Shaft series

  • Shaft in Africa (1973)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Second viewing, On Cable TV, December 2022) I remember watching Shaft in Africa on VHS sometime in the early 2000s, but can’t find any review of it. Oh well, here goes: For one thing, this is a clear case of peak-blaxploitation filmmaking, with the id so close to the surface of the film’s text that it becomes remarkable by itself. (That scene with a prim white woman getting excited at the sight of sweat-covered black men… good for you, blaxploitation. That’s black gaze right there, and it’s awesome.)  This third instalment in the Shaft series plays up the black-is-cool ethos of the subgenre to the hilt, and essentially transforms its protagonist into a superhero. The decision to take the story outside American urban areas is provocative (clearly influenced by the return-to-Africa movement) but ultimately doesn’t quite serve the character very well: John Shaft is a creature of American cities, and while having him bust an international human trafficking ring, then deliver a blistering speech about colonialism to French interlocutors is interesting, it doesn’t necessarily fit with the rest of the series. (Although, considering that the second film ended with an exploding helicopter, did the series even have a consistent tone?)  At least the film is watchable—Richard Roundtree is as cool as ever (although more self-conscious about it) and Vonetta McGee is an exceptional beauty. Amusingly, I would recommend watching all three films of this original trilogy one after another—they’re so different that they won’t all blend together.

  • Shaft’s Big Score! (1972)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, April 2022) The original Shaft was a defining moment in Blaxploitation’s history, but it’s useful to remember that it was put together on a threadbare budget – producers weren’t sure that there was such a thing as a market for black-cast thrillers, and director Gordon Parks had to stretch his production money to make it look good. One year later, with Shaft’s Big Score!, it was obvious that there was money to be made from the character, and this sequel visibly has more money to play with – all the way to a climax involving a warehouse and an exploding helicopter. (Alas, even quadrupling the budget couldn’t get Isaac Hayes back to score the sequel.)  Parks being freer to execute his vision, the cinematography is more impressive as well – wide-scoped, more frequently outdoors, not quite as grimy as the first film. The flip side of that more assured approach, however, is that the rough-hewn charm of the original is lessened, along with its novelty: Shaft is an established quality here, and he behaves as if everyone is expecting more of the same from him. I’m curiously ambivalent about Shaft’s Big Score! – as someone who found the original film more scattered, gritty and unpolished than its reputation suggests, I appreciate the better production values of the sequel… but can’t deny its mechanical impression.