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Shaft
Sign in to save1971 American blaxploitation film directed by Gordon Parks
OverviewAI-generated
Shaft is a 1971 crime, action, neo-noir, and blaxploitation film directed by Gordon Parks and set in New York City. Based on a work by Ernest Tidyman, who co-wrote the screenplay with John D. F. Black, it stars Richard Roundtree, Moses Gunn, Charles Cioffi, and Antonio Fargas, with editing by Hugh A. Robertson and a score by Isaac Hayes released as a soundtrack album. Produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Netflix, it was made on a budget of $1,125,000 and grossed $12,121,618. Running 100 minutes, it is part of the National Film Registry and was followed by Shaft's Big Score.
Synthesized by Vinony from 44 facts across 4 sources: Wikidata, TMDb, OMDb, IMDb. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Film · TMDB
6.4Cool Black private eye John Shaft is hired by a crime lord to find and retrieve his kidnapped daughter.
Cast
- Richard Roundtree as John Shaft
- Moses Gunn as Bumpy Jonas
- Charles Cioffi as Vic Androzzi
- Christopher St. John as Ben Buford
- Gwenn Mitchell as Ellie Moore
- Lawrence Pressman as Sergeant Tom Hannon
Themes
- daughter
- new york city
- police
- ghetto
- blaxploitation cinema
- biting
- aggressive
- suspenseful
- tense
- assertive
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Ratings
IMDb
6.6/10
22,070 votes
Rotten Tomatoes
88%
Metacritic
66/100
- Year
- 1971
- Runtime
- 100 min
- Genres
- Action, Crime, Thriller
- Rated
- R
- Awards
- Won 1 Oscar. 6 wins & 6 nominations total
via OMDb · IMDb
Key facts
- Directed by
- Gordon Parks
- Screenplay by
- Ernest Tidyman , John D. F. Black
- Based on
- Shaft , by Ernest Tidyman
- Produced by
- Joel Freeman
- Starring
- Richard Roundtree , Moses Gunn , Charles Cioffi , Christopher St. John , Lawrence Pressman
- Cinematography
- Urs Furrer
- Edited by
- Hugh A. Robertson
- Music by
- Isaac Hayes , Johnny Allen
- Production company
- Shaft Productions
- Distributed by
- Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
- Release dates
- June 25, 1971 ( 1971-06-25 ) (Los Angeles) July 2, 1971 ( 1971-07-02 ) (United States)
- Running time
- 100 minutes
- Country
- United States
- Language
- English
- Budget
- $500,000
- Box office
- $13 million
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- film
- Part of
- National Film Registry
- Genre
- drama film
- Country of origin
- United States
- Original language
- English language
- Followed by
- Shaft's Big Score
- Director
- Gordon Parks
- Screenwriter
- John D. F. Black
- Composer
- Isaac Hayes
- Production company
- Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
- Narrative location
- New York City
- Duration
- 97
- FilmAffinity ID
- 468621
- Distribution format
- video on demand
- Image
- Shaft logo.svg
Show 9 more facts
- publication date
- 1972-08-09
- film editor
- Hugh A. Robertson
- title
- Shaft
- distributed by
- Netflix
- after a work by
- Ernest Tidyman
- Commons category
- Shaft
- different from
- Shaft
- assessment
- Bechdel test
- review score
- 66/100
Sources (13)
via Wikidata · CC0
~27 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Shaft is a 1971 American blaxploitation crime action thriller film directed by Gordon Parks and written by Ernest Tidyman and John D. F. Black. It is an adaptation of Tidyman's novel of the same name and is the first entry in the Shaft franchise. The plot revolves around a private detective named John Shaft who is hired by a Harlem mobster to rescue his daughter from the Italian mobsters who kidnapped her. The film stars Richard Roundtree as Shaft, alongside Moses Gunn, Charles Cioffi, Christopher St. John, and Lawrence Pressman.
The film explores themes including masculinity and sexuality, with a specific emphasis on Black Power. It was filmed in Harlem, Greenwich Village, and Times Square within the Manhattan borough of New York City. The Shaft soundtrack album, recorded by Isaac Hayes, was also a success, winning a Grammy Award for Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture and a second Grammy (shared with Johnny Allen) for Best Instrumental Arrangement. The "Theme from Shaft" won the Academy Award for Best Original Song, making Hayes the first Black man to win the award for that category. The song has appeared on multiple Top 100 lists, including AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Shaft” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.