Assignment 1: Spike Lee and Ideology

"You've been bamboozled!"

Malcolm X - Harlem Address

"I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore!"

-Howard Beale, Network

So, at the end of our first week of screenings, we have two films by American independent filmmaker Spike Lee awaiting your approval.   In the first, channeling Malcolm X by way of Peter Finch, Lee presents us with Bamboozled, a mass media satire for the age of post-racial politics.  Bamboozled depicts the surprising commercial success of Mantan: The New Millenium Minstrel Show, a narrative device which Lee uses to comment on the representation of black Americans in televisual culture.

At first glance, When The Levees Broke, which deals with New Orleans and the response to Hurricane Katrina, may seem to be a significantly different film from Bamboozled.  It differs in genre (documentary) in the mode of narration (interviews and footage of the storm) in tone and mode of address, and simply in the historical material with which Lee chose to deal.  Nonetheless, we might notice that certain thematic material continues to preoccupy the director: racial politics in the United States, mass media representation, and the way that we interpret and understand our history. And so, placed side by side, these films might offer us a unique opportunity to begin our comparative work.

And so:

1)  Choose a moment from one of the movies we have screened this week: one that you felt was particularly moving, provocative, troubling, enraging, or any of the many emotional reactions that Lee's movies might elicit. 

2)  Explain why this moment was charged for you: how and why the movie was able to provoke an emotional response.  How does Lee's movie relate to your own personal values?  How does he ask you to respond?  As an audience member? As an American (or not?)  As a racial subject? As a consumer of mass media?   How does the moment you are discussing speak to the values that you bring to the screening? 

3)  Step back and theorize/ reflect on the feelings you describe in 1 & 2.  In what way is Lee commenting on/working within an ideological system?  Is your response "ideological" as well?  If so, how?

Try to work with one specific moment of the film, though you may bring in the other film or material from the course readings if you wish.  Of course, this is a course assignment.  Nonetheless, don't be intimidated by the idea of "the paper I have to write."  Keep it real, and make it interesting for others to read.  If you get stuck, feel free to contact me.  And have fun.

See you Tuesday.
B