Back in 1971, "Shaft" was a revolutionary film - it introduced an African-American hero who bed countless women a la James Bond and could be as mean and relentless as most other private detectives, such as Philip Marlowe. Not just that, the film also showed an African-American who preened and walked the streets as if he owned them. He meant business and held no prisoners - a true fighting machine. The other significance of "Shaft" is that it launched the blaxploitation genre with popular hits such as "Superfly" and "Foxy Brown." Though the genre eventually died out, it resurged somewhat with Tarantino's take "Jackie Brown" in 1997 and now the Samuel L. Jackson revisionist take by director John Singleton. With Jackson in the title role and a super cool, sleek style, this new "Shaft" delivers.
Jackson is Shaft, though he does not replacing the original actor, Richard Roundtree. Instead, he plays his nephew and Roundtree is back reprising his famous role, now a weary uncle who still has his way with women. This new Shaft is also not a private detective but a New York City cop (watch out Guiliani). At the start of the film, he is investigating a racist yuppie, Walter Wade Jr. (Christian Bale, in his "American Psycho" mode), who killed an African-American man (Meki Phifer) in cold blood. Wade gets away scot-free and is deported to Switzerland. Meanwhile, Shaft, sensing a gross injustice, quits the police force. He does so in an unbelievably funny scene where he tosses his badge across a courtroom as if it was a Chinese star. There are various comic-book moments like this, especially when a runaway drug dealer breaks through one building window and lands safely on the other side by breaking through another building window. Jackson's reaction makes the scene priceless! .
Several years later, Shaft is still pursuing Wade and finds a way of trapping him. Apparently, Wade has employed a Dominican coke dealer, Peoples Hernandez (Jeffrey Wright), to kill a scared bartender (Toni Collete), the sole witness who can pinpoint Wade to the murder. The price is $40,000 for the hit, but of course Shaft tries to obtain the cash and succeeds leading to a series of double-crosses, car chases and lots of violence. In other words, what else do you expect from an action picture, right? True, but it is rare to see a fun, exciting, truly spirited action picture like this one, and Jackson makes it more so with his titanic presence and his unduly sarcasm.
Director John Singleton stages the car chase scenes with such panache that it almost supersedes the similar velocity of car stunts in "Ronin." They somehow feel new again, and the reason is in the character development and the less-is-more policy. Most action pictures overdose on action paranoia (see "Lethal Weapon 4") but this Shaft proves to be a strong, durable hero with more than enough reason for payback - he is no angry cartoon like Mel Gibson's Riggs. Shaft shows no fear and little mercy, especially when roughing up a couple of teen gang members or using Bale as a punching bag. "Oh, you are firing me, for that?", as he knocks Bale out yet again.
The villains are also very effective - the golden rule in any action flick is that the villains must be threatening and scary. "Mission: Impossible 2" is a bad example of providing a villain that would not even scare Barney the Dinosaur. In "Shaft", we have two villains, both a major match for the hero. Bale as the mean, racist, impulsive Wade, and the near-stereotypical yet vibrant turn by Jeffrey Wright (yes, the same guy from "Basquiat") as the smooth Peoples who wants to use Wade's clientele to up the ante on his drug sales. There is one tense, frighteningly real scene where Peoples lets his emotional guard down when he finds his brother dead - he literally stabs himself in protest and sheer anger. Powerful stuff that you rarely see in a movie of this type.
"Shaft" is not a great movie simply because the plot is too mediocre to inspire much excitement (corrupt cops, drug couriers, etc.) but its style is several notches above the original classic. One other minor quibble is that I would loved to have seen more of Collette, who plays a largely underdeveloped character. Still, I am no big fan of the original "Shaft" but this new film has the spark and vivid persona of Samuel L. Jackson to make up for everything else. He is the man, and I can dig it.
For more reviews, check out JERRY AT THE MOVIES at http://buffs.moviething.com/buffs/faust/
E-mail me with any questions, comments or complaints at Faust667@aol.com or at jerry@movieluver.com
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