Shaft (film)

Movie
German title	Shaft
Original title	Shaft
Country of production	United States
original language	English
Publishing year	1971
length	97 minutes
Age rating	FSK 16
Rod
Director	Gordon Parks
script	Ernest Tidyman , ; John DF Black
production	Joel Freeman , ; David Golden
music	Isaac Hayes , ; JJ Johnson
camera	Urs Furrer
cut	Hugh A. Robertson
occupation
	Richard Roundtree : John Shaft; Moses Gunn : Bumpy Jonas; Charles Cioffi : Vic Androzzi; Christopher St. John : Ben Buford; Gwenn Mitchell : Ellie Moore; Lawrence Pressman : Sergeant Tom Hannon; Antonio Fargas : Bunky;

Shaft [ ʃæft ] is a cult film from 1971 by the US director Gordon Parks . The Blaxploitation film with Richard Roundtree in the lead role is based on the novel Shaft (Eng. Shaft and the drug cartel ) by Ernest Tidyman , who also co- wrote the screenplay . The award-winning soundtrack of Isaac Hayes is now considered legendary.

action

Self-employed detective John Shaft has a small office in Times Square , but his cases mostly take him to the Black Quarter of Harlem , New York City . He is hired by gang boss Bumpy to find his daughter, kidnapped by a mafia clan, and to rescue her. At the end of the film there is a showdown between the kidnappers and members of a militant civil rights movement hired by Shaft.

background

The film was shot in New York City from January 18 to March 12, 1971 . The budget is estimated at $ 1,125,000; more than ten times that was recorded. It was released in US cinemas on July 2, 1971 and in German cinemas on August 9, 1972. It was released on DVD in Germany on February 22, 2001.

Reviews

“Super Detective Shaft, a James Bond edition in black, can do anything. (...) First of three MGM thrillers (...), which offered technically skilled and very effective suspense entertainment about a Harlem hero: evidence of the new self-confidence of black Americans. "

- Lexicon of international film

“The intricate plot is absolutely mediocre. (...) The plot (...) is nothing more than a vehicle for the "strong black" who - for the first time in Hollywood cinema, creates his own rules, doesn't listen to anyone, gives orders instead of obeying them, and doesn't has the slightest fear of making fun of white figures of authority. Despite (or because of) his subversive main character and the militant undertones, Shaft reached the black and white audience (...). "

- Steven Jay Schneider (2003)

Awards

Academy Awards (Oscar) 1972

Award for Best Song for Isaac Hayes
Nomination for Best Score for Isaac Hayes

British Film Awards 1972

Nomination in the category Best Film Music (Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music) for Isaac Hayes

Golden Globe Award 1972

Award for Best Score for Isaac Hayes
Nomination for Best Movie Song for Isaac Hayes
Nomination in the Best Young Actor category for Richard Roundtree

1972 Grammy Awards

Grammy Award for Best Original Music Written For A Film or Television Special (Best Original Score Written For A Motion Picture Or A Television Special) for Isaac Hayes

MTV Movie Awards 1994

Lifetime Achievement Award for Richard Roundtree for the Shaft film series ( Shaft , Shaft - Greetings from pistols and shaft in Africa )

National Film Registry

In 2000, the film was added to the list of films recorded in the National Film Registry .

Sequels

Due to the success, two sequels were shot in the following years. Almost 30 years later, Hollywood tried the material. In the sequel from 2000, Samuel L. Jackson played John Shaft's nephew of the same name. Another film followed in 2019.

Television series

1973–1974: Shaft (TV series)

Web links

Shaft in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

↑ Klaus Brüne (editor): Lexicon of International Films - The complete range in cinema and television since 1945, 21,000 short reviews and filmographies. Volume 7, Rowohlt, Hamburg 1991, ISBN 3-499-16322-5 , p. 3426.
Online: Shaft. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film Service , accessed September 30, 2010 . .
↑ Steven Jay Schneider: Shaft. In: Steven Jay Schneider (Ed.): 1001 Films - The best films of all time. Selected and presented by international film critics (translated by Maja Ueberle-Pfaff and Sabine Grebing) First edition, Edition Olms, Zurich 2004, ISBN 3-283-00497-8 , p. 546. (Original edition: Quintet Publishing Limited, Barron's Educational Series, Inc ., USA & Canada 2003.)

[1] Klaus Brüne (editor): Lexicon of International Films - The complete range in cinema and television since 1945, 21,000 short reviews and filmographies. Volume 7, Rowohlt, Hamburg 1991, ISBN 3-499-16322-5 , p. 3426.
Online: Shaft. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film Service , accessed September 30, 2010 . .

[2] Steven Jay Schneider: Shaft. In: Steven Jay Schneider (Ed.): 1001 Films - The best films of all time. Selected and presented by international film critics (translated by Maja Ueberle-Pfaff and Sabine Grebing) First edition, Edition Olms, Zurich 2004, ISBN 3-283-00497-8 , p. 546. (Original edition: Quintet Publishing Limited, Barron's Educational Series, Inc ., USA & Canada 2003.)