In what is easily one of the most important films ever made, and an excellent film in its own right, Director Gordon Parks, who at the time, along with Ossie Davis and Melvin van Peebles were the only three well-known minority directors, brings the "black style" of film-making to the mainstream with Shaft, a crime-drama whose characters happened to be black.
What set Shaft apart was that the film was shot by black people, and for a primarily black audience, where whites were treated only as welcome guests of the action. The characters, most notably Shaft (Richard Roundtree), could easily have been written as whites, but since they were written as black, they did not "act white." The film was a forerunner to what is now commonplace on networks like UPN, where shows like Martin present African-American culture much the way shows like Barney Miller did with white culture.
The theme song, historic itself, sent this film over the top in the best way possible. We all want to be Shaft at least once in our lives.
What set Shaft apart was that the film was shot by black people, and for a primarily black audience, where whites were treated only as welcome guests of the action. The characters, most notably Shaft (Richard Roundtree), could easily have been written as whites, but since they were written as black, they did not "act white." The film was a forerunner to what is now commonplace on networks like UPN, where shows like Martin present African-American culture much the way shows like Barney Miller did with white culture.
The theme song, historic itself, sent this film over the top in the best way possible. We all want to be Shaft at least once in our lives.