Friday, April 16, 2010

Shaft

What was interesting about Shaft was that his character had the coolness of the typical detective, but the film adds pronounced blackness to this already cool character. The film made an obvious distinction between Shaft and the other minorities in the film. He outclassed them, for example there was a black drug lord and Italian mobsters. Bumpy is forced to come to him to be a detective to find his kidnapped daughter because of his reputation with the police-force. No one else could be willing to help him. Bumpy also chose Shaft because of trust issues, it’s easier for him to trust a black man rather than a white man.

The scene that had the most impact for me was when Lt. Androzzi holds a black pen to Shaft’s face and says “You’re not so black.” Shaft comes back with holding up a white coffee cup to the Lt’s face and says “and you ain’t so white either.” I think it really struck me because it was the most obvious way of pointing out stereotypes and that Shaft was resistant to accept racial hypocrisy, yet I think it might have also been an example that there are always some people that don’t fall into stereotypes.
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4 comments:

  1. JulesApril 18, 2010 at 9:37 AM

    I thought it was interesting that you pointed out that being your favorite scene. It was interesting how there were so many typical sterotypes throughout the movie especially for the seventies. I liked comparing those sterotypes to the ones about today's men and movies because they have changed so much.

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  2. guyinachairApril 18, 2010 at 10:14 PM

    I found it different yet interesting how you pointed out Shaft as being a detective with pronounced blackness. That conflicts with many character in the film, who thinks he's less black by selling out his brothers and being a cop. However, there is a clear distinction when you look at him compared to other police. It really just depends on how you view him from.

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  3. mahhhfyApril 19, 2010 at 4:33 AM

    I like how you said Shaft "outclassed" his peers. He is mostly portrayed as being better at what he does than everyone else, but that word suggests something innate that makes him better than the rest, and I feel that he is represented that way

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  4. PerfeserApril 23, 2010 at 8:41 AM

    This is really insightful, Erin. You dove right in to some of the concepts--about race, and racism, and what it means to be cool or effective in those terms, and what it means to communicate across that divide and refuse the classifications of other--that others have been avoiding or talking around, and which also make this movie interesting.

    Bit more work with the reading would also have strengthened this.

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