A frustrated African-American TV writer proposes a blackface minstrel show in protest, but to his chagrin it becomes a hit.
Writer/Director: Spike Lee
Stars: Damon Wayans, Savion Glover, Jada Pinkett Smith, Tommy Davidson.
Savion Glover ... choreographer
17 songs in the Soundtracks.
Good thing I bought a copy of this years ago; it costs more now that when it was new.
I didn't rate this when I first saw it, but it made a big impression on me. Possibly the most powerful portion today is the gallery of images/clips of real past images of blackface/piccaninnies and the (mostly mechanical) dolls of that ilk. There's just nothing positive about it, and it's not made up.
The poster image is no exaggeration; that's how the characters painted their faces, with real burnt cork and lipstick.
I find it strange that, although we get plenty of images of Mantan Moreland to connect the SG character name on the show with its roots, no mention is made of Willie Best, who has the nickname Sleep 'n' Eat for some of his films 1930-5, and is the name of TD's character on the show within the film.
SL in the c.track and the featurette points out the references to Network ('76): twice we get SG telling people to open their windows and yell what they're mad about, and we get a live broadcast of a murder. He also relates this film to Sunset Blvd. ('50), A Face In the Crowd ('57) and The Producers ('67).
I contributed the Sunset Blvd item to the Connections page, and this Trivia item: "Per the commentary track, director Spike Lee viewed the documentary Classified X (1998) prior to starting this film, and called upon its researcher/associate producer, Judy Aley to research the archival images used in this film." I'm gonna watch that doc'y next.
Rated 6.5 (9,389)
New Line Cinema & more, dir. Lee; 8
