In Reinventing an Icon, 'Shaft' Wises Up a Genre

By STEVE VINEBERG

John Singleton's new Shaft isn't a remake of the 1971 Gordon Parks movie that, for many people, defined an era in the portrayal of African-Americans on the screen. Singleton's picture is more like a remake of the idea of John Shaft.

Both versions credit Ernest Tidyman's 1970 novel as their source, and both center on a black Manhattan cop...