John Shaft (Richard Roundtree) is a street smart private detective. Gangsters are looking for him and he throws one out the window. Bumpy (Moses Gunn) is after him. Friendly cop Vic Androzzi gives him 48 hours before bringing him back in. Bumpy's daughter has been kidnapped and he hires Shaft to find her. His first lead is Ben Buford but he doesn't seem to know anything about it and his gang is massacred. Ben and Shaft escape. Vic tells Shaft that outsider muscle have gathered in town. The white Mafia is going to war with Bumpy which could spark a race war.

What a great song! As a blaxploitation, the story isn't half bad. It puts race front and center without the noble black man trope. It is violent. It's not exactly realistic. It is a stylized hard-boiled detective story in a black world. It is low budget action. There is quite a bit of filler. The pacing does have the 70s meandering quality. It makes up for it with a lot of attitude. That's what Roundtree brings. The man exudes attitude. It's also cool to see the gritty 70s NYC streets.

Probably had Shaft not won an Oscar for its theme as the Best Original Song it would be barely remembered as one of the first of the black exploitation films that seem to explode out of Hollywood. The late Sixties after the Civil Rights Revolution, Hollywood discovered that black people were a neglected audience, that A. was not happy with how it was previously portrayed and B. would pay to see more than just films that starred Sidney Poitier.

It's an average action/adventure film when you come right down to it, but that is not to say that star Richard Roundtree didn't create an interesting character. John Shaft is a private detective who even police lieutenant Charles Cioffi knows to give a free hand to as he's into sources of information the cops don't have access to.

Something that Harlem drug kingpin Moses Gunn is also aware of when he hires Shaft to locate his kidnapped daughter. Gunn isn't exactly telling Shaft the whole truth about the circumstances. But Shaft catches on quickly enough that this is all part of a three party struggle for the control of Harlem between Italian gangsters, black militants and Gunn's own crew.

There's a nice explosive climax in the end as the daughter's fate is in Shaft's hands. Enough action to satisfy any junkie.

And of course there's Isaac Hayes's score with the theme and it's a type of song that never got the Academy recognition before. I don't one like that has since. But in terms of the film itself, the score perfectly captures the mood.

Can you dig it.

SHAFT is a very famous so-called "blaxploitation" film--a genre that showed exceptionally tough Black men fighting "the man" and coming out on top. Most of these films had poor production values--low budgets, inexperienced actors and simple story lines. However, SHAFT is a great example of a blaxploitation film that is so much more than the genre--it's got exceptional acting, a catchy soundtrack, a decent budget and a good story. Nothing about this film seems cheap or second-rate.

Shaft is played by Richard Roundtree and he's a Black private eye and super-stud (as the title song tells us). He's been hired to find and rescue a local mobster's daughter but although he's super-tough and super-determined, he might just be in over his head--as there's much more to this story.

As I said, this film is much better than the usual blaxploitation fare and it's a real shame it's lumped into this category because it is entertaining and a good film regardless if you are Black or White or Green! I can't wait to see the sequels--I hope they are of similar quality and excitement.

FYI--It's unusual to see that the White cops in this film aren't all evil like in most other films like this one.