Gettin' Some

Shaft has a confidence and swagger that can only be defined as mojo. And his mojo comes from "gettin' laid." When asked by the twerpy detective, "Where you goin?" Shaft takes the opportunity to say, "Gettin' laid." *pause* "Where you goin'?" *laughs* Without mojo, this exchange doesn't happen. Without mojo, Shaft isn't Shaft at all.

I'd say he wouldn't have the same presence without the help of Isaac Hayes and the funk genre. The song is so key to setting the tone of how cool we can expect Shaft to be. The song is also the film's big seller. When asked in class Tuesday who among us had seen Shaft, few hands went up. But I'm just about certain every single one of us had heard the Shaft theme elsewhere, whether it be in a preview for the remake or out of the mouth of Chef (voiced by Isaac Hayes) on Southpark. The song is a big part of our culture, and I think Shaft as a sexy cat is the Shaft most of us had envisioned before seeing the film. His reputation precedes him.

This is at the heart of Matthew Henry's essay, where he compares the Shaft we viewed in class to its 2000 remake. He points to the decreased sexuality in the remake, which has been replaced with added violence. I haven't seen the remake so I can't say too much about it, but if Samuel Jackson is as unsexy as Henry's essay makes him out to be, well that's just too bad. It leads me to wonder, how can John Shaft's sexual presence decline with Isaac Haye's groovy theme song still in place? Shaft is a cool cat, one unphased by danger, but he 's also, as Hayes sings, "a sex machine to all the chicks."

With all this in mind, the makers of Shaft (2000) must have felt intense pressure to transform John Shaft into some kind of modern day action hero. The song was a must, but keeping the movie in line with the funk genre clearly was not a priority.

In class we talked about the build of John Shaft compared to action heroes of today. John Shaft was in no way edged out of stone like we see with someone like Vin Diesel. Nor was he fast and furious like Vin Diesel, whose name says it all. While Samuel L. is not Vin Diesel, it sounds like the remake was heavily influenced by the typical action flick of today. Considering that we discussed Vin Diesel, I found it interesting, and relevant, that Shaft (2000)'s director John Singleton would go on to direct 2 Fast, 2 Furious, starring none other than Diesel. There's just nothing cool about Vin Diesel when compared to the mojo of the original John Shaft. In fact, he seems to be the opposite of John Shaft: hot (headed) vs. cool, fast vs. unhurried, abrupt vs. smooth.

Today's action hero has evolved into some kind of militaristic super hero, and clearly John Singleton was not the director to keep Shaft clean of that influence. The only recent example that I immediately think of as a cool, suave action hero is James Bond, yet he is not a product of today but more so left over from the past. He, too, has a theme song to go along with his cool persona. The music, I think, is key in all cases. Can anyone think of a theme song to go along with Vin Diesel? There just isn't the same connection between the action hero and a song. The original Shaft was a film built in cohesion with its theme song. Shaft (2000) sounds like it has effectively shattered this unit, leaving behind just another action flick with no funk.