First, I do not like the idea that the new Shaft is the nephew of John Shaft, it sounds odd and I think it will be better if the character could be the same Shaft. Then comparing these two Shafts, the new one’s characteristic is much less attractive. The old Shaft is a very unique black American who has his own special style while the new Shaft seems more common. Moreover, I do not like the frequent use of dirty words in this movie, they sound unnatural for me.
Second, the role setting of the new Shaft is very different from that in the old one. There is not a very clear bad guy in the old Shaft while the bad guy in the 2000 movie is very obvious—a white rich guy who is a “race killer”. This is also because of the different racial background from 1971 to 2000. In 1971, it is not appropriate to set a clear negative attitude towards white elite and target them as race killers. Although the new Shaft clearly brings in the racial topic and tries to use the different role setting to challenge people’s ideology, it does not achieve this goal as effective as the John Shaft movie in 1971. Part of reason is that although the movie tries to make the audience channel their anger on the white rich guy and make Shaft more heroic through comparison, the character (Shaft) himself is nothing more than a good gunner. The way he uses to kill or punish those bad guys is not special or smart.
The ending of this film disappointed me. All those judge scenes in the movie seem try to make people question the legal system but that is not the goal for this movie. It is supposed to be a movie that is all about a special hero according to its name (Shaft), however, it fails to do that, the main character is not a major focus in this story.
I feel really excited when the same music started, however, the music does not match this film as much as it matches the classic one. But I cannot deny that due to the technology development, this new movie is more exciting to watch comparing with the old one.
It seems to me that this film wants to emphasize Shaft's anger towards discriminition, more than to portray him as a heroic character, since a lot of his behaviors are obviously not typical heroic behaviors. I like the ending of the film, it continues a sense of despair to White people as well as the legal system dominated by them.
回复删除I also thought the opening credits to the original Shaft was much more sophisticated and fit better with the soundtrack to create a better opening ton enthrall the audience with right away. Shaft( Samuel Jackson) fits the typical character we find today in these action/drama films. So I feel that this film plays more towards being popular with the typical audience and less about portraying a message which I believe the original Shaft does very well.
回复删除I agree that it was very disturbing in the end when the Black woman shoots the Walter. I believe a more effective ending that would affirm the trust in the judicial system would have been they went to trial & with the witness testimony he would be convicted. But instead the woman shoots him essentially saying they don't believe in the current judicial system so they are free to take matters into their own hands. Shaft does this frequently in the film as well- disregarding rules and kicking ass when it isn't necessary just because he can.
oops- posted wrong comment on your blog-
回复删除I completely agree with you- I didn't like Shaft being the original Shaft's nephew. I felt it changed the story and didn't connect the 2 films as well as it could have. But maybe that was the filmmaker's idea or point- to create 2 separate characters while still showing the original in the remake.
The technical effects of this film made it enjoyable. It was a drama/action film that was similar to the style popular during this time period. I believe this helped the popularity of this film as well as starring Samuel Jackson. Without those 2 aspects I highly doubt this film would have been as successful.
I liked that you actually knew who the bad guy was in this film. You say that it is not appropriate to set a clear negative attitude towards white elite and target them as race killers but why is it ok to make the black man the killer in some white movies? Double standards! Wrong is wrong regardless of the race of the criminal and I think that is one of the messages that the director of this movie was trying to portray. Furthermore, killing those guys was the only way Shaft could protect the girl and also live. It was kill or be killed.
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