The blaxploitation films of the seventies are revived, updated, and given a modern-day relevance with the arrival in theaters of Shaft. Not quite a remake of the original films, this new movie continues in their established tradition by following the adventures of John Shaft as played by Samuel L. Jackson. The Shaft of today is the nephew of the original detective, whose character, played by veteran actor Richard Roundtree, makes several cameo appearances in this version.
Shaft is a New York police detective faced with a murder spawned by racial hatred. When a young, rich white man named Walter Wade viciously attacks and kills a black man outside of a trendy restaurant, Shaft reacts with violence, breaking the young man’s nose with one punch. The punch, however, gets Shaft kicked off the force and allows Wade to get bail, which he posts and quickly flees to Switzerland.
Two years later, Shaft is working in narcotics, but he helps bring Wade in when he returns to the country. Wade’s lawyer still manages to get him released on bail, and Shaft, infuriated with a system that favors the rich and powerful over true justice, quits the police force and tries to track down on his own the only witness to the crime, a waitress named Diane who is hiding both from the police and from thugs led by a drug dealer named Peoples that Wade hired to kill her.
Action abounds then in this film, as we are led by Shaft through shoot-outs and car chases in his search for Diane. Director John Singleton truly engages the audience in the suspense, by producing action sequences exciting enough to show that Shaft’s reputation of being a bad mother is one that is earned. The film also is surprisingly witty, as Shaft delivers snappy comebacks galore to all those he encounters. Busta Rhymes’ appearance as a cab driver similarly provides sufficient comic relief to keep the audience in good spirits throughout the film.
While the plot of the film does put the emphasis on suspense and wit, it is not without its flaws. Logically, it makes no sense for Wade to have returned to America when he did. Shaft raises that question himself at one point, but quickly drops it in his pursuit of Diane. Also, that a known racist like Wade would even pair up with a drug dealer like Peoples is not quite realistic, and the film’s attempts to address that issue are also very fleeting.
Similarly the characterization of the people involved in the plot is rather vague. Wade’s character is much too erratic; he goes from cocky arrogance one moment to pure evil the next, then on to bumbling incompetence. A subplot involving conflict between him and his powerful father over his new marriage is raised to possible give some motivation for his character’s actions, but it is never fully developed, leaving him a one-dimensional villain stereotype. Vanessa Williams plays a cop that helps Shaft but whose character is never given opportunity to be fleshed out. The waitress too remains an enigma throughout the movie and turns into a mere object everyone is seeking, not a fully rounded person.
The fault here does not lie with the actors, however. Toni Colette, who plays Diane, was simply not given enough to do, and the few scenes in which we get some insight into her character’s moral dilemma between testifying and her own well-being are carried by her stunning acting ability. Christian Bale is also not to blame for his portrayal of Wade; he has proven himself a great actor in other films like American Psycho. Here it is the script, not the actors, that are weak.
Some characters, however, are given plenty to work with. Samuel L. Jackson’s portrayal of Shaft is wonderful, mostly because he was given all of the best lines. But one actor who rises to his level is Jeffrey Wright, who portrays the drug dealer Peoples. His anger and brutality give the character real depth, and his performance stands out in the memory long after the film has ended.
But Shaft is a summer film, and traditionally the emphasis of such movies is not on the acting or the story. Shaft does manage to provide enough of an interesting plot to make the movie fun to watch, and that is the end goal of a summer movie. The suspense and humor of Shaft will surely make it a blockbuster smash at the box office, a reputation that I think, despite the movie’s occasional flaws, is deserved.
