Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

LouHomey From my favorite movies..

Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

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

david-sarkies I heard a bit about this movie, and from what I know it is supposed to be a cult movie, so when I saw it in the video store I decided to hire it out to see what it was all about. Basically Shaft is described as being one of the Black Exploitation movies. Basically it is a movie where all of the main characters are Negros and white people are only cast when either necessary or to fill the role of the bad guys. In the case of this movie there are really no clear cut good or bad guys.Shaft is about the Negro detective John Shaft (Richard Roundtree). Shaft is basically a very tough guy that intimidates but isn't intimidated. He is also what is described in the opening song (which won composer Isaac Hayes an Oscar) as a sex machine. He only sleeps with two girls in the movie though, and one of them is his woman, but they do both comment on his prowess.What is interesting is that all of the characters are basically thugs. None of them have any really redeeming traits and are simply trying to bully each other into submission. This isn't just focused on the Negroes in the movie, but everybody acts as bullies, from the Anglo police officers to the Italian Mafia. It is just that Shaft's bullying is more effective than others.Just because Shaft is a bully, it does not mean he is stupid. He does not go bursting into a room full of armed men unless he is sure that he can win. He doesn't run away either, but rather he remains calm and collected, and then turns the tables on his opponents.I guess Shaft takes the human race as it comes. They are little more than thugs trying to best each other, either through brute force, charisma, or intellect. In the end, it always comes down to might means right, and that is not always the physical side, for elections are little more than popularity competitions, and the most charismatic will generally win.

Uriah43 The NYPD is hearing rumors about something big about to happen in Harlem and they're worried. Meanwhile, two thugs from Harlem are looking for a private detective named "John Shaft" (Richard Roundtree). A scuffle breaks out in Shaft's office and one of the thugs is thrown out of the high-rise window. Not long afterward a black crime boss named "Bumpy Jonas" (Moses Gunn) and his bodyguard, "Willy" (Drew Bundini Brown) come to see Shaft seeking to hire him to locate Bumpy's daughter who has been kidnapped. This is when the complications start. Anyway, this film features gangsters from Harlem, the mafia, black militants and the NYPD who all want to see John Shaft for one reason or another. It has an excellent soundtrack and there is plenty of action to keep most people entertained throughout. The acting is also pretty good with Richard Roundtree putting in an excellent performance along with that of Drew Bundini Brown to a lesser extent. In short, this film is as exciting today as it was when it first came out 42 years ago and is quite possibly the best "blaxpoitation" film there is. Definitely above average.