The Classic Shaft

• Directed by Gordon Parks
• June 25, 1971 (Los Angeles)
• Based on the 1970 detective novel Shaft by Ernest Tidyman

A private detective is hired by a Harlem mobster to rescue his daughter from the Italian mobsters that kidnapped her.

Some movies come along and are instant classics. Shaft is one such movie. It was unlike anything that came before and solidified the blaxploitation film as a genre. While there are a few things in this movie that are extremely dated and may be lost on modern audiences it doesn’t hurt the movie. Shaft is a product of its times and that’s part of the film’s enduring charm.

When you think of the blaxploitation movie you probably think of this-at least elements that were strongly derived from this very movie. This all takes place in a very gritty New York City. It’s a slice of the times and the times were not good there. And that is just perfect for the movie. PI John Shaft (Richard Roundtree) moves about a rough and dirty NYC dealing with a pervasive criminal element as well as just general racism.

Shaft is the definition of cool. He is a fashion plate for his time. He doesn’t take crap from anybody and in fact forces others to take crap from him. He succeeds by standing his ground and not backing down. He’s genuinely tough and the manliest man in any room. Streetwise and always in charge of the situation.

As a character Shaft is a love ‘em and leave ‘em type. He’s the man men want to be and the man women want to be with. Always in charge of the situation and never deferring to anyone else. He’s a one-man army and you don’t see that too much anymore. This is a breath of fresh air in comparison to modern films.

Roundtree gave Shaft confidence and swagger. He was cocky and knew it and had the goods to justify his attitude. Roundtree took control of the scene each and every time he walked on and by extension made the character firmly his. He made this rough and tumble character that took the not nice cases somebody you could not look away from.

More importantly, at least for the times, Shaft was not a secondary character. At no point does he have to agree to what a Caucasian man says. More often than not they do what he says because they knew better than to cross him. He is a character with a clear code of conduct that he lives by.

Shaft is the toughest of the tough and has the respect of everybody whether they want to give it or not. He even gets a pass when he tosses a henchman of “Bumpy” Jonas (Moses Gunn) out the window. And Jonas still hires him! It is a simple and effective way that communicates so much about the character in short order. A testament to the skill of the filmmakers and the quality of the movie.

Jonas is a character with a brain who manipulates Shaft to form an allegiance with a black militant named Ben Buford (Christopher St. John) so that they have to get Jonas’s daughter (Sherri Brewer) back from the true kidnappers. That’s some next level thinking right there and helps make him Shaft’s equal.

Bumpy is as tough as Shaft in his own way, but where the movie falls a little short is that the mob who’s the real threat in the story was not nearly as dangerous to Shaft as Shaft was to them. It’s just a little bit of a shortcoming in an otherwise excellent film. Bumpy was the equal of Shaft but the actual villain felt like an inconvenience and not a villain. Then again that mobster is not the true focus of the story. I am not sure if the mobster is even named in the narrative. At least not to the point it is easy to recall.

This is a story that mixes in black militants, black gangsters, and the Italian mafia and drugs along with kidnapping into a story with so many moving parts that come together elegantly. It is like good Shake ‘n Bake. They toss all this stuff together, shake vigorously, and despite all the odds it comes out great.

As detective stories go, Shaft does some thinking but does much more muscling his way through the story than anything else. This is not a sophisticated whodunit by any stretch of the imagination, but then again who cares? It is a film dripping with cool and style and done with intelligence.

The movie moves quick but not at a lightning piece. Elements come at you with just enough time to breathe before Gordon Parks moves onto the next one. And no character is excessively stupid or ridiculous. There are no dumb decisions made to move the story forward that are out of character. And that’s why this movie connected with audiences when it came out and still connects with audiences to this day.

Gordon Parks made New York City as much of a character as any flesh and blood actor in this movie did with their material. This film would not have worked without the gritty and dirty landscape the city had in the 70s. At least not as well.

The soundtrack is absolutely amazing. The “Theme from Shaft” by Isaac Hayes certainly deserved best song at the Academy Awards. While one can look at the general soundtrack as an example of 70s movie music I dare say it was a template for films and television shows that followed. It just works. It’s mostly perfect. There are some points where music plays that does not fit with the rest but nothing that harms the music.

Shaft is a great piece of classic film. It set a template for so much to come but in and of itself is a fantastic movie. Well worth your time. This is a must see for everyone!

Watch the trailer HERE because PrudeTube.