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Film: Shaft

They say this cat Shaft is a bad mother—
SHUT YOUR MOUTH!
But I'm talkin' 'bout Shaft.
THEN WE CAN DIG IT!

You's know de dojigger. You's know de movie. You's might even know de remake. But do ya' know Shaft?

Shaft is a 1971 Blaxploitation film, based on Ernest Tidyman's novel of the same name. It tells the story of an African-American private detective, John Shaft, who travels through Harlem and infiltrates The Mafia in order to find the missing daughter of a black mobster. It stars Richard Roundtree as Shaft, Moses Gunn as Bumpy Jonas, Charles Cioffi as Lt. Vic Androzzi, and Christopher St. John as Ben Buford, along with Gwenn Mitchell and Lawrence Pressman. Isaac Hayes did the theme song quoted above, which has reached Memetic Mutation to the point where it may actually be better known than the movie..

The film was followed by another movie, along with a series of TV movies, following the further adventures of Shaft during the 1973-74 season on The New CBS Tuesday Night Movies. As the series was being aired on network television, the character of Shaft was toned down a fair amount; for example, he frequently worked with the police, instead of being against them as in the original movie. Due to this Executive Meddling, the series was unpopular, and it was quickly cancelled.

In the year 2000, a sequel/remake starring Samuel L. Jackson as the nephew of the original Shaft (Roundtree, in a cameo), also named John Shaft, who works for the NYPD. Christian Bale makes an early appearance as the villain.

And we can dig it.

For the anime studio, look no further than Studio SHAFT.

Films in this series:

Shaft (1971)
Shaft's Big Score (1972)
Shaft in Africa (1973)
Shaft (2000)

Shaft contains examples of:

Actor Allusion: Shaft's uncle in The Remake was played by the original John Shaft, Richard Roundtree.
Angry Black Man
Bad Mother— Shut your mouth!
Big Bad Duumvirate: Peoples Hernandez and Walter Wade Jr. in the 2000 sequel.
Blaxploitation
Character Title
The Chief's Daughter: Shaft woos an African princess in the first sequel.
Cluster F-Bomb: The 2000 remake.
Cold Cash
Compensating for Something: Played up in the ads. According to a book on blaxploitation films, several theatres had a contest going during the run of In Africa where customers could win a prize if they correctly guessed the length of Shaft's... walking stick.
Cowboy Cop: Jackson's Shaft, who when requested to turn in his badge does so by throwing it like a shuriken, causing it to embed itself in the wall next to a judge's head. Awesome? Very much so.
Curse Cut Short: The title theme:
Isaac Hayes: They say this cat Shaft is a bad mother—�
Female Chorus: Shut your mouth!
Isaac Hayes: But I'm talkin' 'bout Shaft!
Female Chorus: And we can dig it.
Fake Nationality: In the 2000 film, Christian Bale plays his customary Fake American role, and Jeffrey Wright plays a very convincing fake Dominican.
Follow the Leader: Shaft essentially created Blaxploitation.
Guns Akimbo: In the 2000 sequel.
Hollywood Healing: In the original, Shaft gets shot numerous times with a machine gun. He mysteriously lives.
Ironic Echo: "Close it yourself, shitty!"
Kick the Dog: In the original, Shaft uses one of the Big Bad's mooks as a human shield, causing the Big Bad to shoot his own mook.
The Klan: In the Samuel L. Jackson remake of Shaft, a black man named Trey was dining in a mainly "upper class" restaurant and was racially harassed by a Jerkass white diner named Wade. After ignoring the first few public insults, Trey walks over to Wade's table, cuts two holes in his cloth napkin, and puts it on top of Wade's head, where it resembles a KKK hood, to the laughter of some of the onlookers. Wade responds to this by beating Trey's head in with a metal pole., setting off the plot.
Line-of-Sight Name: The main character was named after, of all things, a fire shaft.
Missing Trailer Scene: The trailer for the 2000 film originally featured a fight between Shaft and Wade. It didn't make the final cut.
New York City Cops: The Remake.
Playing Against Type: Richard Roundtree was a male model before he was cast as Shaft.
Politically Incorrect Villain: Walter Wade Jr. (played by Christian Bale) in the remake. He's a white supremacist who harasses a black man at a restaurant, and later kills him because the guy successfully dissed him.
Reasonable Authority Figure: Police Lt. Vic Androzzi. He's pretty much the only cop that Shaft is willing to put up with, and frequently helps Shaft out by looking the other way while he takes care of business.
Shoot the Shaggy Dog: In The Remake, Shaft spends the whole movie trying to get a murderer put in prison... and then the victim's mother shoots the murderer anyways, rendering Shaft's efforts and pretty much the whole movie pointless. The most that comes out of it is that Shaft manages to keep Diane, the witness, safe.
- Of course, since the murderer got Off on a Technicality twice - first by escaping to Switzerland after posting bail, and then was allowed to re-post bail upon returning despite being a proven flight risk(which led to Shaft doing that aforementioned Awesome shuriken thing) it was quite likely he was about to get off scott free. Vigilante Execution was likely the only way he was going down.
- True but it still counts as it would've made sense to do it after the trial.
Soul Brotha
Spin Offspring: The Remake stars Samuel L. Jackson as the nephew of the original, played by Richard Roundtree in a cameo appearance. Apparently he passed his skills down to him as he's just as badass.
The Chosen Zero: One of the taglines was something along the lines of "The mob wanted Harlem back. They got Shaft".
Throw It In: In the 2000 film, when Peoples goes to see Wade and leaves after making his threat. The actor nearly slips on the broken glass and caught by his henchman. This wasn't scripted but they left it in as a little joke.
What Could Have Been: The trailer for the 2000 film had a fight between Shaft and Wade, but unfortunately, Executive Meddling gave Peoples Hernandez the more antagonistic role and the fight didn't make the final cut.