Singleton's new 'Shaft' makes cool, solid entertainment

By Joko E.H. Anwar

JAKARTA (JP): John Singleton's Shaft is a rousing, satisfying action-packed film which will keep audiences entertained from start to finish.

The film has a history. In 1971, a film with an all-black cast was released in the United States. No studio wanted to finance the movie, amusingly titled Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, so director-writer Melvin Van Peebles had to secure a US$50,000 loan from Bill Cosby.

The initially X-rated film, telling the story of a black man on the run after beating up white cops who assaulted a black man, gained huge commercial and critical success and reportedly saved its distributor MGM from bankruptcy.

The film's achievement was followed a few months later by Shaft, directed by Gordon Park, which tells the story of a smart, tough, streetwise and sexy black police detective called John Shaft.

The two films established the new genre of blaxploitation in American cinema. It is not clear who really invented the term and many film critics have made their own definitions, some of which bear similarities.

Since 1971, hundreds of films have been produced which fall into the category. They all have major black characters and themes showing African-American men fighting back against white supremacy.

The genre has influenced many noted film directors today, blacks and whites.

In 1994, director Quentin Tarantino paid homage to blaxploitation films with the wildly successful Pulp Fiction. The film relaunched the career of a film superstar of the late 1970s and early 1980s, John Travolta.

Pulp Fiction also confirmed co-star Samuel L. Jackson as one of the most respectable black actors in recent memory.

This year, Jackson stars in a new Shaft, directed by noted black director Singleton, who at 23 years old became the youngest man in American film history to be nominated for an Academy Award with his 1991 debut Boyz N The Hood.

Highly enjoyable and perfectly paced, the new Shaft is not really a remake of the original; John Shaft here is a nephew of John Shaft from the original film. The actor in the original Shaft, Richard Roundtree, reprises his role here.

Just as the old John Shaft, the young Shaft is a smart, tough and streetwise police detective in the New York Police Department who is trying to put the spoiled son of a big real estate figure behind bars for killing a young black man.

Backed by some honest cops, Shaft must deal with various bad guys, including some crooked cops from his office.

It is amazing that a film with such a simple premise can deliver an hour and 40 minutes of solid entertainment.

Clad in cool black leather outfits, John Shaft suavely roams the Big Apple (he also beats up a black thug so the film is politically correct).

Jackson plays Shaft with his usual gusto and perfectly fits into his character.

The films has two great villains. The first is the racist rich kid, Walter Wade Jr., played by Christian Bale. Despite the fact that he is the kind of man who will say "Do you know who my father is?" every time, he is not the kind of man who will hide behind his father's coattails and mope.

Bale's character is believably brutal. He beats up a burly inmate who tries to mug him and quickly gains respect from a Hispanic drug king pin called Peoples who was also put into jail by Shaft.

Jeffrey Wright, who starred in the independent Basquiat, succeeds in making Peoples the most memorable movie villain in recent years.

Peoples demonstrates good use of a weapon which looks like a small icepick; at one point he angrily stabs it his chest repeatedly. But it is funny when he jealously says to Wade, "I have a train long of money but I can't go anywhere. Not like you".

Other colorful, foul-mouthed characters include Shaft's street sidekick Rasaan, played by rapper Busta Rhymes, who despite his reluctance is always there for Shaft.

Singleton's screenplay is full of funny lines, too.

Isaac Hayes who pumped more life into the original Shaft with an excellent music score and a great Academy Award-winning theme song also contributed his talent to the new film.

Filled with ample use of wah-wah guitar effects, the music is the glue for scene after scene.

Many people will find the film's violence a bit much. Still, it is not as violent as many other mindless action films; Shaft does not have to draw his gun until the end of the film.

Viewers may become so involved in the film that they do not ask questions about feasibility, including how easy it is for Shaft to locate a woman who witnessed the killing when the other party is completely lost as to her whereabouts.

Some also may find the younger Shaft's sex life positively monastic next to that of his uncle in the first movie.

Most viewers, however, drawn by the movie's pulsating tension, will only hope that it will yield excellent sequels like its predecessor.