Shaft!

They say this cat Shaft is a bad mother…

I loved Shaft, both the movie and the man. He is the epitome of what every lady wants in a man… smooth, smart, confident, and of course sexy. I love the way that he commands respect even with just the way he stands, nice and tall with his shoulders squared away, ready to take on anything. Although I don’t like the way he treats his lady at times, he’s almost irresistible and truly reeks of manliness.

Compared to the personification of men in today’s society Shaft is on a totally different page. Nowadays it’s all about the meatheads who use violence to show just how manly they are. Sure, Shaft did use violence, but I don’t think he really went out of his way to be overtly violent. He was smooth and sexy even when dealing with other men. He just seemed to have a handle on it all and was always so laid back.

It kind of disappointed me when I read Matthew Henry’s essay about how Shaft’s sexual side has been transformed into violence in the new Shaft with Samuel Jackson. I haven’t seen it so I don’t really know firsthand what it’s like, but I think by making Shaft into a character just like the modern heroes we have in movies today you take something big away from his character. I liked feeling like Shaft was fighting for a better cause, not just to fight.

On a totally different thread, I really enjoyed the injection of politics into this movie with the sort of twisted triangle between the black panthers, the government (police force), and the mafia/gangsters. It was really interesting to me that even though Ben and Shaft were on different sides of the political fence they teamed up together to save a big drug dealer’s daughter from the mafia. In the end the political lines get completely blurred, but they are still all fighting the same fight against the white mafia.