One of the most easily enjoyable Spike Lee movies. This isn't as gritty and dark as Bamboozled though it does borrow a lot from it. There are a multitude of reasons why I've had this waiting to be watched mostly because I'm never sure if I wanted to have to watch yet another movie with so much racism but this was much more palatable than a typical period piece. The comedy isn't over the top as it shouldn't be. The racist characters did their job without chewing up the scene the way I expected with all the talk about Toby McGuire's David Duke (and seeing Duke at the end of the movie. I can see now that Toby does make a decent fit).
From a narrative perspective, this is everything the trailer promised it would be. A black cop signs up for the Klan and when he needs to meet in person a white Jewish cop pretends to be him. One of the big things that arise in that situation is that they don't sound the same. But even though phones were much more clear in the 70s it's both understandable and laughable that this doesn't really come up. They infiltrate and try to stall out Klan activities and keep getting accepted deeper and deeper into the hierarchy.
What little I've heard in terms of reviews have focused on the ending which if you've seen Bamboozled you can prepare yourself for. A lot of people call it ham-fisted. I'll agree it's not subtle. Some will say it was unnecessary and I'll disagree. I think that ending footage is what will elevate the movie out of it's time. It seems cheesy and overdone now but in 10 or even 5 years from now that's the sort of thing that will have more punch. I grew up watching Merry Melodies and all those classic cartoons and seeing them at the end of Bamboozled was the talk of the movie for me and my friends when we walked out of the theatre. America is a country under white power and white power is something that always finds a way to suggest racism presented as bad as it was is disingenuous. "It was bad but not as bad as all that" and while it's not a perfectly encapsulated here as it was in Bamboozled the end scene does serve the purpose of showing viewers later on that yes, it was as bad as we said it was.
@wolfkin Just read your comment, and I watched this movie while the Minneapolis riots are still gripping the US - what you said about the final sequence elevating the movie are so accurate (just 2 years and not 5, but still...)
Review by wolfkinBlockedParent2019-01-30T14:55:24Z— updated 2020-06-07T15:08:30Z
One of the most easily enjoyable Spike Lee movies. This isn't as gritty and dark as Bamboozled though it does borrow a lot from it. There are a multitude of reasons why I've had this waiting to be watched mostly because I'm never sure if I wanted to have to watch yet another movie with so much racism but this was much more palatable than a typical period piece. The comedy isn't over the top as it shouldn't be. The racist characters did their job without chewing up the scene the way I expected with all the talk about Toby McGuire's David Duke (and seeing Duke at the end of the movie. I can see now that Toby does make a decent fit).
From a narrative perspective, this is everything the trailer promised it would be. A black cop signs up for the Klan and when he needs to meet in person a white Jewish cop pretends to be him. One of the big things that arise in that situation is that they don't sound the same. But even though phones were much more clear in the 70s it's both understandable and laughable that this doesn't really come up. They infiltrate and try to stall out Klan activities and keep getting accepted deeper and deeper into the hierarchy.
What little I've heard in terms of reviews have focused on the ending which if you've seen Bamboozled you can prepare yourself for. A lot of people call it ham-fisted. I'll agree it's not subtle. Some will say it was unnecessary and I'll disagree. I think that ending footage is what will elevate the movie out of it's time. It seems cheesy and overdone now but in 10 or even 5 years from now that's the sort of thing that will have more punch. I grew up watching Merry Melodies and all those classic cartoons and seeing them at the end of Bamboozled was the talk of the movie for me and my friends when we walked out of the theatre. America is a country under white power and white power is something that always finds a way to suggest racism presented as bad as it was is disingenuous. "It was bad but not as bad as all that" and while it's not a perfectly encapsulated here as it was in Bamboozled the end scene does serve the purpose of showing viewers later on that yes, it was as bad as we said it was.