Directed by:
Spike LeeScreenplay:
Spike LeeCinematography:
Ellen KurasComposer:
Terence BlanchardCast:
Damon Wayans, Savion Glover, Jada Pinkett Smith, Tommy Davidson, Michael Rapaport, Thomas Jefferson Byrd, Mos Def, Gano Grills, Johnnie Cochran (more)Plots(1)
Harvard-educated writer Pierre Delacroix (Damon Wayans), the only black employee on the staff of a struggling television network, suggests the most absurd idea for a pilot that he can possibly imagine, hoping it will convince his tyrannical boss, Dunwitty (Michael Rapaport), to terminate his contract and fire him. However, his plan backfires and his idea--MANTAN THE NEW MILLENNIUM MINSTREL SHOW--finds great success. The show is a stereotypical and racially charged depiction of the tap-dancing Mantan (Savion Glover) and Sleep 'n' Eat (Tommy Davidson), two lazy, homeless black men who spend their days in a watermelon patch. As the show becomes a national sensation, Delacroix, his assistant Sloan Hopkins (Jada Pinkett), as well as her older brother, aspiring rapper Big Black Af' (Mos Def), begin to see the harm the show is causing the community, triggering outbursts with deadly consequences. (official distributor synopsis)
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Reviews (1)
I didn’t know that black people still live in this sort of a discrimination bubble. Maybe there’s something about the movie – okay, it must be since it was filmed by the big black rights activist Spike Lee. I just think that it’s absolutely irrelevant to a Czech person, because the only black person we see is Mireček from Jak básníci přicházejí o iluze and I still think that we treat them with benevolence simply because they’re exotic, rather than behaving like an American hillbilly. So, it was a strange drama that was intentionally filmed in a fairly amateur manner and the story was really only valuable for the second half of the continent.
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