Shaft e i mercanti di schiavi

Shaft assumes more of the Bond mantle in this film by going undercover to find out who is running the slave trade out of Africa into Europe. However, it really is too much of a stereotype to Shaft and takes away some of what makes him special.

Shaft, Richard Roundtree again, of course, belongs uptown across 110th street. That's his turf, and putting him in a robe with a stick is just too much.

This film just went too far, past where the imagination can stretch, in letting Shaft win. Yes, it was letting Shaft win, as he couldn't possibly have dodged all the attempts made on his life and still have energy to magically bed Vonetta McGee, and Yugoslavian Neda Arneric.

Having said that, there were some very good moments in the film, and it is still worth the time to see Roundtree in action.

As an urban white kid in the 1970s, I just sort of ignored the Shaft movies. Too ethnic, too threatening – the usual crap. Afterwards, they were just sort of forgotten. But the fictional character John Shaft, who was once a scary black icon for many white Americans, now seems to enjoy almost universal affection as an indelible part of American pop culture.

After all these years, I finally got around to watching all three Shaft movies for the first time, all in one weekend, from the new and excellent DVD editions. On buying these DVDs I noticed the video store clerk smiling at them, which prompted me to suggest that John Shaft is a bad mother… He immediately answered with the expected response: `Shut yo mouth.' We had a laugh over that, and it occurred to me that you could probably say that line on the Great Wall of China and still get the expected response.

These transfers look fresher and sharper than they probably ever looked on the big screen, even in the 1970s. A real treat! No extras aside from the trailers for all three films, which are certainly fun to watch, but the films themselves are so much fun, why complain? A lot has been said about the significance of the Shaft films, and their effect on the black and white communities and their perceptions of each other. I don't feel particularly qualified to address all that, but I will say that these are damn good thrillers by any standard. `Shaft' and `Shaft's Big Score' are gritty urban thrillers showcasing New York City circa 1970s, untamed and unapologetic. They involved dueling gangsters both black and white, hardass NYPD detectives, and of course super-cool, super-bad brother man Shaft caught in the middle, looking out for himself and his buddies. Watch them both back-to-back as I did, and you'll find yourself involuntarily speaking in 1970's slang by the time you're through. Yeah, it's a little cheesy, but so what? It's great fun too. `Shaft in Africa' is a radical departure, wherein Shaft becomes involved in cracking an international slave trading operation. This takes him from New York, to Africa, to Paris for a final confrontation with a James Bondian foreign villain played nicely by British actor Frank Finlay. The colorful locales (Ethiopia, Paris) and badass action make it a great finish to the Shaft trilogy, and needless to say, Richard Rountree brings it off to perfection. Anyone who enjoys the older James Bond films should enjoy Shaft in Africa, as they have a lot in common stylistically.

One more point: these films were made in the early 70's, which means that when Shaft `gets it on' with a lady, as he inevitably does, we do not see ten minutes of graphic sex. The camera moves away tactfully and we move on to the next scene, much in the style of the old James Bond films of that era, but with a bit more skin visible. The sex scenes are tame by today's standards, but the films were R-rated in their time, and the old trailers for them warn the moviegoer that if you are underage and want to see the film, `you gotta ask yo mamma.'

The second movie in the Shaft series ('Shaft's Big Score!') was a big disappointment being a tired retread of the dynamic first Shaft movie, a film which basically created the blaxploitation boom of the early 1970s. 'Shaft In Africa' sees director Gordon Parks and creator/writer Ernest Tidyman replaced by John Guillermin and Stirling Silliphant, a safer more Hollywood team which would hit pay dirt the following year with 'The Towering Inferno'. It doesn't have much of a blaxploitation feel to it, it's more of a James Bond thing with a black Bond, but that's okay, it's entertaining enough, and a definite improvement on the lacklustre 'Shaft's Big Score!' Richard Roundtree once again plays super cool private dick John Shaft. This time he is coerced into going undercover in Africa to try and break a slavery ring run by the evil Amafi (Frank Finlay). Roundtree is one cool mutha, and this movie features more sex and violence than the others, so it's easy to watch. Vonetta McGee ('Hammer', 'Blacula') plays Shaft's main love interest, but he also finds time to bed Amafi's sexy and amoral mistress Jazar (Neda Arneric) along the way. It's a pity that there weren't more Shaft movies after this as you could see the series having a lot of life left in it. Instead Richard Roundtree made a TV series which lasted a couple of years, and then his career started to slide into obscurity. By the 1980s he was mostly playing supporting cop roles in dumb action movies. Why this happened is anybody's guess as Roundtree was, along with Fred Williamson, the coolest and most charismatic of the 1970s blaxploitation stars. Both actors deserved a lot more mainstream success.

This violent Shaft (Richard Roundtree) entry begins when he's obligated by threats to pull off a dangerous mission . He must go undercover to Ethiopia . In Addis Abeba , Shaft assumes the identity a native , as he's accompanied by a beautiful African young (Voneta McGee) . His work is to break up a slave trade ring whose origin encounters in Paris and ruled by a tyrannical mobster (Frank Finlay) and his hoodlums (Aldo Sambrell) who are exploiting the immigrants in chain-gang employments and minimum wage . The private-eye eliminates anyone who stands in his aim , battling a variety of nasties and keeping things moving along until the final confrontation into the Château of Montfort .

This thrilling picture packs noisy action , violent fights , brutal killings , nudism and results to be quite amusing . The movie is plenty of suspense , thriller , intrigue , adventures and kinky sex , as usual . Strong , raw screenplay by Stirling Shilliphant (habitual of Irwin Allen's catastrophe movies : Towering inferno , Poseidon , Swarm) and based on the characters created by Ernest Tdyman (French Connection) . Richard Roundtree is good as Shaft , his females are Voneta Mcgee with a wide career in blaxploitation genre and being a distinguished secondary ; besides , Neda Armeric , a Serbian actress ,she was recently elected for Serbian Parliament but she withdrew politics after scandal when her vote were registered in Parliament while she was on summer holidays . Colorful as well as evocative cinematography ; most of the scenes in Africa were shot in Ethiopia . The motion picture was professionally directed by John Guillermin , a known author of disaster movies (Towering inferno , Skyjacked , King Kong). The result is an entertaining entry for action enthusiasts and blaxploitation fans with lots of violence , adult issues and profanities . This third outing (the first titled ¨Shaft¨ and the second ¨Big score¨ by Gordon Parks) is followed by seven TV episodes (1973,1974) and 2000 version by John Singleton with Samuel L. Jackson .

Shaft is hired to go into Africa undercover and be taken in as an African slave by the Europeans. Once he is a slave he can find the man behind the slavery ring and shut the ring down. Far more interesting story than the last two, takes Shaft out of his element and puts him in a few new countries. More action packed and with a better director makes this the best Shaft flick of the original three. ** out of ****