- Directed by John Guillermin
- June 20, 1973 (NYC)
- Based on characters created by Ernest Tidyman
Shaft is hired to go undercover to stop a slavery ring where young Africans are taken to Paris to do chain-gang work.
How do you harm a film series? Remove EVERYTHING that made the original film special. Shaft in Africa takes John Shaft (Richard Roundtree) completely out of New York City and places him in Africa. Shafts Big Score! inched him away from New York City. This just puts him on a completely different continent and makes him much less of a detective and much more of a James Bond. Heck, he even remarks that he’s no James Bond in this. Part of me thinks this movie started as an idea unrelated to Shaft but studio executives wanting another Shaft film converted it into a vehicle for the character.
In the first film the city of New York in all of its 1970s dirt and grime was as much of a character as Shaft or anyone else in that movie. In Shafts Big Score! he became more suburban and New York just lingered in the background. You could say that New York makes a cameo appearance in the film but beyond that it’s gone. Setting the story in the landscape of 70s New York City gave this detective character a different flavor and by moving him into suburbia they muted that flavoring. By sending him over to Africa it made him into a completely different animal. Plus with the gadgets reminiscent of the early Bond films he became a bargain superspy.
Shaft is still a love ‘em and leave ‘em guy. He beds the daughter of the sultan that hires him as well as the girlfriend of the ring mastermind. In the latter, much like with James Bond, the power of his penis converts her to righteousness. To be fair though the villain has some sexual issues that could simply make Shaft overall more appealing. Shaft though shows some emotional attachment to this woman upon her death.
The villain Amafi (Frank Finlay) is almost indifferent to Shaft from the first moment to the finale. It’s not as if these are two rivals who are heading towards a confrontation. He’s a bargain basement Bond villain. You’ve got these two guys who only ever meet and interact in the finale of the film, and it just doesn’t feel like a big confrontation. That’s not to say it’s a completely bad movie but it’s not as much of a Shaft film as it should be. It is more of a Shaft-like character in a Shaft-like movie.
This even extends to the beginning of the movie where we see Shaft stopping some kids from stealing his hubcaps. It looks like Shaft. Reacts like Shaft. Talks like Shaft. But he is driving a car that next to the build of Roundtree looks like a toy. What happened to the big and brawny cars he drove previously? This came out in ’73 at the start of the gas crisis but this was made and released BEFORE those events so…
Because of the setting Shaft doesn’t encounter the kind of racism he did in the last two films. There was a lot more of it in the original Shaft and some in the second one but none really here. And the Caucasians he meets are on the same team as him. He doesn’t defer to them but rather they all work hand-in-hand. That’s a knock against Shaft always being the best and the man in charge always.
And I miss that 70s cool fashion Shaft would sport. Then again Shaft running around in a black leather jacket or a tweed coat or whatever he might put on would really stick out with him impersonating an African tribesman. About that…
I know these weren’t the most realistic movies, but in a few short days Shaft learns enough of whatever language he must speak in order to pass as if he’s really from Africa. He even communicates with a woman while on a bus in Africa and she doesn’t seem to react as if he is a foreigner. Not that he has the most complicated dialogue at the moment, but it bothers me when that happens in any movie.
Not that this ruse does any good. There is an inside man that tips off the villain yet they keep playing it as if Shaft still has a shot of successfully pretending to be from Africa. Then again without all the pointless subterfuge this most likely would have been maybe an hour. It feels like it is stretched out in and of itself. It’s entertaining, but not as entertaining as it could’ve been because of padding.
I can’t say I hated it, but I felt as if I was robbed of a better Shaft movie. It has good dialogue and interesting characters. It is certainly an interesting situation, but it doesn’t feel like a Shaft movie. Liking the character of Shaft and wanting to see him on another adventure certainly got me through this. And Richard Roundtree gave us a character like no other before.
As is often the case with third movies Shaft in Africa is the weakest of the original trilogy. An entertaining film but not as good as I feel it should’ve or could’ve been.
Warren Watched A Movie 