Shaft

Rating:
Summary: 5 stars is not enough!!
Review: "Who is the man who would risk his neck for his brotha' man? SHAFT!!"
Blaxploitation? That's like calling "Bullit" 'Cracker-jacking' [I rate Bullit a 2/5 stars] or 'The Godfather' "Wopploitation' [am Italian myself-so clearly my criticism is the asinine labeling of SHAFT as an "exploitation film" simply because a strong lead character is a black man-but he is FIRST a strong MAN]
I LOVE this film; saw it prior to teen years and was a wonderful "adrenaline pump" WITH A STORY. Violence? sure; gratuitous? no; the mean streets of Harlem are a turf war NOT driven by racial hatred but by MONEY [via heroin trade].
A unique [and I have never read it mentioned] is that this film is an "equal opportunity offender"; the mob-white crooks, want to sell heroin in New York turf and have to overpower the long-time "crime boss" of the area- "Bumpy", a black career criminal whose CV reads from the petty[numbers] to the Class A felony[murder], who besides being a "crook" has a downright nasty disposition-betraying local black activists [civil rights ala Malcom X "any means necessary youths] into fighting his "drug war" for him!! Caught in the "middle", Shaft negotiates a deal for all parties involved-"Bumpy" will pay $10,000 a man [a very 'on target' critique of the indemnity policy paid in Vietnam to American soldiers killed, 80% of whom were black] for "Ben's" activist "soldiers" to battle the mob. The "lie" revolved around Bumpy's daughter [Marcy] being nabbed by the mob-this was how Shaft [the black private (...)who is sex machine to all the chicks] was brought into the imbroglia in first place.
This film won the Oscar for its pounding, fantastic soundtrack, but I think deserved several; the screenplay was great- besides the handful of "well-known" quotes, there are TONS of other memorable lines [the confrontation between Bumpy and Ben about the respective merits of civil rights and 'numbers, drugs and [prostituses] is very profound even in brevity], the demographic of "strong black women" in an elderly black woman intervening between Shaft and Ben and preventing a fight; and many others.
The only "weaknesses" [and obviously, I LOVE this movie!!] are Shaft's relationship with the cops; what the hell forged their bond, and the actor who played the cop Shaft interacted with sucked; there was NO character development of the mobsters "moving in"; and the women in the film were given a very demeaning role-"No one understands him but his woman"? Shaft gets it on with a white 'one-night stand' gal, implicitly a frequent activity of his; does his "woman", totally under-developed character played by a capable actress, accept this infidelity or is she "clueless"?
The ending does not really cast Shaft in a "heroic" light; his courage is 100%, but he basically "takes the money and runs", making fun of his "cop pal" as Marcy is returned to the horrid Bumpy, several of Ben's men are killed, and war has broken out in earnest between Bumpy and the mob which Shaft tells the cop pal "it's your problem" and exits via the downbeat of the guitar chords and percussion breaking out to end the film.
In all, a favorite of mine, great, great action, many "undertones" in the messages incidental in the film, and Shaft IS one BAD Mutha' .....!!!!

Rating:
Summary: RIGHT ON SHAFT!
Review: "Who's the black private dick, the sex machine that gets ALL the chicks? SHAFT! Can ya dig it?" Richard Roundtree scores big in this 1970's classic. It's one of the first black detective movies ever. Filled with great one-liners this film is "right on brotha," in the lyrics of the award winning song, sung by Isaac Hayes. "Where you goin' Shaft?" asks another detective. "To get LAID, where the hell YOU goin'?" the cocky Shaft replies. A great film.

Rating:
Summary: Shaft is my hero
Review: After seeing this movie, I've come to the conclusion that John Shaft is my all time hero. This movie rocks, I mean, the name alone makes it awesome!!

Rating:
Summary: This is one bad DVD!
Review: And it aint bad in the good way! (N.B. This isn't a knock on the movie, it is classic 70's afro stuff). 1st of all, let's look at the special features. Mmmkay, here we have a trailer for each of the three 70's SHAFT movies. This is a nice touch, yet I feel something missing - mainly a clear picture and audible sound. Next up is the "Soul In Cinema" documentary, which looks and sounds like something that The Reject Shop rejected. And finally, we come to the so-called "Awards" section, which basically tells you what everyone already knows: that the theme won best song. So after the 30 seconds of thrills and spills that the extra features provided us with, we decide to watch the film itself. The picture, well, that's why I gave this a 2 star rating, because it at least if half-decent, and you have the option of wide or fullscreen. But please folks, don't get your hopes up, because now we shuffle along to the sound quality. Have you ever put ice in the blender, and nothing else, then turned it onto Auto-Cleaning mode? Well this is the closest resemblance to the noise coming out of 4 of your 5 speakers that I can think of. The back of the case will lead you to believe that this is encoded with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. And it is - but unfortunately only on the menu music (did I mention the menu doesn't move?). And the most disappointing thing here is that I live in Australia (That is disappointing in itself), and had to import this trash. Please, spare yourself the agony of trying to decipher this mess and wait for another version, or buy the Neanderthal, outdated VHS tape.

Rating:
Summary: who is the man...
Review: Being that I enjoyed the theme song oh-so-much, I thought I would check out this movie. Big mistake. I was hoping for a cheesy but fun 70's movie. Instead, I just found a pointless storyline with one dimension characters and groan-inducing dialogue ("You ain't so white either"). I turned this fluff off after 33 minutes. Let's just hope the remake's better. Until then, I'll just be singing the song.

Rating:
Summary: This Shaft Shafts You
Review: Besides the poor quality, the movie is edited. Shaft's vulgar language is one of the best parts of the movie, and you are stuck with Roundtree's dubbed over voice every time he yells at someone. A REAL disappointment.

Rating:
Summary: The original
Review: Gordon Parks created a sensation in Shaft with an ultracool performance by Richard Roundtree who went onto to do several films in this series. However none holds up as well as does the first film, which plays just as well today as it did in the 70's. Shaft was the quintessential rogue cop, taking orders from no one and tracking down the crooks no matter where they hid in the city. But what really makes this movie work is the feel Parks has for New York, capturing the quality of the inner city like few others have been able to do. One is carried along on the hip soundtrack by Isaac Hayes, taking in the mean streets of Harlem as Shaft fights both the corrupt police force and the underworld. Always one to do it his own way.

Rating:
Summary: The original
Review: Gordon Parks created a sensation in Shaft with an ultracool performance by Richard Roundtree who went onto to do several films in this series. However none holds up as well as does the first film, which plays just as well today as it did in the 70's. Shaft was the quintessential rogue cop, taking orders from no one and tracking down the crooks no matter where they hid in the city. But what really makes this movie work is the feel Parks has for New York, capturing the quality of the inner city like few others have been able to do. One is carried along on the hip soundtrack by Isaac Hayes, taking in the mean streets of Harlem as Shaft fights both the corrupt police force and the underworld. Always one to do it his own way.

Rating:
Summary: A definite must see movie for anyone who loves the 70's.
Review: Great movie from the beginning till the very end.I can guarantee anybody that after seeing this classic you'll go out to get the soundtrack and play it over and over.

Rating:
Summary: But,I'm talking about Shaft-Again
Review: Here I am talking about Shaft again.I just did the music review a few days ago.So I said to myself I might as well do the film to.Back in the day when James Bond was kicking butt in movies like Goldfinger and Thunderball he was the main man.But he was also a white man.Now there's NOTHING wrong with that.But the time was due for us black folks to get some representation.And that's when private detective John Shaft hit the streets of Harlem.With his leather coat and the music of Isaac Hayes playing in the background.Another main man was on the scene.Shaft was just as handsome as Bond,just as smart as Bond and just as cool as Bond.And he didn't take s#!t from anyone.And that made Shaft one bad motherf-SHUT YOUR MOUTH-.The film Shaft was directed by muti-talented Gordon Parks.And it's star was a good-looking new comer by the name of Richard Roundtree.I read somewhere that Isaac Hayes wanted the starting role of Shaft but he didn't get it.But Mr.Hayes went on to win a academy award for the soundtrack.And Mr. Roundtree went on to have a successful movie career."All well that ends well" as they say.Now Shaft was about a Harlem mob boss by the name of Bumpy (played by Moses Gunn) daughter being kidnapped and Shaft is hire to rescue her.Along the way we become acqainted with some good guys,some bad guys and there's also a little romance (Shaft's girlfriend Ellie was played by Gwenn Mitchell,and she was one fine babe and my favorite Shaft girl).And if you're a action fan there's plenty of it throughout this film.Shaft begins with a man flying out of a window.And ends with Shaft flying into one.So all you lovers of black cinema of the 70s please check out Shaft you will not be disappointed.Shaft over the years as become a true icon.