Shaft (2019)

An odd reaction: The new Shaft is a little like “Alien 3”. Let me explain…

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1971.

I think my first real love, or call it a crush, because it was WAY unreciprocated, was a lovely lady named Maria. She and her sister (Yvonne?) had been adopted from somewhere in Kenya (I think) by friends of friends of the family. I was always nuts about her, and she had friend-zoned me from the beginning, but hope springs eternal. I only had one real “date” with her, and she wanted to make it very very clear that she wasn’t interested, and the tactic she chose was to claim she had no sexual interest in anyone at all. Just didn’t respond. She dropped this information almost casually over dinner. Almost. Oh, well…

The dinner was at a steak house on Hollywood boulevard, where we had a perfectly pleasant time. Hey, it wasn’t me, it was HER, right? And then I took her to see SHAFT. It had just opened the day before. Still remember the radio ad: “Shaft’s his name. Shaft’s his game. It’s rated `R’, so if you wanna see `Shaft’…ask your momma.”

This I had to see. Now, a movie called “Cotton Comes To Harlem” had opened the year before, a genial cop comedy with enough edge to be memorable, and the very first “Blaxploitation” movie I’d ever seen — the definition being an “exploitation” film ( a movie, usually low-budget, structured and produced to exploit the hunger of a specific niche audience) aimed at underserved black America. “Sweet Sweetback’s Badass Song” might have been the very first of these, but that…