Well, here's another film I passed on way back when, but because of it's iconic status I finally decided to take a look at it. Not bad considering the era, though it's not quite as action oriented as today's pictures are and what modern audiences are accustomed to. It's got a totally distinctive Seventies look to it, but far from being an outdated film, it passes muster as the one that kicked off the Blaxploitation film industry big time, and with a name like "Shaft", had it's fair share of imitators in the porn flick genre as well. John Shaft is portrayed by the super cool Richard Roundtree, who I see is reprising his role as 'Senior' to son Samuel L. Jackson's Junior in a 2019 treatment of the family name, not quite originally titled as "Shaft" itself, but with a nearly half century time span between the two, it's bound to send viewers back to the one that started it all.
What helps set the film apart from it's imitators is the theme song composed and sung by Isaac Hayes. With that distinctive voice and authentic street vibe, the song won a Best Original Song Oscar, so that's not too shabby. I got a kick out of a quick appearance by an unnamed street hustler Shaft cajoled with a twenty dollar bill. He goes by Bunky in the cast credits but I don't recall the character's name ever being mentioned. A few years later, Antonio Fargas played the role of Huggy Bear on the 'Starsky and Hutch' TV series, and I always thought he was pretty cool. The principal story has Shaft wending his way amidst crime lord Bumpy Jonas (Moses Gunn), black militant gang members, the Italian Mafia, and white police lieutenant Vic Androzzi (Charles Cioffi). With each, I thought Shaft might have cracked wise just a bit much for his own good, but he sailed through the flick well enough except for that gunshot wound during one of the melees. I have to wonder now how that shower scene with Shaft and the white bar patron Linda (Margaret Warncke) went over with theater audiences back in the day. That was quite a leap from the first interracial screen kiss by Kirk and Uhura in TV's 'Star Trek' just a few years earlier.
One other thought worth mentioning, and I only do so because very early on in my movie watching hobby it made an impact on me, was the number of product placement spots for Coca-Cola in this film. I didn't count but it was at least a dozen between all the market marquees and street sightings. There was even a case of Coke in Shaft's apartment he shared with his girlfriend. So now that I've mentioned it, you can keep an eye on virtually any movie you watch from here on out, and you'll probably spot a Coke logo someplace at some time. Not kidding, check it out for yourself. And with all those Coke sightings, I kind of felt sorry for Pepsi and Ballantine Beer. They only got one each.
What helps set the film apart from it's imitators is the theme song composed and sung by Isaac Hayes. With that distinctive voice and authentic street vibe, the song won a Best Original Song Oscar, so that's not too shabby. I got a kick out of a quick appearance by an unnamed street hustler Shaft cajoled with a twenty dollar bill. He goes by Bunky in the cast credits but I don't recall the character's name ever being mentioned. A few years later, Antonio Fargas played the role of Huggy Bear on the 'Starsky and Hutch' TV series, and I always thought he was pretty cool. The principal story has Shaft wending his way amidst crime lord Bumpy Jonas (Moses Gunn), black militant gang members, the Italian Mafia, and white police lieutenant Vic Androzzi (Charles Cioffi). With each, I thought Shaft might have cracked wise just a bit much for his own good, but he sailed through the flick well enough except for that gunshot wound during one of the melees. I have to wonder now how that shower scene with Shaft and the white bar patron Linda (Margaret Warncke) went over with theater audiences back in the day. That was quite a leap from the first interracial screen kiss by Kirk and Uhura in TV's 'Star Trek' just a few years earlier.
One other thought worth mentioning, and I only do so because very early on in my movie watching hobby it made an impact on me, was the number of product placement spots for Coca-Cola in this film. I didn't count but it was at least a dozen between all the market marquees and street sightings. There was even a case of Coke in Shaft's apartment he shared with his girlfriend. So now that I've mentioned it, you can keep an eye on virtually any movie you watch from here on out, and you'll probably spot a Coke logo someplace at some time. Not kidding, check it out for yourself. And with all those Coke sightings, I kind of felt sorry for Pepsi and Ballantine Beer. They only got one each.