Shaft (1971)

From the very first scene, we can see that Shaft is not simply the average private eye movie; it’s opening the doors for blaxploitation.  The film opens with prominent music one cannot help but to take note of, complete with a theme song for the main character, John Shaft.  The audience can tell that this guy is a big deal right away, and the fact that he is African American will not and cannot slow him down.  He runs the show, shown right away as he crosses the street by ignoring the crosswalk and walking through moving traffic, forcing it to work around him.  As he continues walking, the camera focuses on the flashing “Don’t Walk” sign, which he completely ignores, demonstrating that he breaks the rules.  This shot also brings into play the main idea of the blaxploitation drama, which is to break the unwritten rule of cinema for that time: white males play heroes, black males play villains.

Roger Ebert claims that Shaft is “the first really convincing black private eye,” and that “the strength of Parks’ movie is his willingness to let his hero fully inhabit the private-eye genre, with all of its obligatory violence, blood, obscenity, and plot gimmicks.”  He places this movie among the best of the private eye genre films, and I cannot argue with this statement, but while Ebert only brushes on the topic of blaxploitation, I think that is what makes this movie great.  If John Shaft would have been the average private eye (white guy solving crimes for other white men, generally fighting against a black enemy) it would have been an average private eye film, most likely not ranking among the top.  Instead, this movie reverses the idea cinema had traditionally planted in our minds.

I already brushed on the prominent role John Shaft has, but essentially it is his character that fulfills the idea of blaxploitation.  While he may not always use traditional tactics, he gets the job done, and is respected for that.  The white policemen have to ask him for help; he knows more about what is going on within the precinct than the actual cops do.  In fact, the police almost rely on him, as they protect him and keep him from going to jail and even simply being questioned because he is such a central figure.  The citizens also know of his importance and trust him, which is shown early on when Shaft takes down the man in the lobby despite many onlookers.  They do not question him, and he knows they won’t.  The elevator operator even asks him if everything is ok, offering assistance without even knowing the entire situation.  His skin color plays little role except for when he cannot get a cab right away.  Other than that, he is an authority figure.

The filmmaker does not only use Shaft to enhance the blaxploitation, but rather uses multiple techniques, such as a complete reversal when Shaft’s team uses the fire hose against the white mafia, similar to the way the police would hose down blacks during Civil Rights protests.  There also is a scene in the bedroom when the camera focuses on two photographs on the nightstand, and in between the photographs is a small figurine of a Black Panther, something that would not dare appear in a film about a white investigator.  The audience has already related to and grown to like Shaft, so the figurine just makes us realize that the Black Panther group may not be as dehumanized as we once thought.  Our misconception is again challenged when Shaft’s “partner” for this case tells Bumpy that he will not “risk brothers just because your daughter is black,” changing the idea that we have that all blacks are the same and will stick together simply due to race.  He goes on to say that he will do this for the money and wants $10,000 per head, which makes them seem even more relatable than we initially imagined as money is the driving force.

                Throughout the film, Shaft is always one step ahead, and of course, ends up winning.  He is the cross between good guy and badass the audience wants to win, whether they are white or black.  It almost seems as though the blaxploitation aspects are not even noticed at some points; the audience treats it as a private eye genre film without any subliminal messages.  Who cares that the first white represented in the film is the man at the newsstand who seems rather unintelligent, that the most prominent white character (the detective) is always one step behind Shaft, or that the white bartender is obviously gay, which was not widely accepted in the 1970’s?  The fact that these appear to be minor details means it worked, and the many blaxploitation films that sparked from this one can attest to that statement as well.  I think this film was well made, but it made me wonder why it is difficult for me to think of any recent (with the exception of Tyler Perry) films that have had a nearly all black cast, especially in the action genre?