|
There
are seven novels by Ernest Tidyman in the Shaft series,
three films (see video pick) and a television series.
Tidyman
won an Oscar for his French Connection screenplay.
Gordon
Parks Sr., who directed the original Shaft and Shaft's
Big Score, makes a cameo in the new film.
|
|
Shaft
Rated
R
Opens
Friday, June 16
Like a boxer who's taken one too many shots to the head,
America in 1971 was standing on wobbly legs, still reeling
from the effects of the '60s. Private detective John Shaft,
based on the character created by writer Ernest Tidyman,
was exactly what America needed--especially Black America,
which, through the turmoil of the civil-rights movement,
had just experienced its greatest changes of the 20th century.
When Richard Roundtree first strutted across theater screens
to the now familiar funky sounds of Isaac Hayes' score in
Shaft, he helped usher in a new era of action hero.
Three decades later, director John Singleton brings us
a new version of John Shaft in the guise of Samuel L. Jackson--a
Shaft for the 21st century.
Shaft is not a terrible film, just a really bad
one--poorly directed and written with as much originality
as an episode of Starsky & Hutch. The film begins
with police detective John Shaft (Jackson) investigating
a racially motivated murder. That's the film's first of
many mistakes--making this Shaft a cop (he's also not the
Shaft; that role goes to the original black private dick
Round-tree, who has a co-starring role as Jackson's uncle).
American Pyscho's Christian Bale is the killer, a
wealthy bigot with unresolved mommy issues who sets out
to kill the only eyewitness to his crime (Toni Collette).
That's the story in a nutshell, although there is a bunch
of other silly crap that only helps to muck up this mess,
the most obvious of which are a pair of corrupt cops and
Jeffrey Wright as an evil--and laughably offensive--Dominican
drug lord.
While promoters are claiming the script is based on the
original Shaft novel by Tidyman, it's apparent none
of the screenwriters ever glanced at any of his books. The
only commonality between Jackson, who is terribly miscast,
and Tidyman's creation is that they are both black. Roundtree's
original interpretation barely captured the essence of Tidyman's
Shaft, an urban mix of Philip Marlowe and James Bond--cool,
tough and sexy. Jackson scores on two of these points, but
he plays the roles as a wise-cracking mad dog; less like
Bond and more like something out of a Stallone movie. John
Shaft shouldn't shout how bad he is at the top of his lungs--it's
all too evident already.
John Singleton, who was the first African-American director
to be nominated for an Oscar, shot his creative load--if
he ever had one--with his debut film, Boyz N The Hood.
Singleton's subsequent films over the last decade-plus have
proven him to be artistically impotent. With a fistful of
Viagra, Singleton must've thought he had what it takes to
reintroduce Shaft to filmgoers. Instead, Singleton
stands around with his private dick in his hand, doing nothing
but wasting time.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Willamette Week | originally
published May 10,
2000
|
