Shaft

Blaxploitation at it's best. A simple story with a twist done right. That is Shaft. The concept of a black man as a cool ultra slick, lady lovin' private detective. For once in the world of cinema the black man was tops and unlike other genre entries this one clicked with people of both colors. They had created a solid character in John Shaft that the population took a shinning to. For once it wasn't something exploitative being sold to a one-sided market audience exclusively.

But look I'm getting sidetracked. Shaft isn't this huge epic struggle of the black man through the generations. It's a solid, satisfying picture that gets by on pure character. Shaft. The black private detective has endlessly been imitated, but never duplicated since. With much of the character's success having to be attributable to Richard Roundtree, a perfect fit for the material. He wasn't so much playing a character named John Shaft, but rather he was John Shaft. Perhaps to the detriment of his career, I still can't watch a movie with Richard Roundtree in it without thinking of Shaft. The plot is on auto pilot - you've seen it before - maybe even done better - but this movie has Shaft and that's all there is to say.

From its opening moments, helped tremendously by the musical soundtrack by Isaac Hayes, Director Gordon Parks' SHAFT is a tremendous crime-drama. Richard Roundtree plays the titular character as the ultimate, early 1970s bada$$, befitting of his wardrobe of awesome turtlenecks and leather.

Private Detective, John Shaft is called upon by a notorious Harlem crime boss (Moses Gunn), to rescue his daughter from a group of sinister mafia types. What follows is a gritty, entertaining romp through Mr. Parks' vision of the NY underworld. Mr. Roundtree carries the entire film, making it quite obvious how his character reached such an iconic status.

SHAFT is also noteworthy for not being overly exploitative. The racial issues / tensions are rather muted, and not used as the typical popcorn fodder of lesser movies of the subgenre. In fact, there's a genuine, though strained, sort of respect between Shaft and Officer Vic Androzzi (Charles Cioffi), that could have been taken into all-too-familiar territory.

A classic film worthy of repeat viewings...

Highlights:

• Street scenes in New York.
• A strong African-American in the lead role, an intelligent, hardboiled, and masculine character.
• Shaft standing up to racism out of the mouths of others in the film.
• Moses Gunn as Bumpy Jonas, who turns in the best performance.

Lowlights:

• Really poor audio quality, tinny at times and with obvious dubbing at others.
• Script is not great; plot is simple and dialogue is often wooden.
• Pace is slow, especially towards an end which is a little mechanical.
• The much-loved theme song has lyrics that are so over-the-top it gets the film off on a cartoonish note ("Who's the black private dick that's a sex machine to all the chicks? (Shaft)")

Great idea, just not all that well made.

Shaft is the man! This is a great blaxploitation film with good acting and lots of action. A private investigator is hired by a black gangster to find his daughter who was kidnapped by Italian gangsters. The first half of the film is Shaft getting shot at and trying to figure out why, and the second half is him rescuing the girl. Lots of people get shot, and even Shaft, but he pulls through and is the hero. A very good film.

This is not a great film, but it is one of the most important films in American history.

The film suffers primarily because Parks isn't sure whether he wants to direct a 'relevant' black crime drama - for which he doesn't really have the money - or a film of the genre that became infamous as "blaxploitation", which had at that time not yet achieved definition. In other words, Parks is breaking new ground, and he wasn't sure exactly what ground he is breaking. So the film tends to amble, and sometimes even stagger, as it tries to define a goal for itself.

Nonetheless, this is the first film where a strong black man in a truly heroic role - without the props of white liberal social blather, and without being borderline criminal - is portrayed without excuses or apologies. Shaft is truly a hero of his time, part Sam Spade (& no jokes here, please), part James Bond - and all man - intelligent, fast to act, direct and always true to himself - he's nobody's "boy".

Although these qualities are in the script, the communication of the message depends entirely on Richard Roundtree - one of the truly great action actors of Hollywood history - hey, I'm a white boy, and I still want to be this John Shaft! he's that cool. The marginalization of this savvy and witty actor, due to the racism of Hollywood, is a real crime.

Well, for now, never mind; his performance alone carries this film, and makes it a treasure; and no matter how badly Hollywood marginalizes black action cinema, Roundtree's performance will continue to stand tall, for many generations to come.