ChicRawIdol A brilliant film that helped define a genre

mraculeated The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

Teddie Blake The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

alexanderdavies-99382 This opening "Shaft" film is the best of the bunch. It made a star of the leading man Richard Roundtree and two sequels and a brief T.V series resulted. The film has a good deal of style and is easily the definitive "blaxploition" movie. All other movies from this subgenre are compared to this one and rightly so. The film has a pretty good story, some great one-liners, a fair measure of incident and that catchy theme tune by Isaac Hayes.

mgtbltp 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

thefensk I just watched this film. The last time I saw it was when it came out. The flaws in the movie were the same flaws evident in a lot of late 60s and early 70s movies. Film had undergone a transition to a more gritty look ... by the 80s they seemed really bad. Now they seem almost nostalgic ... probably people felt the same way about film noir at the time and shortly after. One of the most interesting things it has going for it is due to that raw and gritty look, which included quite a lot of location shots in early 1970s NYC. The score matched the cinematography very well. In 1971 I thought it was entertaining. We didn't call it a blaxploitation film back then. I guess its moderate success spawned the genre so in that sense it was either the first or the inspiration. But I think to lump it into that basket is wrong. In reality it is a 1971 detective flick focusing on a black character, set among a lot of black characters, mostly hoods, poised against a bunch of white characters, mostly hoods. It's right there in the movie ... the police detective makes that same observation. Not Black against White ... it is a turf war between black hoods and white hoods. And between them all is John Shaft. Richard Roundtree plays it with a finesse that although almost corny now to the point of being a caricature, at the time it was easy to take it at face value. He was a hard nosed P.I. and he focused on his case. The absolutely smartest scene was when the guy helping Shaft save the girl was sent in to pose as a room service waiter in the dingy hotel where the mafia guys were holding the hostage. He seemed resentful at first but he got a look on his face sort of like, "hey, I KNOW HOW TO DO THIS." Sure, using the degrading stereotype to complete the undercover. Three drinks. Three dudes. He's got the information but he's got to play the role. He stands there waiting for his tip and gets it, generous in mafia fashion too. Anyway, I say throw the blaxploitation label out the window and enjoy the movie for what it was and what it is ... a better than average 1970s detective movie. I wish they showed it on TV more.

MartinHafer SHAFT is a very famous so-called "blaxploitation" film--a genre that showed exceptionally tough Black men fighting "the man" and coming out on top. Most of these films had poor production values--low budgets, inexperienced actors and simple story lines. However, SHAFT is a great example of a blaxploitation film that is so much more than the genre--it's got exceptional acting, a catchy soundtrack, a decent budget and a good story. Nothing about this film seems cheap or second-rate.Shaft is played by Richard Roundtree and he's a Black private eye and super-stud (as the title song tells us). He's been hired to find and rescue a local mobster's daughter but although he's super-tough and super-determined, he might just be in over his head--as there's much more to this story.As I said, this film is much better than the usual blaxploitation fare and it's a real shame it's lumped into this category because it is entertaining and a good film regardless if you are Black or White or Green! I can't wait to see the sequels--I hope they are of similar quality and excitement.FYI--It's unusual to see that the White cops in this film aren't all evil like in most other films like this one.