shaft sr’s nephew john shaft is just as smooth talking and smooth striding as his uncle, walking down the middle of the wrong side of busy roads and cold cocking insolent young honkeys. but todays scene isnt about shaft himself, but a small time drug dealer in harlem named peoples. there isnt anything particularly interesting about peoples. hes an archetypical latin american who wears egyptian wool and likes to stab people with his wooden handled icepick. but when shaft kills his younger brother in a shoot out, a different side of him comes out. the side he would play up but that we hadnt seen till now. the side that would do anything for his peoples, especially his family. in a fury of emotion he begins walking towards shaft, brandishing his pick screaming “you might as well kill me too”. a look falls over shafts face. maybe one that has seen this before. one that is sick of the killing. maybe a look that says hes sorry, or that he understands.

i took issue with the original shaft because it hinged too much of the plot on the well worn trope of the debonair anti hero instead of something original. it was of its time, more concerned with atmosphere and character then plot. singletons remake is almost too concerned with plot until a ridiculous climax where everyone just ends up getting killed anyway. screenwriter richard price is my hero and his novel clockers and the movie adaptation are personal favorites so some of the points made in roger eberts review of this being more hard boiled then the original are true. the streets are tougher but everyone still knows the name shaft, even if he has to keep beating it into them. what i didnt like about this version was the awkward mish mash of comedy and drama, where shafts contempt for the bad guy mixes awkwardly with toni collette and jeffrey wright actually trying to act. sorry sam u l you just didnt do it for me in this. maybe all the nick fury lately has desensitized me to the simple charm of hearing you swear at high volumes. maybe its the actual character of john shaft that i am having trouble connecting with. why should it? who is the man who would risk his neck for his brother, man?

it could just be that the original is of its era. again, it was a different time. i can experience it through film but ill never live it. this new shaft i enjoyed more, but less for shaft and more for the slickness of that nineties filmmaking. we will see how many more tropes they replace for more recent ones in the new movie. oh yeah. its my duty to please the booty.