
Baakari Wilder
Sambo
Sekou Torbet
Rastus
The Roots
Alabama Porch Monkeys
Credits
Director
Spike Lee
Producer
Jon Kilik
Producer
Spike Lee
Director of photography
Ellen Kuras
Editor
Sam Pollard
Production design
Victor Kempster
Costume design
Ruth E. Carter
Original score
Terence Blanchard
Music supervision
Alex Steyermark
Choreography
Savion Glover
Casting
Aisha Coley
Sound mixer
Rolf Pardula
Art director
Harry Darrow
Set decorator
Ford Wheeler
Makeup
Eleanora Winslow
Hair
Nathan Busch
Visual consultant
Michael Ray Charles
Researcher
Judy Aley
Still photographer
David Lee

Current

Bamboozled: New Millennium, Same Bullshit
Bamboozled: New Millennium, Same Bullshit

For one of the most provocative and eerily prescient films of his career, Spike Lee confronted the racist neo-minstrelsy that continues to pervade mass entertainment.

By Ashley Clark

Cleaning Up Spike Lee’s Mixed-Format Masterpiece

Restoration Spotlight

Cleaning Up Spike Lee’s Mixed-Format Masterpiece

Released in 2000, the incendiary satire Bamboozled posed some interesting challenges for our restoration team with its combination of film and digital video.

By Giles Sherwood