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Reviews:
It
Wasn’t Shaft
by Scott Neufville
Shaft
(1971) – Super
Shaft (2000) – Wimpy
The 2000 film Shaft
starring Samuel L. Jackson as John Shaft, a
New York City cop turned rogue after the
legal system failed to appropriately
prosecute a white man guilty of a racial
murder is, by itself, a decent flick.
But compared to the original 1971
version of the same name starring Richard
Roundtree, Shaft 2000 can hardly compare.
I
like Sam Jackson, so despite being a fan of
the original Blaxploitation trend-setter, I
was pretty open minded going into Shaft 2000
as I would imagine its director John
Singleton (Boys in the Hood, Poetic
Justice, Higher Learning, and Rosewood)
would have wanted me to.
So opened minded I was.
In this new version,
John Shaft turned in his badge to pursue the
racist American murderer Walter Wade Jr.
played by Englishman Christian Bale only to
run into Wade's alliance with Dominican
gangster Peoples Hernandez, an old enemy of
Shaft played by African-American actor
Jeffrey Wright.
In this Shaft,
I found Christian Bale and Jeffrey
Wright’s performances as the major
villains to be believable, as was the New
York City setting, and Hip Hop artist Busta
Rhymes surprised me with a remarkable acting
performance that I hadn't expected. Even the
original John Shaft (Richard Roundtree) made
a special guest appearance as Uncle John.
In an interview, John
Singleton said that Busta Rhymes’ gritty
street-wise character Rasaan symbolized that
rogue side of Sam Jackson’s John Shaft,
but I didn’t get that impression.
For me, the age gap between Jackson
and Busta Rhymes made that connection
invisible, especially when it dawned on me
that Gordon Parks (legendary photographer
and director of the 1971 version) used the
same formula within the original film, the
difference being that what Gordon Parks did
29 years earlier worked.
Back then, Richard Roundtree’s
rogue conscious was reflected by the hot
headed Harlem militant Ben Buford portrayed
in an underrated performance by Chris St.
John. The
chemistry development between Buford and
Shaft throughout the film was interesting
and clear, because among many reasons, the
characters were within the same age gap and
had even grown up together.
In Shaft 2000, Sam Jackson is old
enough to be Busta Rhymes’ dad and despite
looking good for his age, (mid fifties) the
gap showed.
Busta Rhymes is an icon for the
present day Hip Hop generation, Sam
Jackson’s age bracket is closer to that of
Roundtree’s, the seventies jive-soul era.
As I’ve said
before, I like Sam Jackson and I was awed by
his work in, among many films, Pulp
Fiction, Jackie Brown, and Unbreakable,
but thanks to Shaft (2000), I
discovered a pattern in his performances.
I noticed that whenever Jackson is
under pressure to portray an established
icon, he seems to try too hard.
I felt he did this in Star Wars:
The Phantom Menace, and I definitely
thought he did this in Shaft.
The
original John Shaft (Roundtree's), like in
words of the film’s classic theme song,
was tough, cool, stylish, and a smooth
womanizer but he didn't have to put it in
your face; it's just the way the character
was in a classic example of “show, don't
tell” (with the exception of the song's
words), so it was believable.
Sam Jackson, on the other hand, tried
too hard to be something he portrays quite
well in other films, even better than
Richard Roundtree.
Such was evident from overly stylish
leather jackets, corny pick up line
deliveries, an unrealistic consistency to
stay well groomed, unconvincing
invincibility, and a monstrous goatee that
made him look like a Star Trek villain.
Christian Bale and Jeffrey Wright
quite convincingly portrayed characters
alien to their real demographics; Jackson
could hardly play himself.
But what about Roundtree?
Despite
such a ground-breaking portrayal of Shaft by
Richard Roundtree in 1971, his presence and
impact on Shaft (2000) was minimal
because he didn't just age thirty years, he
forgot how to be Shaft after thirty years.
In this film Roundtree was old,
passive, and fragile.
Although I can see where this
behaviour might fit into the film, perhaps
reflecting Jackson's mellower and more
reasonable side, Shaft fans like myself who
are understandably wary of remake attempts
can't help but be disappointed by
Roundtree's near-betrayal of the legendary
character.
It's
like Jay Leno said in a stand up comedic
routine at the 2000 NAACP awards about the
film: “I love Sam Jackson, but it wasn't
Shaft!”
Well,
in Shaft (2000), neither was Richard
Roundtree.
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