Better by Blaxploitation: Shaft
As we continue to look to Blaxploitation cinema for life lessons and worthwhile wisdom, let’s turn our attention to arguably the most popular and commercially successful film of the genre.
The film cost about $500 thousand to make and grossed over $12 million at the box office when first released in 1971, making it one of MGM’s few profitable releases that year. The title theme, composed by soul-singer Isaac Hayes, won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1972. The movie also inspired three sequels, a television show and countless men worldwide.
It’s the measuring stick that all Blaxploitation films are judged by.
Spoilers on, baby.
You’re gonna get Shaft.
Shaft
Starring Richard Roundtree, Moses Gunn & Charles Cioffi
Written by Ernest Tidyman & John D. F. Black
Directed by Gordon Parks
3/5
A private detective named John Shaft (Richard Roundtree) is hired to rescue a local gangster’s daughter from the mafia, bedding women and dodging police along the way.
Three main lessons:
1) Planning is everything.
Shaft is a damn good detective. With experience in “The Movement”, connections throughout Harlem and a tough-as-nails, take-no-crap approach to life, he’s the man to get the job done if you hire him.
As good as Shaft is, he comes close to buying it in the film when an attempt to rescue Marcy, daughter of neighbourhood gangster Bumpy Jonas (Moses Gunn), goes awry. Finding the place where the mob is keeping her, Shaft makes the mistake of trying to mount a one-man rescue and almost pays for it with his life. Shaft is rescued by Ben Buford (Christopher St. John) and his “Movement” army, but not before the mobsters get away with the girl.
After having a gunshot wound taken care of by a friendly doctor, Shaft arranges for more help in mounting the next rescue and goes to great lengths to plan a proper assault on the hotel where the mobsters are holding Marcy.
Taking the time to properly plan your next move, as well as getting the right resources in place to carry out the plan, can make all the difference in taking anything to the next level.
2) You’re worth more. Ask for it.
As mentioned before, Shaft’s a private detective. That means to do the job you want done, you’ve got to pay him the cash he wants.
In negotiating with Bumpy Jonas, Shaft acknowledges he needs help to rescue Bumpy’s daughter. Bumpy agrees to pay Ben Buford $10 thousand plus an additional $10 thousand for each of Buford’s soldiers.
Shaft, however, is the man. He knows he’s the one to plan and pull off the rescue. He tells Bumpy, without a moment’s hesitation, that he’s worth double what Buford’s to be paid. And he gets it.
Don’t just be good, be the best. Then demand the best. Because you deserve it.
3) Let no one and nothing mess with you.
If you let John Shaft be, he won’t mess with you. In fact, he’ll respect you enough to be cool and stay out of your way if you stay out of his. Shaft is friendly with a wide assortment of characters, including a homosexual bartender, militant African-Americans and even enjoys a contentious friendship with New York cop Vic Androzzi (Charles Cioffi). That’s pretty progressive for a film made in 1971.
Then there are those that make the mistake of crossing Shaft. Members of Bumpy’s gang try to use force on the man early in the movie and pay dearly. Racist mobsters that drop the N-bomb get the same in kind, and Bumpy Jonas himself tries to hustle Shaft without giving him the full facts he needs to know, but doesn’t get away with it. Shaft holds them all to task, gives as good as he gets and throws in a little extra so they don’t forget the lesson too easily:
No one, and nothing, messes with John Shaft.
Be sure to count breast cancer in there too. Shaft‘s Richard Roundtree was diagnosed with the disease in 1993.
Discovering a lump in his right breast, the man that embodied urban masculinity in the 1970s did the smart thing and went straight to his doctor. A double mastectomy and chemotherapy followed, helping Roundtree dodge a bullet that kills roughly 400 men and 40,000 women each year in the United States. Surviving a killer he thought only affected women, Roundtree today balances his continuing efforts as an actor with speaking to men’s groups to raise awareness about cancer and other health issues.
If being Shaft didn’t make Roundtree a hero, that sure as hell does.
Damn right.
