Filmmaker Gordon Parks’ 1971 action thriller was released within months of Melvin Van Peebles’ Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, but while both are considered key films in the “blaxploitation” genre, they are quite different (and, due to its “X” rating, Van Peebles’ film was initially not seen by many).
Van Peebles confronted white racism head-on in his film, answering police violence with violence. Although Parks had photographed the Black Panthers for “Life” magazine, he told one Panther, “You’ve got a forty-five automatic on your lap, and I’ve got a thirty-five-millimeter camera on mine. And I still think my weapon is the most powerful.”
Made for a million dollars and earning well over ten times that at the box office, Shaft opens with Isaac Hayes’ iconic, Oscar-winning, can-you-dig-it theme song as the camera follows private detective John Shaft (Richard Roundtree) on foot, stylishly weaving in and out of NYC traffic.
Based on a novel by Ernest Tidyman, the plot is more or less pulp fiction: when the daughter of Harlem gangster “Bumpy” Jonas (the great character actor Moses Gunn) is kidnapped by the Italian mafia (who are trying to muscle in on Bumpy’s action in the ‘hood), Shaft is hired to find and retrieve her. Shaft has a mutual-respect relationship with local NYPD police chief Vic Androzzi (Charles Cioffi) and he is joined in his efforts by old friend/Black militant Ben Bufford (Christopher St. John).
As Shaft prowls the streets looking for Bumpy’s daughter, he makes time for some lovin’ (with both a Black woman and a white woman, the latter somewhat cinematically daring considering that less than five years had passed since the Loving v. Virginia Supreme Court decision legalizing interracial marriage). All of this leads up to a guns-blazing finale set to Hayes’ pulsating funk soundtrack.
John Shaft became the first Black action hero, a man equally comfortable in the sack and on the street, who took no crap from whitey. In “Shaft,” the Black man wins—decisively.
Presented in a 4K digital restoration, Shaft has a rich, grainy film look, although some scenes are soft and much of the film takes place at night on the dark streets. Extras include Parks’ 1972 sequel “Shaft’s Big Score!”; a new documentary on the making of “Shaft” featuring curator Rhea L. Combs, film scholar Racquel J. Gates, filmmaker Nelson George, and music scholar Shana L. Redmond; a behind-the-scenes program with Parks, actor Richard Roundtree, and musician Isaac Hayes; archival interviews with Hayes, Parks, and Roundtree; a new interview with costume designer Joseph G. Aulisi; a new program on the Black detective and the legacy of John Shaft, featuring scholar Kinohi Nishikawa and novelist Walter Mosley; the 2019 featurette “A Complicated Man: The Shaft Legacy”; behind-the-scenes footage from Shaft’s Big Score!; and a leaflet with an essay by film scholar Amy Abugo Ongiri.
An urban classic in which music and location play as important a role as the character, Shaft inspired two sequels and two spin-offs, as well as a short-lived 1973-74 TV series. The original remains a time-capsule treat. Recommended for classic film collections in public libraries. Film studies professors should consider this legendary title, especially for a section on pivotal Black cinema.