Bamboozled by Spike Lee
Film Analysis
For your film comparison/analysis paper, you will analyze one scene or aspect of "Bamboozled" by Spike Lee, through the lens of Ideology.
Focus on just one scene or specific aspect of "Bamboozled."
By narrowing your focus, you can provide many examples to support your argument about a specific scene or subject. This will help you to organize and develop a more purposeful and focused paper.
Look for recurring themes, motifs, and instances that you thought were significant. Comparisons and references to "The Producers" are strongly encouraged, but not required.
In A Short Guide to Writing About Film (1998), Timothy Corrigan explains that ideology is one of six basic approaches to choose from when writing about film. (Others are national cinemas, film history, genre, auteurs, and kinds of formalism.) Here are some suggestions from Corrigan about how to think about the Ideology approach.
Ideology -- according to Corrigan
? In one sense, ideology is a more subtle way of saying "politics"
? With an ideological approach, begin by trying to pinpoint what message or messages a film aims to communicate about its world and, by implication, our world.
? What is it saying explicitly?
? Implicitly?
? What does the film suggest about how people relate or should relate to one another?
? Is individuality important? Is the family important?
? Is the film straightfoward and direct about those values and what they demand, both gains and losses?
? Are the values depicted as "natural"? If so, why?
? Does the movie challenge the beliefs of its audience or support them? Why?
? How do the politics of the film and the way it entertains intertwine?
Use Corrigan's list of questions to help you to decide on a thesis for your paper.
1000-1200 Words