...for all of his bluster about how he wants to "uplift the [African-American] race," Spike Lee -- with the sole exception of MALCOLM X -- has done nothing but present one stereotype after another as his "art." Even more demeaning to his casts is the fact that, in most of his movies, he sticks himself among the players for no good reason whatsoever. (Thankfully, his appearance here isn't in the flesh, so he has no speaking part to waste our time on.) The commentary track of the BAMBOOZLED DVD lays bare Lee's delusions of grandeur, trying to place this overlong piece of dreck alongside such truly brilliant pictures as A FACE IN THE CROWD and NETWORK. A vastly superior work on the talent and tragedy of minstrelsy is found in print and audio recording -- WHERE DEAD VOICES GATHER by Nick Tosches, inspired by the 1920s OKeh recordings of the great Emmett Miller -- and in a visit to America's Black Holocaust Museum in Milwaukee. If you must watch this one, wait for a run on premium cable, since you've paid for the channel already; avoid wasting green on the video...
Review of Bamboozled
