Shaft (1971 film)

Shaft
File:Shaft Movie.jpg Shaft movie poster
Directed by	Gordon Parks
Written by	Ernest Tidyman (novel & screenplay) John D.F. Black
Produced by	Joel Freeman
Starring	Richard Roundtree
Music by	Isaac Hayes J. J. Johnson
Distributed by	MGM
Release dates	July 2, 1971 (USA)
Running time	100 min.
Language	English

Shaft is a 1971 Academy Award winning film directed by Gordon Parks. An action film that has elements of film noir, it tells the story of a black private detective, John Shaft, who travels through Harlem and to the Italian mob in order to find the missing daughter of a black mobster. It stars Richard Roundtree as Shaft, Moses Gunn as Bumpy Jonas, Charles Cioffi as Lt. Vic Androzzi, Christopher St. John as Ben Buford, and Gwenn Mitchell and Lawrence Pressman in smaller roles. The movie was adapted by Ernest Tidyman and John D. F. Black from Tidyman's 1971 novel of the same name.

The movie is widely considered a prime example of the blaxploitation genre.

Box office and Academy Awards

The film was a surprising and runaway box-office success, grossing $12 million. The budget was only $1,125,000. It won an Academy Award for Best Music, Song for Isaac Hayes for "Theme from Shaft". It was nominated for Best Music, Original Dramatic Score.

Plot

The story begins with a shot of Shaft emerging from the New York City subway. As he walks the streets of Manhattan, we see him encounter various elements that were present in 1970s New York, the aggressive cabbie, as well as the neighborhood "salesman" (who attempts to sell Shaft a stolen watch).

Principal dialogue begins when Shaft enters his neighborhood shoe shine parlor where the groundwork for the plot begins to be established through a conversation between Shaft and Cole (the shoe shine man).

Cole: "A couple of dudes came in here looking for you today..."

Shaft: "Know them?"

Cole: "Not by name..."

Later in the conversation Cole warns Shaft of potential danger.

Shaft: "Is that all?"

Cole: "Oh, they had heat on them. The dude in the funky plaid coat held his coat tight, you dig? Had some heavy iron in his belt..."

The scene progresses to Shaft leaving the shoe shine parlor and being confronted by Lt. Vic Androzzi. By the interaction between them, its obvious that they know each other. Vic strongly suggests that they go meet "downtown" to discuss some things. Shaft quickly responds with "I got an office..."

Once Shaft reaches his office lobby he sees the guy in the "funky plaid coat" standing at the front counter seemingly waiting on something. Shaft makes a quick move to the back of the building and comes up behind him and disarms him while taking him upstairs to question him. On the way up, the guy in the "funky plaid coat" refuses to give up any information as to who he is and why he is there. Upon entering Shaft's office, a fight ensues between Shaft, the "funky plaid coat" man and his accomplice who is sitting at Shaft's desk. During the course of the fight, the man in the "funky plaid coat", is thrown out of Shaft's office window, falling to his death on the street below.

Shaft questions the accomplice and finds out the neighborhood hoodlum, Bumpy Jonas, is looking for him. Shaft is taken downtown for questioning by Vic and tells Vic that he is going to find out what's going on and contact Vic in a couple of days.

Shaft and Bumpy finally get in contact with each other after which, Bumpy comes to Shaft's office with Willie, his right hand man. Bumpy finally states his reason for looking for Shaft. Someone has kidnapped his daughter. Bumpy steers Shaft in the direction of a group of Black Nationalists named "The Lumumbas", led by a guy names Ben Buford. When Shaft shows apprehension in taking the job, stating that Bumpy's version of events "don't lay right", Bumpy breaks down and pleads for him to find her. Shaft finally relents and states his price for the job ($50 an hour, plus expenses, and no questions on how I spend it)

The remainder of the movie shows Ben and Shaft linking up at Ben's group's headquarters (where it is revealed that they were "in the movement" together back in the day), where Ben's other members get murdered by unknown assailants (along with the fingerman that followed Shaft from a hot dog stand where Shaft and Vic were meeting earlier in the evening). Shaft being clued in by Vic after the shooting, that Shaft himself was the target of the shooting, not Ben as previously thought. Shaft is told that there are brewing tensions between the "uptown" hoods belonging to Bumpy Jonas and the "downtown" Mafioso, culminating with a couple of murders. Vic states that those who know, know its "hood against hood" on the inside, but the perception is black against white to the general public. He also show him some pics of two of the Mafioso guys that just got to New York. Vic pleads to Shaft to just clue him into whats going on (Vic already knew that Bumpy was looking for Shaft).

Shaft and Ben then meet Bumpy at his uptown office where Shaft ups the price for the job based on his new found info. Bumpy states that the reason for turning him on to Ben's is because Shaft is going to need an army to get his daughter back and "Ben's got one". After negotiations with Bumpy on a new price, they both leave his office.

Shaft retires to the neighborhood bar, aptly titled the "No Name Bar" which is across the street from Shaft's apartment in Greenwich Village. In the bar, he notices two guys in the bar from the pictures that Vic showed him. Shaft takes over the bar from the bartender, calls the cops without them knowing, and breaks a bottle of scotch over the head of one of the hoods when he spits in Shaft's face.

Shaft takes home one of the ladies from the bar and she spends the night with him. The next morning he visits Vic and the two guys from the previous evening sets up a rendez vous with them for later in the day. When he gets back home, he wakes the woman up and as she leaves his place, she says "you know you're great in the sack, but afterwards, you're kind of shitty..." Shaft asks her to close the door on the way out and she tells him to "close it yourself, shitty..."

Vic comes in and tells Shaft that the room that he was in at the station house was bugged and has come to arrest him, if he was home. As Vic leaves, he stics his head in the door and screams "close it yourself, shitty!", and howls with laughter. Shaft and Ben get back together and meet up with at Cafe Reggio's to go see Marcy Jonas to make sure she's alive. Once there a gunfight ensues where two hoods get killed and Shaft takes a bullet in the shoulder.

Upon getting medical attention for his bullet wound, Shaft sets up the final act. He tells Ben to round up his men and meet him at the hotel where Marcy is being held to prepare to get her back. He also calls Bumpy to tell him that his daughter is fine and he is going to need some taxicabs to meet him at the same hotel for the getaway.

Ben's men all dress as workers at the hotel (cooks, waiters, elevator operators, etc) as to not arouse suspicion. Shaft and one of Ben's guys go to the roof and get set up. Shafts plan is to cause a distraction with an explosive thrown through the window of Marcy's room while Ben and his men come down the hall and deal with the Mafia men as they leave their rooms.

The plan is successful, they spirit Marcy out of the hotel into one of the waiting taxicabs, as the others get away in the remaining cabs, while Shaft walks to a phonebooth to call Vic. Shaft tells him that "his case just busted wide open", to which Vic tells Shaft to close it for him. Shaft tells Vic that he won't and he says: "I guess you are gonna have to close it yourself...shitty!", and howls in laughter as the closing credits roll.

Sweetback connection

According to Melvin Van Peebles, the original production was of a white detective story, but after the success of Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971), the original script was scrapped in favor of an adaptation of Ernest Tidyman's 1970 novel Shaft, which focused on an African-American detective.

Ernest Tidyman

Ernest Tidyman, who was white, was an editor at the New York Times prior to becoming a novelist. He sold the movie rights to Shaft by showing the galley proofs to the studio (the novel had not yet been published). Tidyman was honored by the NAACP for his work on the Shaft movies and books.

Sequels

Two sequels were made: Shaft's Big Score in 1972, and Shaft in Africa in 1973. These were followed by a series of TV movies starring Karr as Shaft on CBS during the 1973-1974 TV season.

In 2000, a sequel was made featuring Samuel L. Jackson in the title role (see Shaft (2000 film)). Jackson plays the nephew of Richard Roundtree's character; Karr returns as John Shaft, still a private eye, trying to get his nephew to join him.

Quotes

Shaft: (drinking a cup of coffee in the shoe shine parlor) "Too much sugar this morning Cole..."

Cole: "Then don't drink it, baby..."

---

Vic Androzzi: "...Enough with the Black shit. (holding an inkpen up to Shaft's face) You ain't so black!"

Shaft: (holding a white coffee cup to Vic's face) "...and you ain't so white either..."

---

Sgt Tom Hanlan: (to Vic about Shaft) "So what did he tell you?"

Vic Androzzi: "Nothing."

Sgt Tom Hanlan: "You gotta lean on that kind..."

Vic Androzzi: (disgusted) "You don't lean on that kind..."

National Film Registry

In 2000, the United States Library of Congress deemed the original film "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.

External links

• Shaft at IMDb
• 20 Inches of Shaft Fan website