Shaft
(1971)
Rated: R
Runtime: 1 Hour and 40 Minutes
Reviewer: Dale
Grade: A-The minute those opening credits start to roll and you hear the "Shaft" theme, you know that you are in for something quite cool. I have never seen any other blaxsploitation films (frankly, I don't want to) but I am sure that "Shaft" is the best of them. I don't see how it couldn't be.
The film opens with John Shaft, played to perfection (in its own way) by Richard Roundtree. He's a complicated man and no one understands him but his woman. He's the private dick who's the sex machine to all the chicks. He is one bad mutha... but I digress. He is hired by an underworld kingpin named Bumpy (Moses Gunn) to find Bumpy's daughter. Bumpy thinks that the whole thing is being set up by a Black Panther-like group of radicals.
Or does he?
Along the way, Shaft will figure a lot of things out. He will sleep with a few women, he will rough some guys up, he will talk tough and he will toss a dude out a window. Shaft is easily one of the coolest black characters I've ever seen. He is the black man's answer to James Bond or Dirty Harry. And he is almost as cool. If I were a little darker in pigment, I would probably say that he was cooler. I am not, but I think that Shaft still belongs on that list. Shaft is tired of taking any crap. He is tired of being discriminated against and he is tired of all the inner city garbage. Yet he still has a few white friends on the police force and they help him out whenever they can. Their job is basically the same as the job of a police officer in a Bogart flick. They help when they can, they ask him to share information and they smile and shake their heads even though he is withholding evidence and making them look pretty stupid.
After all, Shaft is on the scene of the crime every time while they arrive ten minutes late. In reality, they'd probably lock him up, but this is not that kind of movie.
I must say that I was surprised by "Shaft". I expected it to be fun and cheesy and full of lines like "Don't jive me". Well, actually, it is. But it is involving and clever and fun and full of action. The main character is cool and well-played and the plot is pretty damn good. The lines may be cheesy, but you'll probably find yourself quoting them for the better part of a week nonetheless.
And, of course, the theme song just plain rules.