Shaft (1971)

From my favorite movies..

I have absolutely never seen anything like this movie before. You have to see this movie.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Shaft (1971) ** 1/2 (out of 4)This now classic Blaxploitation film has detective John Shaft (Richard Roundtree) being hired by crime lord Bumpy Jonas (Moses Gunn) to find the men who has kidnapped his daughter. Shaft hits the streets of Harlem to try and locate the girl but soon finds himself running into various mobsters and criminals.SHAFT was a landmark movie that introduced us to a black private eye, something that hadn't really been seen before and especially not by a large group of people. Another thing that this movie introduced was a certain toughness and a certain coolness that would become the template for all future Blaxploitation movies. SHAFT was a hit with both white and black audiences back in the day and it's easy to see why but overall I thought the film had way too many flaws to be a complete success but there's no question that fans of the genre will still need to see this.There are many very good things working for this film including the performance of Roundtree who was certainly born to play this type of role. A lot of characters and actors try to play it cool but more often than not you just roll your eyes and feel as if you're watching some actor who got picked on all his life trying to pretend to be cool. With Roundtree you really do feel as if you're watching someone who controls everything he does and does whatever he wants when he wants. He certainly pushes that cool tough guy image that works perfectly well here. Gunn is also entertaining as the crime boss as is Charles Cioffi, Lawrence Pressman and Christopher St. John.Another positive is, of course, the now legendary music by Isaac Hayes. Another fun thing is just getting to see all the old streets of New York including countless theatres showing now classic movie titles. With that said, the biggest flaw with SHAFT is its actual story, which is just too boring and it's just not all that interesting. There are way too many scenes that just drag on and there's no question that ten minutes could have easily been cut and it would have helped the film. Still, SHAFT is what it is and its reputation and coolness factor alone makes it worth watching.

One neat little bonus of going on a Neo Noir hunt is finding those diamonds in the rough that come completely out of left field. Sometimes a film is hyped so fully as one thing that its never looked upon or considered as any thing else. This film especially so since its considered one of the first of its own genre.Shaft (1971) has been called the first blaxploitation flick, screw that and it's derogatory connotations (think Sergio Leone vs the majority of "Spaghetti" Westerns as a reference point), its actually not only a great PI film, directed by Gordon Parks (acclaimed photojournalist for Life magazine ) but also shot in a very noir-ish style by Urs Furrer. Between the eye of the director and the skill of the cinematographer the film looks beautiful. The shots of Manhattan, The Village, Harlem circa 1970 are gorgeous. It's sleazy Times Square/42nd Street at fin d'une époque, before Disneyfication eradicated it all.Establishing shot, an aerial view of 7th Avenue Manhattan looking North towards Broadway and Times Square. A cacophony of traffic blares skyward, we look down upon madly scintillating 42nd Street theater marquees, classic Hollywood product, Lancasters The Scaphuters, Redfords's Little Faus And Big Halsey competing with triple X features He And She, School for Sex and The Wild Females, this ain't Busby Berkeley Territory anymore. Isaac Hayes' soul and funk-styled iconic theme song begins to pulsate the title appears over a subway entrance as leather clad Shaft glides up to the trash littered gum stained sidewalk and jaywalks his way across the main stem. This title sequence segues into the beginning of the story when Shaft is alerted by Marty the blind news stand paper seller that two cats were looking for him. Shaft is based on an Ernest Tidyman and John D. F. Black screenplay from a book by Tidyman. The dialogs are all spot on in 70's hip jive. It's co-produced by Stirling Silliphant (who wrote late classic noirs, 5 Against the House, Nightfall, The Lineup and also neo noir -ish In The Heat Of The Night). What's sad is Shaft gets right what practically every Mike Hammer, the quintessential NY P.I, based film neglects, and that is a real feel for the gritty noir, on location, underbelly side of New York City. (save Allen Baron's 1961 Blast Of Silence, and Armand Assante's I, The Jury(1982)) and even the latter doesn't spend near enough time in the streets Shaft is a very plausible re-imagining of the classic private eye flick. The P.I. was always about cool this go round it is about back COOL. Richard Roundtree is perfect as the suave hip protagonist John Shaft, a good detective, grudgingly getting genuine respect from all. Moses Gunn is incredibly good as tough crime boss Bumpy Jonas showing quite a bit of range as he pleads with Shaft to take his case. Charles Cioffi as Androzzi Shaft's NYPD detective cop buddy holds his own and runs interference between Shaft and the department. Drew Bundini Brown is Bumpy henchman Willy, Christopher St. John is Ben Buford a former hood rat friend of Shaft who is now a black militant, Antonio Fargas is great as streetwise Bunky. Character actor Lee Steele plays a blind news vender. Shaft is a Neo Noir New York City wet dream, it hits on all cylinders, check it out. 10/10

Many years before this original version I had seen the John Singleton/Samuel L. Jackson remake version, I knew about the name of the leading actor, the iconic theme song, and it was featured in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, so I was looking forward to it. Basically John Shaft (Golden Globe nominated Richard Roundtree) is an African American private detective, he seeks out the gangsters in the Harlem neighbourhood, the New York City borough of Manhattan, and on assignment he gets into a fight with a couple of them in an office, it ends with him throwing one out of the window, the other reveals that uptown gang leader Bumpy Jonas (Moses Gunn) wants to meet him. After a meeting at the police station, where he lies to Lieutenant Vic Androzzi (Charles Cioffi) and his superior about the fight, Shaft is allowed to return to the streets for 48 hours, he arranges to meet with Bumpy, the gang leader reveals that his daughter has been kidnapped, he wants to hire the detective to safely return his daughter, but this will not be easy with the escalation of the race war, i.e. blacks against whites, Shaft being a target himself, and of course Bumpy cannot be trusted. Shaft assumed Ben Buford (Christopher St. John) was a target, and not himself, together they find where the daughter Marcy Jonas (Sherri Brewer) is being held and confirm that she is alive, they end up in a gunfight and Shaft takes a bullet in the shoulder, but he recovers and tells Bumpy that his daughter is fine and that backup will be needed to get her out of the hotel she is in safely. The plan becomes like a military operation, Ben's men all dress as hotel staff to avoid arousing suspicion, to create a distraction an explosive is thrown into the room and the disguised men deal with the Mafia members, in the end Marcy is successfully rescued and taken out of the hotel where the arranged transport is waiting, as the others get away Shaft calls Vic in a phone booth, then simply walks away. Also starring Gwenn Mitchell as Ellie Moore, Lawrence Pressman as Sergeant Tom Hannon, Victor Arnold as Charlie, Rex Robbins as Rollie, Camille Yarbrough as Dina Greene, Margaret Warncke as Linda and Joseph Leon as Byron Leibowitz. Newcomer and ex-male model Roundtree as the black stud private eye who works his way through both gang activity and women is well cast, this works well for promoting equality for black people during a turbulent time for them, as a police and gangland story, and an interesting enough kidnap rescue plot, and of course the theme song (number 38 on 100 Years, 100 Songs) and original music by Isaac Hayes, who I know better as Chef from South Park, is fantastically funky, a watchable Blaxploitation crime thriller. It won the Oscar for Best Song for "Theme from Shaft" by Isaac Hayes (also nominated the Golden Globe), and it was nominated for Best Music for Isaac Hayes, it was nominated the BAFTA for the Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music, and it won the Golden Globe for Best Original Score. Good!

This early Gordon Parks' film is a first in many ways. In the long list of Black movies which follow, this is the cornerstone. After the success of this film, Black actors became Gris for the Hollywood mill. It was called " Blxploitation " as in the Exploitation of the Black world. The innovative Movie is called " Shaft " and tells the story of John Shaft (Richard Roundtree) a Black Private investigator who is hired by 'Bumpy Jonas' (Moses Gunn) a ranking gangster for the Harlem district. Shaft is wrongly informed Ben Buford, (Christopher St, John) the head of the black underground has kidnapped his daughter. With a New York police detective (Vic Androzzi) Shaft enters the search only to discover the Mafia is involved. The world of John Shaft is dangerous, infested with mounting tensions and violent men. Still, this 'cool' private eye is a match against the elements and the sexy women who he seems to attract. In the annals of movie making this is a first in many ways and Roundtree is excellent in the first of several sequels and other black films which follow. ***