tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14169925.post133155967902280626..comments2024-02-27T10:53:43.331-05:00Comments on Big Media Vandalism: Spike Lee's Modest ProposalSteven Boonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10533736956366847765noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14169925.post-8297829105517558392014-02-08T13:41:35.245-05:002014-02-08T13:41:35.245-05:00You made a very compelling argument in this piece,...You made a very compelling argument in this piece, Odie - nicely said. My only bone to pick is with this criticism:<br /><br />"First, Delacroix wants to do the show to get fired, then he wants to do it to prove a point... Why?"<br /><br />I might be wrong about this, but I think Lee created this strange, inauthentic character out of Wayans in order to criticize not just pop media and the white demographic, but the section of the black community that remains complicit in the BET-era of exploitation. <br /><br />This change from angry, creative Delacroix to passive, inculcated Delacroix is representative of the rappers, fashion designers, etc. who all allow white producers, businesspeople, and string pullers to use their image for profit.<br /><br />I think Lee would find someone like Dave Chapelle to be the very opposite of Delacroix. I don't know if you heard about this, but Chapelle was scheduled to perform in Hartford, CT, (my hometown), not long ago. It was meant to be part of his big return to standup, but it was a disaster. <br /><br />After the end of <i>The Chapelle Show,</i> which treaded a line between racial and racist with unprecedented deftness, Chapelle became aware that there was an entire demographic of white people from the suburbs who watched his program not because they understood the jokes, but because it was (to them) essentially a modern day minstrel show. <br /><br />Note that this wasn't a conscious decision for them, but I grew up in those suburbs right next to those white kids. I never watched the Chapelle show growing up because, surprise, I had mostly found myself surrounded by white people and therefore the brilliant satire was lost on me. But to my peers, whose houses ran red with the undercurrents of racist sentiment, the show was hilarious... For all the wrong reasons. There was no experiential context for them, so Chapelle's buffoonery existed simply as clown-like entertainment.<br /><br />So when these same yahoos from the suburbs (now all grown up) showed up to his show in Hartford and started shouting things like "White Power!" (in reference to his infamous Black White Supremacist sketch) without context, Chapelle was horrified and refused to perform. For him, it was unconscionable to accept that his fame and fortune was to be made at the expense of his own dignity, something this audience had taken away through their hoots and hollering. <br /><br />Delacroix, on the other hand, seemed to be okay with that (and even enjoyed it after awhile, as shown through Lee's surreally satirical lens). He represents the other end of the spectrum, so to speak: a person who accepts that the only path to success is at the hands of the white man's machine. He seems to say: if you can't beat 'em, join 'em!<br /><br />There was a brilliant Onion piece some time ago entitled "Sale Of BET To White Supremacist Group Results In No Changes To Programming." Not only is that very on-point, but it also reveals that anyone, white, black, etc., who sees no issue with things like BET also supports the status quo in all its subliminally racist glory. That's Delacroix.Soren Houghhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03901854905741476379noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14169925.post-38352718866894638382012-02-26T13:49:18.215-05:002012-02-26T13:49:18.215-05:00A bit late to the party this year, but I did get h...A bit late to the party this year, but I did get here... <br /><br />A more adept handling of satire is CSA - THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA by Midwestern filmmaker Kevin Willmott... which I'm surprised hasn't come across the radar of BHM as of yet. Matter of fact, a good hard look at Mr. Willmott's work to date would be worth several postings.<br /><br />Just sayin'...lrobhubbardhttp://mimezine.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14169925.post-70985868683866976512012-02-08T20:36:25.874-05:002012-02-08T20:36:25.874-05:00Boone, thank you for your superb comment. Wendell ...Boone, thank you for your superb comment. Wendell B. Harris would have indeed been a perfect choice to direct this material. I am especially taken by this:<br /><br /><i>I sense Spike reaching for that thesis: To be negro, intelligent and American all at once is to be constantly reeling, conspiring, self-sabotaging and defending. </i><br /><br />Agreed! But he gets in his own way often, as if he can't help himself. But I think his movie's visuals (esp. those by Ernest Dickerson) are so interesting that I have forgiven a lot. Sometimes, however, not even the best visuals can make me forgive Lee his cinematic trespasses.<br /><br />You are right about the arm's length distance he keeps from characters. Might I throw in how light-skinded people in Lee's films tend to be confused? Someday I will have to explore that.<br /><br />I neglected to mention that OTHER movie on Bamboozled's topic, with Mr. Paul Mooney and a Wayans brother: <a href="http://bigmediavandal.blogspot.com/2008/02/theres-always-work-at-post-office.html" rel="nofollow">Hollywood Shuffle</a>. Townsend's statement is far more hilarious and heartfelt than anything Lee throws on the screen. Lee may give us the actual Stepin Fetchit, but Townsend gives us his flawless imitation of Fetchit, AND the Black Acting School. Mooney himself sums up the topic even better than Stevie Wonder does in that song: "We won't play the Rambos til we stop playing the sambos!"odienatorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10926978706604468636noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14169925.post-58965607573055076752012-02-07T16:08:43.798-05:002012-02-07T16:08:43.798-05:00I think you nailed why this film doesn't work....I think you nailed why this film doesn't work. But direction, particularly casting the lead role, has a lot to do with it, too.<br /><br />You know I love to play armchair producer, with 20/20 hindsight, and so if I could go back into a time machine to be Spike's financier, I would refuse him even <i>Bamboozled</i>'s tiny budget unless he cast, in the role of Pierre Delacroix (<---what a silly and shallow attempt at mocking uppity nigro pretension, that name, btw) that cool satirical genius <a href="http://youtu.be/JG5k33lWgKw" rel="nofollow">Wendell B. Harris</a>. And, while I'm at it, I'd insist that Harris be allowed to re-write the whole damn thing. OR, even better, let Harris take over as director and Spike fall back into executive producer position, for marquee value.<br /><br /><i>Bamboozled</i> is a brilliant idea hobbled by Spike's unpredictable fits of shallowness. It's like he was stuck between the everybody's-Hamlet garrulousness of <i>Network</i> and the anarchic deviltry of <i>Putney Swope</i>, with far less conceptual or dramatic focus than either.<br /><br />Wendell B. Harris would have lent Delacroix so much quiet, menacing and mysterious intelligence in the middle of all the film's absurdities that it wouldn't have mattered if his behavior was inconsistent and strange. His presence would have given the movie a center. I sense Spike reaching for that thesis: To be negro, intelligent and American all at once is to be constantly reeling, conspiring, self-sabotaging and defending. But with him and Wayans expressing only (haha) token respect and insight into the character while making cheap jokes at his expense, the film becomes as flimsy as its subject matter is weighty.<br /><br />Spike can put together a film in any genre at any budget level, no doubt, but his weakness has always been a habit of keeping his characters at arms length (even when he shows them doing the nasty) and believing that the tabloid-headline premise plus a few visually striking moments are enough to drag along lazy storytelling.<br /><br />As I've probably said in the comments sections of every great Spike piece you've written, he is aiming for Sam Fuller's kind of broad tabloid humanism but only occasionally gets there. (Do the Right Thing, Summer of Sam, 25th Hour, Clockers.)<br /><br />So I'm with you on the screenplay gripe, but not so much with the direction pardon. This movie could have been a sinister assault on Ho'wood, with a more dangerous mind than Spike's on the job.Steven Boonehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10533736956366847765noreply@blogger.com