The Horse's Head

The Plot: On June 28^th, 1969, a police raid of the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York’s Greenwich Village, escalated when the bar’s gay clientele fought back, leading to violence and rioting over the next five days. While the Stonewall Riots have been designated the starting point of the modern gay rights movement, Greta Schiller’s documentary focuses on American gay culture within the generations leading up to that historic night. Through archival footage and first-hand accounts, “Before Stonewall” chronicles gay (or what we now call queer) life in America between 1900 and 1969; a history of repression, marginalization, burgeoning communities, and the very beginnings of liberation.

Why It Matters: The NFR write-up isn’t very helpful, describing the documentary’s overall themes without offering any superlatives for the film or its creators. It always surprises me when the NFR doesn’t specify what makes their selections important or unique.

But Does It Really?: “Before Stonewall” is the right movie at the right time. Of course this film’s subject matter is significant, but beyond that, the film is a documentation of the first “out” generations openly discussing their lives and struggles for posterity. “Before Stonewall” is a movie about beginnings: the beginning of gay rights, but more importantly the beginning of the queer activism that continues to this day. Schiller’s oral history approach, candid interview subjects, and overall optimism towards this material make “Before Stonewall” a landmark film in queer history and a compelling watch.

Shout Outs: Brief clips from “Salome” (and its allegedly all-gay cast), plus a snippet of Judy Garland singing “Over the Rainbow“.

Everybody Gets One: A 1977 graduate of The City College of New York with a BA in Film/Video Production, Greta Schiller’s first films were the shorts “Greta’s Girls”, and “Greetings from Washington D.C.”, the latter being about the first National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights in October 1979. In the early 1980s, Schiller was approached by producer Robert Rosenberg about making a documentary based on the then-unpublished book “Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities: The Making of a Homosexual Minority in the United States” by John D’Emilio. “Before Stonewall” was Greta Schiller’s first feature-length film, and quickly evolved beyond the scope of the gay communities in the book to become, as Schiller later put it, “Gay History 101”.

Seriously, Oscars?: No Oscar love for “Before Stonewall”, though it did win a handful of film festival awards and was a Sundance Grand Jury Prize nominee. Following the film’s PBS airing in 1986, it won two News & Documentary Emmys: Outstanding Information, Cultural or Historical Program and Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft: Researchers. You gotta love an award given out for research.

• “Before Stonewall” makes heavy usage of archival footage, photos, and audio throughout. Most libraries Schiller contacted for the film claimed not to have any footage of homosexuals, but the film’s archival resource director (and future Emmy winner) Andrea Weiss had success at the Library of Congress by searching under more general terms like “cross-dressing” and “Greenwich Village street life”. Most of the film’s archival materials come from the personal photos and home movies of the film’s interviewees, as well as material sent to Greta Schiller after she printed an ad in Village Voice. 
• We begin as all ’80s documentaries were required to: with an ironic in hindsight Ronald Reagan movie clip. In this case, a scene from 1943’s “This Is the Army” where, as a Corporal in charge of an Army revue show, he assigns Alan Hale to dress in drag for the “Ladies of the Chorus” number. Reagan will show up later during the ’60s segment when he’s Governor of California, calling homosexuality “a tragic illness”. No, you’re thinking of the actual tragic illness you ignored for most of your presidency.
• “Before Stonewall” is narrated by Rita Mae Brown, author, feminist, and gay activist. She’s okay, but as far as gay NFR documentaries go she’s no Harvey Fierstein.
• The film’s early segments chronicling the 1900s through 1920s lay an excellent foundation of what’s to come, mostly how repressed homosexuality was, and the extreme subtlety involved if you dared to connect with any other gay person. There’s also a brief mention of cowboys hooking up with each other out on the lone prairie. Somewhere Annie Proulx is taking notes.

• Among the film clips is a scene from the 1932 Clara Bow vehicle “Call Her Savage”, featuring one of the first (if not the first) depictions of openly gay characters, as well as a scene set in a gay cabaret. Ah, the pre-code days, we will miss you when you’re gone.

• I didn’t realize how pivotal the rise of Nazism and WWII were for gay rights. Obviously, the persecution of homosexuals by the Nazis gets a mention, but America entering the war led to (closeted) gay men and women serving in the military and discovering people just like them from across the country and around the world. This moment of discovery and a possible community was a huge eye-opener for me.
• I love when NFR documentaries overlap with each other, and “Before Stonewall” may brush up against more NFR docs than any other, a testament to how long our gay community had to stay hidden in the background of society. A segment dedicated to lesbians in the workforce during WWII feels like a lost scene from “The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter“. This section has one of the film’s most memorable moments: former WAC member Nell “Johnnie” Phelps telling her story of standing up to General Dwight Eisenhower when he requested an investigation into lesbian infiltration within WAC. It’s an exciting tale, until you learn that based on Phelps’ military record it most likely never occurred. Whatever, it makes for good copy, and she tells it very well.
• Another NFR doc that resurfaces here: “Point of Order” and the McCarthy hearings, specifically the debate between Senator McCarthy and Chief Counsel Welch over the definition of the word “pixie”. It is one of the hearing’s rare lighthearted moments. Also, blink and you’ll miss Roy Cohn in the background of that clip. So…go ahead and blink I say.
• I was relieved that there are no homophobic slurs thrown about during this film, other than the newspaper headlines referring to outed gay men as “perverts”. We know things were bad for our gay citizens (and still are), we don’t need the slurs to go with it.
• The film’s late ’50s trip to suburbia is accompanied by “Little Boxes”, the 1962 Malvina Reynolds song that reached a new audience when it became the theme song to the TV show “Weeds”. Its inclusion here made for a fun sing-along during my viewing. Fun Fact: Reynolds wrote “Little Boxes” about the tract housing development in Daly City, California, most of which is still there.
• Speaking of the Bay Area, I was fascinated by the segment about Black Cat Café, a North Beach bar that served as a meeting spot for San Francisco’s beat and gay communities. Black Cat Café closed in 1964 after losing its liquor license, and is now the restaurant Nico’s, though there is a plaque acknowledging the building’s history. “Before Stonewall” hosts a very touching reunion between the bar’s regulars 20 years later. 
• My main takeaway from this movie is “a rising tide lifts all boats”. Much like WWII, the Civil Rights and Women’s movements of the 1960s helped fan the flame of the gay rights movements. The gay community, as depicted here, were the marginalized group within these bigger marginalized group, with gay women and gay people of color becoming invigorated by these movements to stand up for their own rights. Side note: We briefly see clips from the 1963 March on Washington and, unlike another NFR documentary, “Before Stonewall” ponies up and plays a snippet of Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
• It must be the late 1960s because I hear Jefferson Airplane’s “Somebody to Love”.
• The film, of course, concludes with the Stonewall Riots, which are surprisingly glossed over. Heck, my description in “The Plot” is more detailed than this movie’s account. Keep in mind the riots occurred only 15 years before this film was released, so the assumption is if you’re watching this documentary in 1984 the riots are recent history that don’t need any set-up. It’s like if a modern documentary said, “You remember the housing crisis, we don’t need to get into all of that.”

• “Before Stonewall” received a restoration and re-release in 2019, commemorating the 50^th anniversary of the Stonewall riots as well as the film’s 35^th anniversary. The film would be inducted into the NFR later that same year.
• I was not expecting “Before Stonewall” to have both a sequel and a prequel. “Before Stonewall” co-producer John Scagliotti directed both films: 1999’s “After Stonewall” about the 30 years of gay history following the Stonewall Riots, and 2017’s “Before Homosexuals”, exploring the history of homosexuality preceding the 20^th century.

• Greta Schiller’s most recent film is 2024’s “Love Letters”, a documentary about Catherine Stimpson and Elizabeth Wood, a lesbian couple whose custody battle in the ’70s broke down an important gay rights barrier. You can learn more about Schiller’s filmography on the Jezebel Productions website.

We have another placeholder post on our hands. The full footage of “With Car and Camera” is said to be about 60 minutes in length, but only about four minutes can be found online. I’ll continue to update this post when more footage surfaces.

The Plot: In 1922, Walter Wanderwell, a traveler and promoter, embarked on an endurance race around the world in a Ford Model T. For proof of his world travels, Wanderwell had the expedition filmed for the travelogue series “With Car and Camera Around the World”, with the revenue from those screenings providing funds to continue the multiyear journey. Needing a mechanic and filmmaker, Wanderwell hired 16-year-old Idris Welsh, who took the stage name Aloha Wanderwell for the trip. The film series covers the Wanderwells’ four years of traveling, with such exotic locales as Rome, Prague, Agra, and Hollywood (at least in the footage available online at the time of this writing, more to come hopefully).

Why It Matters: The NFR write-up is a rundown of Aloha Wanderwell, her world travels, and her subsequent filmography. There’s also a link to the Academy archive, where you can request a viewing of their collection of Aloha Wanderwell’s films. That’s very tempting, but do I have to go to Los Angeles?

But Does It Really?: This is one of those NFR entries where the story behind it is infinitely more fascinating than the footage itself, which given its global scope is saying something. I loved seeing all the sights of the Wanderwells’ journey, but the life story of Aloha Wanderwell quickly overshadowed anything on the screen. I was totally unaware of Aloha before this film’s NFR induction, and I hope that its inclusion in the Registry will lead to her story being rediscovered. A pass for the film’s NFR inclusion, and a yes for celebrating Aloha Wanderwell.

Everybody Gets One: As previously mentioned, Aloha Wanderwell was born Idris Welch in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and was a world traveler at a young age as her family moved to Europe when Idris’ stepfather joined the Durham Light Infantry in World War I. At age 16, Idris applied for the mechanic/filmmaker position on Walter Wanderwell’s worldwide expedition (with her mother’s permission). Once accepted, she took her childhood nickname – “Aloha” for her love of hula dancing – and Walter’s last name to become Aloha Wanderwell, and in 1922 set out with Walter and his team, quickly becoming the face of the expedition. In just over four years, Aloha traveled 380,000 miles across 6 continents, documented the entire trip for “With Car and Camera Around the World”, showcased these films during a concurrent lecture tour, married Walter while the two were visiting California, and gave birth to their daughter Valri (with their son Nile being born shortly after the tour). By the end of the trip in 1927, Aloha had become the first woman to circumnavigate the globe.

• Question: If this film footage from literally around the world was filmed by a Canadian woman and her Polish husband, how does it qualify for a list of notable American films? But you know me, I hate to nitpick.
• My one takeaway from watching these clips and learning about Aloha Wanderwell is “Where is her biopic?” Seriously, this thing writes itself. You can call it “Aloha” or “Wanderwell” and give it some cheesy tagline like “She traveled the world and found herself.” I’m just blue skying here, but I am available to do a pass at this.

The Plot: Fox Movietone News travels to Charleston, South Carolina to record the world-famous Jenkins Orphanage Band. Comprised entirely of African American orphans, the Jenkins Orphanage Band wows us with their hot rendition of “Shoutin’ Eliza”, complete with some of the latest dance moves. And then they do it all over again because these are outtakes from the actual newsreel, comprising take after take of the band performing the same song.

Why It Matters: The NFR write-up is a straightforward description of the film, with a recognition of the Jenkins Orphanage Band being “one of the country’s important jazz ‘incubators’.” An essay by music history professor Julie Hubbert is a detailed history of the band, its origins, and its influences. There’s also a link to the University of South Carolina Moving Image Research Collections, which includes this footage.

But Does It Really?: Sure, but I’m a little confused. The title implies that this is the original Fox newsreel about the Jenkins Orphanage Band, but the only footage available online is 10 minutes of outtakes. While this footage matches the NFR’s description of the film, nothing in the NFR write-up mentions the outtakes. This leaves me with several questions: Does the final newsreel still exist? Did it ever exist? Did I watch the actual NFR inducted film or is this my biggest fake out since “Empire“? As far as I can tell, these outtakes are the film in question, but an official confirmation would be nice. I still support “Jenkins Orphanage Band” making the NFR, I just want to make sure I watched what I was supposed to watch.

Everybody Gets One: Founded in 1891 by the Reverend Daniel Jenkins, the Daniel Jenkins Orphanage was Charleston’s only orphanage established specifically for African American children. Funding for the orphanage was always an issue (their original funding from the Charleston city council was $100 – about $4000 today), and Jenkins, inspired by the African American military bands of the Civil War era, organized a band comprised of his orphans to travel the northern states as a fundraiser. A trip to London around 1896 received major press coverage, and soon the band’s reputation grew. In the first decade of the 1900s alone the Jenkins Orphanage Band played the Pan-American Exposition, the St. Louis World’s Fair, and the inaugurations of both Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft. The band maintained their popularity over the years by incorporating the latest music into their act such as ragtime and jazz. Fox News (not to be confused with the much later cable news channel) first filmed the Jenkins Orphanage Band in 1926 with standard silent film, but with the advent of sound the rebranded Fox Movietone News returned on November 22^nd, 1928 to record the only surviving sound footage of the Jenkins Orphanage Band.

The Plot: Charles Pike (Henry Fonda) is the heir to his family’s ale company and has been studying snakes in the Amazon for the past year. As he returns home on an ocean liner, every woman onboard vies for his attention, but the socially awkward Charles pays them no mind, except for Jean Harrington (Barbara Stanwyck), a glamorous, assertive Barbara Stanwyck-type. What Charles doesn’t know is that Jean, along with her father “Colonel” Harrington (Charles Coburn), is a renowned con artist with an eye on fleecing Charles out of his fortune during a card game. During her long con, Jean ends up falling in love with Charles, who rejects her once he learns of her true identity. Upon returning to his family home in Connecticut, Charles is introduced to the Lady Eve Sidwich, a British socialite who looks an awful lot like Jean. And that’s only the beginning of the complications in another bona-fide Preston Sturges screwball comedy.

Why It Matters: The NFR praises the film for having “sparkling dialog, a quick pace and more than a touch of Sturges’ trademark screwiness”. The supporting work of Charles Coburn and William Demarest are also highlighted.

But Does It Really?: I first saw “The Lady Eve” about 12 years ago, and I must have been in a bad mood that day because I enjoyed myself much more during this viewing. Having now watched all four of Preston Sturges’ NFR movies, there isn’t one that stands out over the others as his definitive work, but each is a good example of the kind of quality comedies Sturges was famous for. As for “The Lady Eve” itself, it’s good and very close to great. There’s a lot of top-notch jokes delivered by a very game cast, but the more sincere moments and the almost impenetrable ’40s jargon prevented me from fully enjoying myself. Regardless of my feelings, “The Lady Eve” has left its mark as one of Hollywood’s definitive screwball comedies, and I have no qualms about it making the NFR alongside Sturges’ other classics.

Everybody Gets One: Hailing from Connemara, Ireland, Monckton Hoffe was primarily an actor and a playwright, with his first hit play “The Little Damozel” playing London in 1909. The inevitable film version in 1916 started Hoffe’s screenwriting career, and by the 1930s he had made it to Hollywood. Although Hoffe was under contract at MGM in the late ’30s, his 19-page story “Two Bad Hats”, ended up at Paramount, where Preston Sturges was assigned to write the screenplay. This marks one of the rare occurrences where Sturges adapted someone else’s work, though he ended up throwing out everything but the bare bones of “Two Bad Hats” and creating most of the characters and situations himself.

Wow, That’s Dated: Ocean liners for international travel, an allusion to zoologist Raymond Ditmars, and Charles’ book “Are Snakes Necessary?“

Seriously, Oscars?: Despite winning the Oscar for his “Great McGinty” screenplay a year earlier, Preston Sturges was not nominated for “The Lady Eve”. In fact, the film’s sole nomination was for Monckton Hoffe in the now-defunct Best Original Story category, losing to “Here Comes Mr. Jordan”. Coincidentally, two members of the “Lady Eve” cast received Oscar nominations that year for other movies: Charles Coburn in Best Supporting Actor for “The Devil and Miss Jones”, and Barbara Stanwyck in Best Actress for her other 1941 NFR comedy “Ball of Fire“.

• Preston Sturges must have found something amusing about the phrase “up the Amazon”; Charles says it no less than five times during the movie. I guess Sturges was the David Letterman of his time: when he thought a phrase was funny, he ran it into the ground.
• While most of the Preston Sturges stock company won’t show up until this movie’s second half, we do spend a lot of the first half with the reliably funny grouchiness of William Demarest as Charles’ bodyguard Muggsy. Demarest also gets to say the very ’40s phrase “cock-eyed cookie pusser”, which I’m told isn’t as dirty as it sounds.
• Oof, Stanwyck is bringing the heat in the chaise scene. The dialogue is subtle enough, but Stanwyck’s line readings leave no room for misinterpretation; she wants some. I assume Charles spending the scene on the floor next to the chaise is another code-era workaround, it technically can’t be about sex if they’re not on the same surface.

• I really enjoyed the card game, where Jean, having now fallen for Charles, tries to prevent her father from taking Charles to the cleaners. It’s an expertly crafted scene with three well-defined characters, each knowing something the other two don’t know, and Fonda, Stanwyck, and especially Coburn play it brilliantly.

• If you know one line from this movie, it’s Jean’s line about her unfinished business with Charles: “I need him like the ax needs the turkey.”
• The good news: This movie has Eric Blore, one of my favorite Classic Hollywood character actors. The bad news: He doesn’t get to do anything remarkably funny in this. We don’t even get one of his double-takes! What are we even doing here?
• More bad news: This movie has one of my least favorite Classic Hollywood character actors: Eugene Pallette. The gruff-voiced, real-life racist Pallette is grating and off-putting as Fonda’s dad. Adding insult to injury, Pallette enters the movie singing. No thank you.
• When I first watched “The Lady Eve” all those years ago, it bothered me that Charles didn’t immediately recognize Jean in disguise as Eve. Clearly I wasn’t paying attention, as this movie goes out of its way to state that Charles has his suspicions, but figures that if it really is Jean she would have put more effort into a disguise, so the similarities between Jean and Eve must be a coincidence.

• The other part that’s hard to comprehend through a modern lens is how much easier it was to con people back then. I guess people were more trustworthy and weren’t expecting it as much. Perhaps my decades of big city living have conditioned me to automatically not trust people.
• Another great moment is Charles proposing to “Eve” while they take a break from horseback riding, with Charles’ horse constantly upstaging them by butting in between them. You can even see Barbara Stanwyck trying to stifle her laugh during the take.
• You have a character prone to pratfalls and a multi-tiered wedding cake, yet you don’t have him fall into it? Come on Preston. What is this, your first day or something?
• The Harringtons’ confidante Gerald (Melville Cooper) suggests that Jean push her new husband off a moving train. File that one away for later, Stanwyck, it’s a good way to collect double the insurance money. I forget what that’s called.
• While the laughs start to diminish as this movie ties up its romantic loose ends, the last few minutes clip along at the right speed, and we get an unexpected and very funny curtain line.

The Plot: Writer Pierre Delacroix (Damon Wayans) hates his job at the CNS television network, working for his White boss Thomas Dunwitty (Michael Rapaport) who constantly rejects his scripts with positive depictions of African Americans. Hoping to get fired (he is contractually unable to quit), Pierre, with reluctant assistance from his secretary Sloan Hopkins (Jada Pinkett Smith) and recruited buskers Manray and Womack (Savion Glover and Tommy Davidson), pitches a modern-day minstrel show complete with blackface and the offensive stereotypes of the era. To everyone’s surprise, Dunwitty loves the idea and gives the series the green-light, with “Mantan: The New Millennium Minstrel Show” becoming the biggest hit on television. Although the show is met with protest, notably by a militant Black group led by Sloan’s brother Julius (Mos Def), its runaway success leads a resurgence in blackface, and Pierre gets caught up in the attention and accolades he is receiving for the show. But the satire takes a sharp turn into tragedy in this Spike Lee joint finding a new audience 20 years later.

Why It Matters: The NFR praises Spike Lee’s “unique talents” and his ability to use satire that “reveals the ills of society”.

But Does It Really?: I had to sit with this one for a while. I remember “Bamboozled” coming and going in 2000, but I was totally unaware of its reassessment as a cult favorite that predicted where the culture was going, so imagine my surprise when it showed up on the Registry. As for the film itself, I think Spike Lee was trying to have it both ways: a satiric comedy criticizing the media depictions of African Americans, as well as a more somber cautionary tale of modern-day minstrelsy, and I don’t think he fully succeeds at either. Granted, the movie is at times very funny and very distressing, and Spike Lee’s commentary on Black media is still depressingly accurate almost 25 years later, but ultimately the film itself could have been sharper, more focused, or at the very least shorter (Comedy is fast, this movie is 136 minutes). Either the NFR induction of “Bamboozled” is too early or, just like Spike Lee with this movie, maybe the NFR knows something the rest of us are just figuring out.

Shout Outs: “Bamboozled” pays appropriate homage to the similar media satires that came before it: “A Face in the Crowd” (the film is dedicated to “Face” writer Budd Schulberg), “The Producers“, “Putney Swope“, and “Network“. The montage at the end features clips from NFR entries “The Birth of a Nation“, “The Jazz Singer“, “Jezebel“, and “Gone with the Wind“. Bonus meta-clip: Denzel Washington in Spike Lee’s “Malcolm X”!

Wow, That’s Dated: A lot of ’90s culture mentioned throughout, including Jerry Springer, the OJ Simpson trial, “Gettin’ Jiggy wit It”, “Kenan & Kel”, “Show me the money!”, and I swear I’m not making this up, the TV show “Homeboys in Outer Space“.

Title Track: The title is said once courtesy of the “Malcolm X” clip (“Ya been took! Ya been hoodwinked! Bamboozled!”). Bamboozled is also the name of one of the antique games Pierre collects.

Seriously, Oscars?: No Oscar love for “Bamboozled”. In fact, outside of several Black Reel nominations and a Freedom of Expression award from the National Board of Review, no awards love at all. Adding insult to injury, this is one of the rare NFR movies to receive a Stinkers Bad Movie Award nomination: Damon Wayans for Worst Actor (losing to John Travolta in “Battlefield Earth”).

• It’s an interesting casting choice to have Damon Wayans, one of our funniest stand-ups/sketch comedians, play the buttoned-up straight man. It makes you appreciate the moments where Pierre is allowed to loosen up (his stunned reactions during the “Mantan” auditions are my favorite). While we’re talking about Wayans’ performance, Pierre’s French-by-way-of-Sidney-Poitier-impression accent is definitely a choice, but you do get used to it after a while. I suspect the accent is what earned Wayans his Stinkers nomination, but I don’t think it’s that bad.
• “Bamboozled” is notable for being filmed primarily with digital camcorders, which gives the film a lesser overall picture quality (I legitimately thought something was wrong with my TV) but did allow Spike Lee to film from more angles during a take and keep the film under budget. It also adds to the film’s authenticity and ridiculousness, almost like a hidden-camera show.
• I know Jada Pinkett Smith primarily through the media attention her personal life has been getting in recent years, so her performance as Sloan is an important reminder that she is a very good actor, doing some wonderfully layered work here. And that is all I wish to say about Jada Pinkett Smith at this particular moment; opting to – and I’m paraphrasing here – keep her name out of my fucking mouth.
• Another meta-reference: Dunwitty defends his use of the n word by saying that he doesn’t “give a god damn what that prick Spike Lee says”. Things get meta again during the pitch meeting with Pierre’s shout-out to “In Living Color”, the sketch comedy show that gave Damon Wayans and Tommy Davidson their start.
• The pitch scene is hilarious, with Dunwitty’s explosive enthusiasm for the project matched by the flawless stunned reactions of Sloan, Manray, and Womack. The writing of the scene is specific enough to make me believe Spike Lee has had a few pitch meetings like this.

• One of the more poignant moments in the film that I appreciated is the scene where Manray and Womack apply the blackface makeup for the first time. The detailed application process is narrated by Sloan, and you can see some wonderful, subtle emoting from Tommy Davidson and Savion Glover as their characters internally struggle with what they are doing. 
• The first “Mantan” taping is uncomfortable, but unlike every other horrible, racist moment in other NFR movies I’ve watched, this one is at least intentionally uncomfortable. Also note the switch from digital camcorder to more pristine 16 mm film, but only for the “Mantan” episodes. And no you’re not seeing things, the “Mantan” house band is being played by future “Tonight Show” house band the Roots. I was not expecting to see Ahmir “?uestlove” Thompson in this.
• Another moment I found interesting was the standing ovation at the end of the first “Mantan” taping. You can see a few audience members start to stand and clap after looking around and seeing everyone else doing it. It made me more aware of the kind of racism that spawns not just from your own inner hatred, but also from external peer pressure. I know I’ve been tough on Spike Lee in this post, but he gave me that profound moment and I am grateful.
• I love movies like this and “Network” where performers on broadcast TV can say anything they want without getting censored. Apparently “Bamboozled” takes place in a universe without an FCC.
• Making their NFR debut: Reverend Al Sharpton and attorney Johnnie Cochran as themselves leading the “Mantan” protest groups. Another cameo that made me chuckle is a very game Matthew Modine presenting Pierre with an award and being mistaken for Matt Dillon. Weirdly, this is Modine’s only NFR appearance. Where’s “Full Metal Jacket”?
• As the “Mantan” juggernaut continues, more and more people within the film start wearing blackface, to the point where the whole studio audience is wearing it. It makes these kinds of racial representations akin to a fast-spreading disease or something like Nazism; despite the obvious warning signs, you aren’t fully aware of its danger until it’s too late.
• The film ends with a long, long montage of seemingly every racist Black depiction in Hollywood history; from such White stars as Al Jolson and Judy Garland in blackface to the subservient characters played by the likes of Black actors Butterfly McQueen, Hattie McDaniel, and Lincoln Perry aka “Stepin Fetchit”. It goes on for a very long time, but I think the point is to sit with that discomfort and be surrounded by these unavoidable stereotypes. Spike once called this montage “some of the most powerful filmmaking I’ve ever done” and is always quick to shoutout Judy Aley for her work researching and curating these images. The film’s end credits are played over footage of Pierre’s racist memorabilia collection, another sign of our commodification, objectifying, and normalizing of these stereotypes. 

• The reevaluation of “Bamboozled” began around 2015 with the publication of Ashley Clark’s “Facing Blackness: Media and Minstrelsy in Spike Lee’s Bamboozled“, in which he argues that “Bamboozled” is “the central work in Lee’s canon”. A Criterion release in 2020 for the film’s 20^th anniversary has also helped enhance the film’s reputation.
• In the last decade, the prescient nature of “Bamboozled” has become more obvious with the fueled racism of the Trump administration, as well as Black activists fighting to steer the media narrative of African Americans away from these enduring stereotypes. Whether or not “Bamboozled” continues to be a misunderstood cult classic is anyone’s guess, but its recent NFR induction is certainly a point in the movie’s favor.

Further Reading/Viewing: The year after “Bamboozled” was released, Percival Everett published his novel “Erasure”, a similarly scathing takedown of African American media depictions, this time in the world of literature. Over 20 years later, writer Cord Jefferson adapted “Erasure” into the film “American Fiction”, winning an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for his efforts.