Shaft
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Movie Reviews of Shaft
Movie Review: SHAFT
Summary: 5 Stars
They say this cat Shaft is a BAD MOTHER........I can dig it, and you will to....Movie Review: SHAFT! Ya damn right!
Summary: 4 Stars
What I dig most about SHAFT, apart from the awesome music by Isaac Hayes of course and John Shaft's stylin' wardrobe, is the look of New York City, 1971. This is really a nice looking film, courtesy of cinematographer Urs Furrer but also of director Gordon Parks, who seems to have a knack for getting locations that really show off Harlem and other parts of Manhattan as both gritty and beautiful. Times Square didn't look all that different the first time I saw it in 1982 - though it certainly does now - but I don't know that I've ever seen mid-morning in midtown look as vibrant as it does here.
Blaxploitation had already moved into high gear by the time SHAFT was released, but it remains the single most famous example of the style - despite having a bit less overall violence than most examples, little nudity, and no lengthy car chases. Given that it was entirely shot on location, that would have been tough to do, and what it might lack in genre tropes it more than makes up for in versimillitude. You might call it a less-serious flipside to the next year's Across 110th Street - probably my personal favorite example of the genre - which also ends up being ultimately about the Italian-American mob vs black gangs in Harlem - though the race issue, like everything else, is played more for fun and games in Shaft. The storyline is pretty basic - private eye John Shaft (Richard Roundtree) is pushed mostly against his will into helping gangster Bumpy Jones (Moses Gunn) get his teenaged daughter back from kidnapers, while having to deal delicately with the police, led by Detective Androzzi (Charles Cioffi) who respects Shaft but can't deal with being left in the dark most of the time.
Like I said, the story's fairly simple, and frankly the motivations and narrative aren't always that coherent or believable, but this ultimately doesn't matter too much. The direction, music and characters are where the film needs to succeed, and there aren't too many problems in those areas. It's all pretty well put together, and despite the obvious fairly low budget the action sequences are solid enough for the most part - especially if you're comparing this to other blaxploitation and low-budget action films of the time. No, it doesn't look as polished as, say, DIRTY HARRY (also from 1971) - the sequence where a henchman goes out Shaft's window early on isn't exactly convincing, and the blood isn't the most realistic you're going to see - but the narrative drive of the film, the humor and Cambridge's charismatic performance make up for a lot of that. I think the scene in the bar where Shaft takes over for the bartender to keep an eye on a couple of mafiosos might be the best in the film - certainly it's the funniest.
Cambridge's style and attitude are of course a big part of what made the film memorable - he's got the McQueen cool and the Newman sexiness with a bit of Eastwood toughness to boot; at one point he gets shot point blank by a guy with a machine gun and it looks like he may have taken half a dozen slugs, but in a couple of scenes he's ready for action again. And nobody could wear a black leather suit like this cool cat.
DVD NOTE: The letterboxed image on this flipper disc is fine, if a just a bit soft at times, and a bit hard to see clearly in some of the darkest night sequences - but much of that has to do with Parks' attitude about having lighting as naturalistic as possible. There's a little making-of doc that's pretty decent, otherwise nothing much in the way of extras. It'd be nice to imagine a real quality box set of the film and it's sequels with commentaries and cleaned-up image and sound, but I'm not holding my breath.
Movie Review: We can dig it
Summary: 4 Stars
Though it holds up surprisingly well over thirty years later, "Shaft" isn't so much worth watching for its quality as for its historical importance. African-Americans were just barely starting to get the respect they deserved, and mild-mannered, "respectable" blacks like Sidney Poitier had begun appearing in films like "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" and, with a little harder edge, in "In the Heat of the Night." Then, in 1971, "Shaft" bursts on the scene. Its protagonist is a street-smart black detective who doesn't take any crap, and frankly doesn't care what any white boys think of him. The film is shot as though being black was normal, a viewpoint many found hard to grasp back then. Considering what it was flinging at audiences, it's surprising "Shaft" didn't cause more of an outroar.
Instead, "Shaft" was a hit with audiences of all colors. The "Theme from Shaft," highlighting Isaac Hayes' funky soundtrack, won an Academy Award for Best Original Song. Richard Roundtree's clever, wisecracking loner detective recalled the likes of Philip Marlowe and Sam Slade and soon joined them in the annals of cinema. After all, Shaft was one bad motha(shut your mouth): tough, charismatic, and a big hit with the ladies. The director was Gordon Parks, fresh off his success with "The Learning Tree," where he had become the first African-American to direct a major studio feature. Parks fluctuated between in-your-face action and gritty street scenes, with the pacing of an old mystery film. He wasn't afraid to show conflict between blacks and whites, but he did so with a sensibility that ensured little offensiveness.
"Shaft" is a well-made movie. The most impressive scene may be the shoot 'em up finish. Refreshingly, and true to the film's attitude, there's no "clean-up" or "sorting it all out" after the climax - Shaft takes out the bad guys, does his job, and the movie's over, baby. Audiences took to Shaft enough to bring him back, though, for two sequels and a TV series, as well as a remake at the start of the 21st century. Most importantly, "Shaft" created its own genre: "blaxpoitation," hard-hitting thrillers with a ghetto setting and a mean black hero. The blaxpoitation phenomenon had died down by the end of the 70s, but all these years later, "Shaft" is still right on.
Movie Review: This movie is Afrolicious!,
Summary: 4 Stars
I always see this movie as a great Harlem detective story. Shafts pulsate with street-level lingo and a deep sense of conviction you can help but admire. In the great tradition of detective movies Shaft is clearly a hard-bitten loner who spars with friends and foe alike, then gets just what he wants from everyone.
Even though "Shaft" was an MGM release it was clearly intended for the black audience Hollywood had always ignored. The attitude of Shaft is what set it apart - it made no effort to court the white audience at all. John Shaft kept his mouth shut for nobody, and wasn't interested in carrying a civics lesson or being an ambassador from an alien race. He was openly promiscuous, keeping at least a couple of steady women on his string, and taking in the occasional admiring prostitute. He talked dirty, told white cops where to get off, pushed around the toughest of the black mobsters, and made mincemeat of adversaries both black and white. A year before "The Godfather," the Mafia of Shaft consisted of fairly accurate Italian goombah types; Shaft had no trouble letting loose with the ethnic slurs either. In other words, "Shaft" was a fresh dose of reality, in 70s parlance, 'telling it like it is.' This script showed no influence of studio influence, whatsoever.
Shaft has a good New York look. The overall atmosphere is great, a mixture of dingy, claustrophobic hotel rooms and neglected city streets. A lot of the action appears to take place around Times Square, which was quite a different place in 1970 - much rougher, much more rundown. Shaft must hold the record for the number of movie marquees on view in one film; I'd guess it was filmed in late Summer-Early fall with what's playing in downtown Manhattan. Roundtree fills out the role believably while the surrounding cast work well together, even if the stereotype line is occasionally breached. Several nice moments in the script carry the film over its dull passages, all leading up to a great ending.
Movie Review: Decent (not great) presentation of drive-in classic
Summary: 4 Stars
Of course, if you're reading this, you probably already know that "Shaft" is an above-average blaxploitation flick with Richard Roundree as a private detective hired to track down a Harlem gang boss' missing daughter. With dialogue like "You got problems, Shaft?" "Yeah, two of 'em. I was born black and I was born poor." you really can't lose.So on with the DVD. The film itself is nicely letterboxed (I think for the first time), and while it's not made from the greatest print (there are a couple scratches), it's a perfectly acceptable presentation.
Extras include trailers for all three Shaft flicks . This is great--I wish Warner had done the same with their "Dirty Harry" DVD. (They did with the VHS version.) There's also a 1971-produced short "Making of" film and the option to view the movie in French (a surreal experience, to be sure.)
The cast and crew bios, however, are pretty meager, offering only a relatively complete portrait of Richard Roundtree. Where's Moses Gunn? Or Gordon Parks? The "Awards" option is pretty worthless as well, showing that the movie won the Oscar for "Best Original Song."
Oh, yes, and there's no commentary track with Director Parks as is described on the Amazon site. Forgivably, it's not mentioned on the DVD box, so this is probably just something that didn't pan out at the last minute.
It's still lots of fun, but not what it could have been.