Before viewing the movie Shaft, Dr. McRae told us that Shaft is generally credited with the initiation of the Blaxploitation genre. That there was a culture shot out from the making of this and maybe one other movie that I cannot remember. Shaft is a, get ready for it, 70s black noir film, funny right. Shaft is made out to be a mans man. A fierce force of strength, whether it be mental, physical, or sexual.
While this being an action movie, we actually see and hear Shaft establish himself as a dominant male by bragging about his prowess with the ladies. In the opening scene he is approached by two white cops and when Shaft leaves, one cop asks, "Where you going?" Shaft then replies quite haughtily, "To get laid." Which he does. He gets laid. The interesting part about the sex scene though is that it is not about exploiting naked women to try to get a bigger audience. The scene is about, Like the reading says, the enjoyment of the act, which it seems the women do enjoy. After an extended absence the Lieutenant asks where Shaft was, and Shaft says, "Gettin' laid."
It is not, like we said in class, like action films of today, where dominance is shown through acts of violence, Shaft shows his dominance through his suave and sexuality which is a clue to a different time. Shaft demands respect from men in the movie from his smooth talking confident charm, something that is absent from films today, a great example would be the new bond films which star Daniel Craig compared to the old bond films of Sean Connery. Sean Connery would solve his problems through cunning and his manipulation of relationships as the new bond beats the crap out of everyone in a visually stimulating way.One of the most interesting things that I thought was discussed in the reading as well was the scene with the pen and the coffee cup where we establish that neither character, Shaft or the Lieutenant, is completely black or white. I think this gives an interesting perspective on the rest of the movie as we see the relationship between the two grow. Shaft takes on this role of mediator as we see him interact with the different factions growing in the movie. The black panthers, the drug dealers , the cops, the mafia. Each group is trying to tip the fragile balance that has been created and Shaft, dramatically, comes in and evens the scales and returns the balance with a nice hearty laugh that ends the movie. Like it was child's play. It is also interesting that at the end of the movie he trades his black revolver for a white one. The superior technology that is associated with white is an interesting aspect in the movie. The only real technology that is present in the film, which is juxtaposed to the phone that bumpy uses which looked like it was from the early 1900s.
The movie Black Dynamite was released Oct 2009 as a straight to DVD feature that went through all the independent film festivals and actually won an award for best director. The film is pretty much a direct parody of shaft. Black Dynamite is a CIA agent, Kung Fu master, who makes money as a pimp. An extreme exaggeration of Shaft's occupation. It also makes through the B movie aspect of the film. A boom mic comes into the shot and Black Dynamite looks at the mic and continues the scene. The major conflict you find out is that the white men are trying to shrink black guys penises by putting a formula in the malt liquor. They subsequently die from having a small penis. Shaft climbs the hierarchical ladder until he ends up fighting Ronald Reagan at the end of the movie in the white house. It is extremely exaggerated and I feel it is a great way to analyze Shaft. It exaggerates the thematic points in Shaft in a way that is actually quite enjoyable.Til next week!
I didn't really think about how the sex scenes was shot but you brought up a good point about the fact that the women enjoy Shaft's shaft so much. He seems to be able to make any woman weak and is the ultimate ladies' man. I have not seen Black Dynamite so I will definitely have to check it out.
ReplyDeleteyeah I would have to completely agree with the major difference between the two shaft movies out there and how you compared the shaft of old to sean connery in james bond. I dont know what it is with this day of age but what was said in class basically says it all with today's masculinity being portrayed as the strongest get respect. the talk in class seemed to just bring up more questions i had such as if this brutality is really out of nowhere. I mean the gladiators thought the same way right? the strongest have the honor.
ReplyDeletehaha sorry to get lost there for a moment but yeah really nice comparison with the old and new.
You bring up some really interesting points. I like how you discussed the sex scene and how the filmmakers chose to show it to the audience. Especially in the first one, between Shaft and his “girlfriend”, we actually see more of Shaft then we do of the woman, something that is completely unheard of nowadays. However it kind of makes sense seeing as how the film focuses so heavily on how sexy Shaft is as opposed to the women.
ReplyDeleteI didn’t even catch the switch of the black and white guns but that is really interesting. I don’t know what to make of it right now, I’ll have to see it again, but that was a really nice observation and somewhat ties some of these “mediator” aspects of the film’s character together.
I also liked your comparison between Shaft and the two very different James Bonds. I found it so interesting the way Shaft carried himself throughout the film. For how many times he was in great danger or around very dangerous people, he rarely had to raise his fists. He would simply say something to the criminals and stand strong, waiting for their response. And every time they backed down. It seems more powerful and even more mysterious than having the ability to just beat everyone up.
I think it's cool that Shaft not only shows the differences in racial tension between the early 70's and now, and the difference between the portrayal of "masculinity" in action films of that day and action films now, but also the differences in how women were viewed back then. Of course there are still racial and gender tensions in our country and world today, but it was interesting to me that one of the ways Shaft asserted his manly power was through his relationships with, and in a way his dominance over, women. You made a good point about the sex scene though-- it didn't exploit the body of the woman, but rather highlighted the pleasure Shaft brings to these women.
ReplyDeleteI've put Black Dynamite on my Netflix queue. Most blaxploitation heroes actually are pimps. Shaft is unusual in being an actual detective. Your point about the sexiness isn't in the naked women in this movie, but the personality of Shaft, is very interesting, and something I hadn't really considered. I'd have liked you to play around a bit with the comparison to James Bond in terms of race and class, and also, come to think of it, technology, since you mention it. I like your casting this as a noir though. Good point: urban setting, morally ambiguous main character. He's a lot stronger than a typical noir hero though.
ReplyDelete