Shaft Review
by Shannon Patrick Sullivan (shannon AT morgan DOT ucs DOT mun DOT ca)June 18th, 2000
SHAFT (2000) / ***
Directed by John Singleton. Screenplay by Richard Price, from a story by Singleton, Shane Salerno and Price, based on the novel Ernest Tidyman. Starring Samuel L Jackson, Christian Bale, Jeffrey Wright. Running time: 98 minutes. Rated AA for offensive language and violent scenes by the MFCB. Reviewed on June 18th, 2000.
By SHANNON PATRICK SULLIVAN
As I compose this review, I find myself resisting the temptation to write the whole thing in early-Seventies urban slang. Fortunately, I think I can last just long enough to grind out another nine-hundred-odd words. Can ya dig it?
The stimulus behind this bizarre compulsion, of course, is the new action movie "Shaft". I've not yet seen the original version, nor indeed any of the so-called "blaxploitation" genre which blossomed in the Seventies, so as I watched the updated edition I had little basis for comparison. However, if the first "Shaft" is as enjoyable as this one, it will be a rental to look forward to. The new "Shaft" is a good example of a summer movie done right.
John Shaft (Samuel L Jackson) is a cop "too black for the uniform and too blue for the brothers". He's an uneasy fit in the police department, straining at the rules and regulations which govern his actions, and sorely tempted by the offer of his uncle John (Richard Roundtree, reprising his role from the original "Shaft" trilogy in a handful of entertaining cameos, still oozing cool) to join his private detective agency.
One night, Shaft is called to an upper-class club where a black man has been brutally clubbed to death. Shaft soon identifies the killer as Walter Wade Jr (Christian Bale), heir to a real estate empire. But a judge lets Wade off with a bail amount insignificant in comparison to either his bank account or the severity of his crime, and soon Wade has fled to Switzerland.
Fast forward two years, and Shaft is tipped off to Wade's return to the United States. But he is again allowed to post bail, causing a fed-up Shaft to quit the force in disgust, vowing to get Wade his own way. Shaft sets to work tracking down Diane Palmieri ("The Sixth Sense"'s Toni Collette), the only eye witness to the murder, who has since vanished without a trace. But Wade is also trying to find Diane, and has hired another of Shaft's nemeses, drug lord Peoples Hernandez (Jeffrey Wright), to silence her.
This year's first big summer action flicks -- "Mission: Impossible 2" and "Gone In 60 Seconds" -- were both let down primarily by poor scriptwriting. "Shaft" bucks the trend: the screenplay by Richard Price is one of the film's biggest assets. The story is solid, engaging, and frequently funny, and the characterisation is mostly top notch. The action sequences are watchable if not really inventive, and enough twists and turns are thrown into the mix to keep interest high.
Samuel L Jackson is in fine form as the title character, bringing together an unusual mix of intensity and humor, not to mention Shaft's trademark suave. He looks very impressive in a wardrobe consisting mostly of long dark coats, with a bald head and a fearsome goatee. He seems to shift from "approachable" to "indomitable" with but a glance. Jackson's Shaft is in some ways reminiscent of his "Pulp Fiction" character, with the same edgy humor and penchant for violence. Whereas Roundtree's Shaft was known as much for his promiscuity as his crime-solving skills, this version is far more single-minded in his search for Diane.
"Shaft" boasts not one but two stellar bad guys in Wade and Hernandez, both very well-cast. Bale could easily have made Wade a continuation of his starring role in "American Psycho", but plays this character as a more grounded sort of villain, the kind that's evil not because he's mentally ill but just because he can afford to be. Wade doesn't so much kill because he enjoys it, but because he sees his victim as something far less than himself.
Wright, meanwhile, portrays Peoples as an almost fey character, but with a dangerous volatility all the same. Particularly pleasing is that both Wade and Hernandez are given their own distinctive, rounded personalities and individual raisons d'etre. "Shaft" avoids the trap of, say, the last two "Batman" movies where one headlining villain stole the spotlight and the other was relegated to grunt status. Some of the best sequences in the entire movie come when Bale and Wright are interacting.
Also notable is rapper Busta Rhymes, who does an impressive comic turn as Shaft's reluctant pseudo-sidekick, Rasaan. Further, the movie takes a very unexpected risk with the character Luger, a bigoted police officer. I thought Luger was being built up as the prototypical racist cop, but was delighted when the movie totally subverted my assumptions. Luger is not made out to be a nice or admirable character, of course, but I found it interesting that Price chose to acknowledge a few shades of grey in the midst of the usual racists-bad black-and-white palette. Lee Tergesen manages to find just the right balance in the role.
Indeed, there are few stereotypes to be found in "Shaft". The only notable exception to this is Jack Rosselli, a cop on Peoples' payroll. Played by Dan Hedaya, Rosselli is a strong echo of Hedaya's "The Hurricane" character. But even here expectations are twisted, as Rosselli's partner in corruption is black. Indeed, "Shaft" is not about black guys kicking white guys' butts, but an action flick which handles issues of race more competently than is often the case. Shaft is black, yes, and the film does not trivialise or dismiss the fact. But there is more to the character; his race is part of what makes up John Shaft, not the only thing.
Which is not suggest, of course, that this is a movie bogged down in the politics of race relations. "Shaft" is foremost a popcorn movie, and does not dwell too much upon such notions. But that such observations can be drawn at all is indicative of the fact that "Shaft" is not just an action movie, but an action movie with a brain. It might not be overly ambitious, but it's definitely good entertainment. Damn right.
Copyright © 2000 Shannon Patrick Sullivan.
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