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Shaft
USA 1971
produced by
Joel Freeman, Roger H. Lewis, Stirling Silliphant (executive), Ernest Tidyman (executive) for MGM
directed by Gordon Parks
starring Richard Roundtree, Moses Gunn, Charles Cioffi, Christopher St. John, Gwenn Mitchell, Lawrence Pressman, Victor Arnold, Sherri Brewer, Rex Robbins, Camille Yarbrough, Margaret Warncke, Joseph Leon, Arnold Johnson, Dominic Barto, George Strus, Edmund Hashim, Drew Bundini Brown, Tommy Lane, Al Kirk, Shimen Ruskin, Antonio Fargas, Gertrude Jeannette, Lee Steele, Damu King, Donny Burks, Tony King, Benjamin R. Rixson, Ricardo Brown, Alan Weeks, Glenn Johnson, Dennis Tate, Adam Wade, James Hainesworth, Clee Burtonya, Ed Bernard, Eddie Barth, Joe Pronto, Robin Nolan, Ron Tannas, Betty Bresler, Gonzalo Madurga, Paul Nevens, Jon Richards
screenplay by Ernest Tidyman, John D.F. Black, based on the novel by Ernest Tidyman, music by Isaac Hayes, J.J. Johnson
Shaft
review by
Mike Haberfelner
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Black crime kingpin Bumpy Jonas (Moses Gunn) needs black super private
eye John Shaft (Richard Roundtree) for a job - but he has rather agressive
ways of going about it, methods that see one of his men being thrown out
of a window by Shaft - something Shaft only gets away with because he's
friends with police Lt. Vic Androzzi (Charles Cioffi), the one righteous
man on the force. However, what Bumpy Jonas wants from Shaft is something
Shaft can't deny him: Bumpy's daughter Marcy (Sherri Brewer), an innocent
kid with a bright future, has been kidnapped, and Bumpy wants Shaft to
bring her back. He claims he has no idea who kidnapped her though and
sends him after underground civil rights activist Ben Buford (Christopher
St. John) - which oddly leads to a shoot-out between Shaft, Buford and his
men on one, unidentified shooters on the other side ... and it soon turns
out that a) the shooters were after Shaft, not Buford, b) that Buford
never had Marcy as his hostage as that's not his modus operandi to begin
with, and c) Bumpy actually used Shaft to get to Buford as Marcy has
actually been kidnapped by the Italo-American Mafia, and it would be in
the interest of Buford and men to free her from the clutches of
"whity". Buford agrees, but asks for a high price - to which
Bumpy agrees. Vic tells Shaft that there are two Mafia hitmen after him,
but Shaft sees them first, turns the tables on them, has them arrested,
and then "persuades" them to arrange a meeting between him and
Marcy, just so he can assure Bumpy she's still alive. Of course, Shaft has
a plan to free her that way, but it's more than likely that the Mafia will
try to set up a trap for Shaft ... Now it can't be denied, Shaft
is a movie that has its flaws, starting from a very far-fetched yet
simplistic plotline, to the total lack of a character arc for Shaft
himself, he's just infallible Mister Supercool. That said, the film's very
slickly directed while at the same time capturing the gritty sides of NYC
rather beautifully. And the whole "sticking it to the man"
attitude really transcends racial boundaries and speaks to all who have
ever felt like the underdog. Now add to that an amazing funk soundtrack,
cool action scenes and on-point performances, and you got yourself a
pretty awesome film. Maybe not the masterpiece it's often praised at, but
a good piece of genre cinema.
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review © by Mike Haberfelner
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find Shaft at adultvideouniverse.com