He’s at it again.
For the 28 years I’ve known him, Spike Lee has always been an agitator. He’s delighted in upsetting cultural applecarts, making memorable waves in his movies — as much as he likes riling opposing players at New York Knicks games. His movies are packed with incendiary moments, from the climactic fire and riot of “Do the Right Thing” to the explosive portrayal of serial killer David Berkowitz and a city under siege in “Summer of Sam.”
In Lee’s current film, “Bamboozled,” he’s gone to the edge again — too far, in some critics’ estimation. The movie, which is about a modern black-face minstrel show that becomes an unlikely TV hit, is a fierce satire about racism and modern television. And it deliberately uses some of the most offensive racial stereotypes — a chorus of fat Aunt Jemimas sashaying along with black-face clowns –to call up the vanished images of the Stepin Fetchits, Mantan Morelands and Hattie McDaniels of yore. Indeed, one such image — of a jubilant black-faced gent chomping on a slice of watermelon — got a “Bamboozled” ad nixed by both The Tribune and the New York Times.
Lee’s intent is to shock his audience, and he does. With Damon Wayans and Michael Rapaport playing the cynical TV executives who create the minstrel show and Savion Glover and Tommy Davidson playing a modern Bojangles and his sidekick, “Bamboozled” is a deliberate riff on its audience’s prejudices. But, as always with Lee, the movie’s core is thoughtful, disturbed, passionate and humane. It’s a look at how racial stereotypes permeate our society — and a full frontal assault on the money-mad, anything-for-ratings excesses of modern TV.
“Bamboozled” has an aura of danger; according to Lee, the script was passed on by a number of studios before New Line said yes. Despite that high-profile cast, it’s a low-budget effort, shot in high definition video rather than conventional 35 mm, for a relatively parsimonious $11 million.
It’s Lee’s candid, sometimes caustic talk that spawns enemies. But his candor is really one of his most attractive traits. In 1982, when I first met Lee, then a teaching assistant at Atlanta’s Morehouse College — long before his breakthrough success with 1986’s “She’s Gotta Have It” — he had just directed an NYU student film that was the obvious precursor of “Bamboozled.” The short, very cutting comedy “The Answer” was about a confused young black director hired to remake “Birth of a Nation.”
I was blown away by “The Answer” and, wanting to pay its maker a grand compliment, I walked over to Lee and told the then-24-year-old, “You know, that’s the best student film I’ve ever seen.” He looked at me quizzically and said — pleasantly but in typical irreverent fashion — “Well, you can’t have seen many student films then!”
When I talked to him on his recent swing through Chicago, he seemed more mellowed and mature. But he was the same spikey Spike. He still dreams and takes chances. And he still has himself, his movies — and society — right in perspective.
Tribune — How did you dream this one up?
Lee — When I first started going to see films and watching television, those images [of black entertainers] affected me. Being a young black kid, growing up in Brooklyn, seeing the stuff I did — or to look at it another way, what I wasn’t seeing — that affected me. So for me, this is really a culmination of all those images that we’re all bombarded with. It also could have been Native Americans or Hispanic Americans too.
Tribune — Ironic, because America is a melting pot nation.
Lee — It’s a mixture of the world’s cultures. But the gatekeepers are not a mixture. . . . For myself personally, what was liberating about this film and how I became enlightened — was that I used to think bad of Stepin Fetchit, Mantan Moreland, Hattie McDaniel, Willie Best. Bill “Bojangles” Robinson. How could they do that? They’re Uncle Toms! Doing the research for this film — and I guess just the maturity of being older, and not young and dumb — I realized they didn’t have a choice! And they were still great artists. They made do with what they had. [The great black Ziegfeld Follies comic] Bert Williams did not choose to wear black-face every time he performed. He had to.
Tribune — In the TV audience for the film’s minstrel show, the white people were stunned — as in “Springtime for Hitler” in “The Producers” — but the black people were laughing.
Lee — Not all the black people! But I felt that, if there were a mixed audience, very few white people would have the guts to laugh before they see what the black audience members were doing.
Tribune — What was the effect on you when you saw black stereotypes as a young kid?
Lee — Oh, I felt a range of emotions. The first one was anger, rage. And then you feel sad. . . . I would ask my parents, “What is this? Why is this?” And I thank God that they took the time out to sit not just myself but my siblings down and explain these things to us. You look at that stuff and you say, “It must have taken a sick, twisted mind to think of that stuff and make it into these little windup toys.” A windup alligator [devouring] a black baby. Stuff like that. It’s very sad.
Tribune — What are the modern equivalents of those bad stereotypes?
Lee — The gangster rap videos! The 21st Century minstrel show. They’re all the same. It’s like [laughs]: If you’re going to have gangster rap, you’ve got to have the [style]. Forget about the Mercedes-Benz; you’ve got to have the Bentleys now. Forget about gold; you’ve got to have platinum. Diamonds. Furs. You’ve got to throw money at the camera: $100 bills right at the camera. And then you’ve got to have naked [women]. I’m convinced that record companies: They promote that stuff. They want that stuff.
Tribune — Whom are they selling it to?
Lee — They’re selling it to the youth of America, black and white. I think it’s negative. Now, I’m not trying to be like Tipper Gore, or say this stuff should be outlawed. I’m just making the statement that I think it has a negative effect.
Tribune — Damon Wayans [as the black TV writer with a “white voice”] and Michael Rappaport [as the white TV executive Dunwitty, who affects black mannerisms] are hilarious. How much did they contribute?
Lee — A lot. It was Damon’s idea to have that accent. His first take was even more outrageous. I said, “Damon, let’s take it back some,” if you can believe that. Michael Rappaport grew up in New York, in a diverse neighborhood, so he understands that world. Understands people like Dunwitty too, which he himself is not. And so it was a lot of fun to see this reversal of culture.
Tribune — You recently defended “Summer of Sam” on Fox-TV’s news commentary show “The O’Reilly Factor.” Why did you go on?
Lee — Well, I went on the show because they had that guy [columnist] Steve Dunleavy from the New York Post. . . . For seven days in a row, it seemed like, he was writing an article about [“Bamboozled”], calling me a “racist runt.” So I felt at that point, I had to go on. O’Reilly seemed to be fair. He’s just out of touch.
We felt that the film got a raw deal [in the New York media]. No. 1: They first blindsided us by saying we were exploiting the victim and the families of the victims [in the “Son of Sam” killings] and that we were making a saint out of [convicted killer] David Berkowitz. And when that didn’t work, they [said] this film was perpetuating stereotypes of Italian-Americans. The Sunday before the movie opened, the Sunday [New York] Times had a major article about David Berkowitz. They sent a writer upstate to ask him, “Should this movie be made?”
Well, first of all: Is this guy [supposed to be] a moral force? This is a man who has killed six, seven people and was, at that time, serving six consecutive life sentences. If he died, he still has to die five more times, before he’s going to get out! And they’re going to ask him if this film should be made?
Tribune — Has the cultural situation in U.S. cinema improved since you started [in 1986]?
Lee — It’s a lot better. I would agree that Robert Townsend’s “Hollywood Shuffle” and “She’s Gotta Have It” really opened the door for a new wave of black filmmaking. But there’s still room to grow. They called this the summer of the black comedy [with “Kings of Comedy,” “Big Momma’s House” “Scary Movie” and “The Nutty Professor 2”]. I was elated too . . . but I don’t think anything revolutionary happened. Those films are comedies. “Scary Movie” made $150 million. But when have we had a drama that made $100 million. “Shaft” is more an action movie.
Tribune — Is it harder to get serious movies made?
Lee — It’s much harder. The climate has changed. The gatekeepers are letting teenagers dictate the market. But, if you entice them, if you don’t insult their intelligence, you can get them to come up, instead of always having to go down.
Tribune — What disturbs you most today?
Lee — The dumbing down of America. There’s a whole breakdown of the educational system. Teachers are paid very poorly.
Tribune — What are your own favorite movies?
Lee — “Mean Streets,” “Face in the Crowd,” “On the Waterfront,” “Bicycle Thief,” “Sweet Sweetback,” “La Strada,” “Seven Samurai,” “West Side Story,” “Pixote,” “Ace in the Hole,” “Lawrence of Arabia,” “Bridge on the River Kwai.” What really inspired this film — and what inspired Paddy Chayefsky to do “Network” — was [writer] Budd Schulberg’s [and Elia Kazan’s] great film “Face in the Crowd.”
Budd’s a great man. We’re friends. . . . I’m working with him on my next script — Budd, Burt Sugar and myself are doing a script about Joe Louis and Max Schmeling. Budd was at the second Louis-Schmeling fight!
Tribune — How do you think people will react to “Bamboozled”?
Lee — The full range. We’re all very excited, because we’re just waiting for the response. The whole thing is a paradox. And I think that what makes this film work: You’re sitting in the audience and you’re torn between whether you should laugh or cringe. And that’s the way it was formulated. If I had written a film where you were laughing from beginning to end, I would have been guilty of writing a modern-day minstrel show.
