History Film / Shaft

* CowboyCop: 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. [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic Awesome? Very much so.]]

** DragonInChief/TheHeavy: Peoples Hernandez fulfills this role to Wade Jr. However, he eventually becomes a DragonWithAnAgenda after Shaft kills his brother in a gunfight halfway through the movie, getting into a fight with Wade Jr. and stabbing him in the hand in the process.

* TheChosenZero: One of the taglines was something along the lines of "The mob wanted Harlem back. They got Shaft".

* CompensatingForSomething: 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.

** Of course, since the murderer got OffOnATechnicality ''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.'' [[spoiler:VigilanteExecution was likely the ''only'' way he was going down.]]

* ThrowItIn: 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.

* FollowTheLeader: ''Shaft'' essentially created {{Blaxploitation}}.

* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Walter Wade Jr. (played by ChristianBale) 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.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: The trailer for the 2000 film [[MissingTrailerScene had a fight between Shaft and Wade]], but unfortunately, ExecutiveMeddling gave Peoples Hernandez the more antagonistic role and [[OffscreenMomentOfAwesome the fight didn't make the final cut]].

* BigBadDuumvirate: Peoples Hernandez and [[ChristianBale Walter Wade Jr.]] in the 2000 sequel.

* FakeNationality: In the 2000 film, Christian Bale plays his customary FakeAmerican role, and Jeffrey Wright plays a very convincing fake Dominican.

!! ''Shaft'' contains examples of:

* [[BadAss Bad Mother]]-- ''[[BigShutUp Shut your mouth]]!''

* CowboyCop: 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. [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome Awesome? Very much so.]]

''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 TheMafia 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 [[CrowningMusicOfAwesome theme song]] quoted above, which has reached MemeticMutation to the point where it may actually be better known than the movie..

* TheKlan: 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.

* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Walter Wade Jr. (played by ChristianBale) in the remake. He's a white supremacist who harasses a black man at a restaurant, and later kills him because the guy succesfully dissed him.

* SoulBrotha

* ShootTheShaggyDog: In TheRemake, Shaft spends the whole movie trying to get a murderer put in prison... [[spoiler:and then the victim's mother shoots the murderer anyways, rendering Shaft's efforts pointless.]]

* LeaveItIn: 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.

* SpinOffspring: TheRemake stars Samuel L. Jackson as the nephew of the original, played by Richard Roundtree in a cameo appearance.

[[TurnOfTheMillennium In the year 2000]], a [[TheRemake sequel/remake]] starring SamuelLJackson as the [[SpinOffspring nephew of the original Shaft]] (Roundtree, in a [[TheCameo cameo]]), also named John Shaft, who works for the NYPD. Christian Bale makes an early appearance as the villain.

For the anime studio, look no further than StudioSHAFT.

->Who's the black private dick \\
That's a sex machine to all the chicks? \\
SHAFT! \\
Ya damn right! \\
Who is the man that would risk his neck \\
For his brother man? \\
SHAFT! \\
Can you dig it? \\
Who's the cat that won't cop out \\
When there's danger all about? \\
SHAFT! \\
Right On! \\
They say this cat Shaft is a bad [[CurseCutShort mother]]--\\

But I'm talkin' 'bout Shaft. \\
THEN WE CAN DIG IT! \\
He's a complicated man \\
But no one understands him but his woman\\
JOHN SHAFT!

* BigBadDuumvirate: Walter Wade Jr. and Peoples Hernandez in the 2000 reboot.

* BigBadDuumvirate: Walter Wade, Jr. and Peoples Hernandez in the 2000 reboot.