This original and hippest version of Shaft cruised onto cinema screens in 1971. John Shaft (Richard Roundtree) is an African-American private eye who has a rocky relationship with cops, an even rockier one with Harlem gangsters, and a healthy sex life. The script finds Shaft tracking down the kidnapped daughter of a black mobster, but the pleasure of the film is the sum of its attitude, Roundtree's uncompromising performance, and the thrilling, Oscar-winning score by Isaac Hayes. Director Gordon Parks (The Learning Tree) seems fond of certain detective genre cliché... (e.g., the hero walking into his low-rent office and finding a hood waiting to talk with him), but he and Roundtree make those moments their own. Shaft produced a couple of sequels, a follow-up television series, and a remake starring Samuel L Jackson, but none had the impact this movie did. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com [show more]
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Who's the cat who won't cop out when there's danger all about? Private detective John Shaft (Richard Roundtree) is called in when the daughter of Harlem gangster Bumpy Jonas (Moses Gunn) is kidnapped. Forced to go undercover as a member of the mob, Shaft finds an ally in black militant Ben Buford (Christopher St John), but soon finds himself becoming embroiled in gang warfare, clashes with the Mafia and encounters with a variety of beautiful women. Kicking off the Seventies blaxploitation trend, 'Shaft' was followed by two sequels and a 2000 remake.
Please note this is a region 2 DVD and will require a region 2 (Europe) or region Free DVD Player in order to play. The Mob Wanted Harlem Back. They Got Shaft...Up To Here. "Hotter than Bond. Cooler than Bullitt," movie posters proclaimed. John Shaft was indeed a shut-your-mouth detective to reckon with, a fact emphasized from the film's start by Isaac Hayes' Academy Award-winning Best Original Song and Oscar-nominated score. Richard Roundtree plays the smart, tough confident lead, a private investigator whose hunt for a kidnapped woman puts him in the middle of feuding syndicates. Gordon Parks directs from a screenplay that Ernest Tidyman (Oscar winner for 'The French Connection') co-scripted from his own novel. John Shaft is an icon of change from an era of change. Shaft still tells it like it is.
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