- Directed by Gordon Parks and based on a book by Ernest Tidyman, Shaft is the quintessential blaxploitation film. Everything you need to know about its eponymous hero, John Shaft (Richard Roundtree), is covered in Isaac Hayes's famous theme song. Shaft is indeed a black private dick who's a sex machine to all the chicks (Gwenn Mitchell and Margaret Warncke). He also risks his neck for his brother man, mobster (Moses Gunn) and idealistic revolutionary (Christopher St. John) alike. I can further confirm that he doesn't cop out when there's danger all about and that he's a complicated man, etc.
- In fact, I would say that being complicated is Shaft's defining quality. He loathes mobsters and drug dealers, but he's also willing to save mob daughter Marci (Sherri Brewer) from being kidnapped. He knows as well as anyone what it means to grow up black and poor, but he has no interest in supporting black militant groups. He works with the police despite constantly antagonizing a police lieutenant (Charles Cioffi) who is probably the closest thing he has to a friend. And then there's Shaft's relationships with women, whom he both loves and disrespects with lines like "Some other time, huh? Same feelings, same place."
- Although many other blaxploitation films feature memorable soundtracks, I can honestly say that the directing and acting in Shaft is the best I've seen in the genre. Parks does a great job capturing New York City at peak 70's seediness, and his direction borrows only the best elements from boxing and action films. Roundtree is absolutely convincing as an irascible badass, and the supporting cast (especially Gunn and Ali cornerman Drew Bundini Brown) is surprisingly strong. Whether or not Shaft's writing is authentic or not is a good question, but its dialogue is immensely quotable. "Cut the crap, man. This is Shaft!
