Intermission: Film offers naturals for lead role, director's chair

"Shaft"

Directed by: John Singleton

Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Toni Collette, Vanessa Williams and Jeffrey Wright

Rated: R

From its unmistakable, syncopated hi-hat intro, to the distinctive guitar, to the pumping bass line, when the theme from "Shaft" begins to play, toes tap and hearts race. Isaac Hayes' Academy Award-winning song from the original 1971 version of "Shaft" is an indelible part of modern pop culture. The producers of the new version of the film, as much a sequel as a remake, chose wisely when they opted to use Hayes' classic version.

In 1971 the new genre of film called blaxploitation was in full swing and Shaft was the first action film to have an African-American in the lead role. Audiences loved the bad mother. (Shut your mouth! I'm just talkin' 'bout Shaft.) and two sequels followed. The film provided inspiration for the new "Shaft" director, John Singleton, who scored big with his hard-edged debut, "Boyz N The Hood" in 1991.

Samuel L. Jackson plays John Shaft, a New York City detective whose uncle is private eye John Shaft, again played by Richard Roundtree in a homage to the original.

Young John is investigating a case involving the murder of a young black man after an incident in a bar. The perpetrator happens to be the son of a wealthy construction mogul and has a decidedly racist bent. The kid is released on bail and promptly skips the country. Shaft is so disgusted with the miscarriage of justice that he literally throws in his badge, resigns from the force and becomes a private investigator like Uncle John.

Jump ahead two years with the rich kid bail-jumper coming home. In the intervening years, Shaft has discovered there was an eye witness to the murder, a waitress at the bar who has long since gone underground.

The remainder of the film is a cat and mouse game with Shaft and the murderer both trying to find the girl first. Thrown into the mix, in a great performance by Jeffrey Wright, is a Hispanic drug dealer named Peoples.

Wade, the rich kid, elicits Peoples' help but their relationship becomes immediately complicated when the dealer wants Wade to introduce him to some of his rich pals, opening up a new market for drug dealing. Wade, still a confirmed racist, declines the offer, but fate has other plans.

Besides all of these sub-plots, there's also two crooked cops who are out to shaft Shaft and add to their retirement fund. Director Singleton manages to pull all of these elements together nicely and he wisely brought veteran screenwriter/novelist Richard Price on board to punch up the script. Price is responsible for the story line involving Wade and Peoples. The scene between these two, when Peoples is trying to get Wade to move his dope, is one of the best, and has the greatest ring of truth to it, in the entire film.

All in all, the biggest problem with the new Shaft lies in the variety of levels of disbelief one has to suspend to buy the story. Shaft never gets a scratch as bullets fly, but rarely misses when he returns fire. Needless to say, the body count is huge.

I guess that's quibbling a bit for a film such as this one, and when all is said and done, I enjoyed this decidedly higher budgeted sequel/remake of a true cult classic. And by now we all know whom it is who "won't cop out when there's danger all about."

(Jim Wunderle works at Associated Video Producers and is a Springfield free-lance writer and musician.)