The flood of Blaxploitation pictures continued in 1971 with Shaft, in which Richard Roundtree played the eponymous black private eye hired to find Marcy, the kidnapped daughter of big-time Harlem mobster, Bumpy Jonas (Moses Gunn).
John Shaft (the “black private dick that’s a sex machine to all the chicks”) would not knuckle under to anyone – white cops or black drug gangsters included.
Aided by his friend Ben Buford (Christopher St John), the leader of a militant civil rights group, Shaft found himself up against the Mafia, who were trying to force Bumpy out of his territory.
Former Life photographer Gordon Parks directed, with his foot firmly pressed down on the sex-and-violence pedal, giving the film an almost documentary-like quality.
Shaft debuted in the US in June 1971. With a production cost of $500,000, it would go on to earn $14 million.
The success of Shaft and Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Songopened the floodgates to a wave of nearly 200 movies released between 1972 and 1979.
Between the two films, the archetypes and conventions of what would become blaxploitation were firmly established, but Shaft was the more mainstream title. Sweetback made a lot of money, but it was initially X-rated and not an easy sale to white audiences.
By comparison, the R-rated Shaft not only found success with black audiences, but it also had crossover appeal. MGM successfully marketed the film by comparing Shaft to James Bond and Bullitt, and in doing so, John Shaft became a name-brand badass.
The brilliant Theme FromShaft remains probably the finest use of a wah-wah pedal since the dawn of civilisation, right? (Damn right).
Richard Roundtree reprised his role in a CBS television series of Shaft, which aired between 9 October 1973 and 20 August 1974.
Roundtree came to acting by way of a modelling career, joining the Negro Ensemble Company in 1967. Prior to Shaft,he had appeared in What Do You Say To A Naked Lady? (1968), Alan Funt’s X-rated variation on the Candid Cameratheme.
Roundtree was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1993 and subsequently underwent a double mastectomy and chemotherapy. He died of pancreatic cancer at his home in Los Angeles on 24 October 2023 at the age of 81.
John Shaft
Richard Roundtree Bumpy Jonas
Moses Gunn
Vic Androzzi
Charles Cioffi
Ben Buford
Christopher St John
Ellie Moore
Gwenn Mitchell
Sgt Tom Hannon
Lawrence Pressman
Charlie
Victor Arnold
Marcy
Sherri Brewer Rollie
Rex Robbins
Diana Greene
Camille Yarbrough
Director
Gordon Parks
Video
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John Shaft (the “black private dick that’s a sex machine to all the chicks”) would not knuckle under to anyone – white cops or black drug gangsters included.
By comparison, the R-rated Shaft not only found success with black audiences, but it also had crossover appeal. MGM successfully marketed the film by comparing Shaft to James Bond and Bullitt, and in doing so, John Shaft became a name-brand badass.
