Successful movie

Our Hero, Shaft, is a well-known private investigator, he is hired by the local gangland boss 'Bumpy' to track down his kidnapped daughter, who is being held by the Mafia. During the course of the film Shaft throw's someone out of a window, argues with some cops, sleeps with a lot of women and kills a couple of Mafia men. In the end Shaft saves the day with style. Shaft's story line may have been predictable and bad in some areas of the film, but that's not what made it such a successful movie.

Although, for the characters, the story couldn't have been better. It gave a clean outline of who was on whose side and why this is so, for example: Shaft won't work with the cops because he is not one of them. Also it allowed the characters many opportunities for the one-liners which soon became famous, for example, whenever Bumpy answers his phone, instead of "hello" he says "wrong number", giving the film the humor it needed to pull the whole thing together.

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The main aspect of the story and indeed the most important, is the issue of racism, which is handled well throughout the film, and in some areas, true-to-life in the early seventies. For example: When Shaft goes to get into a cab the driver moves away from him to let in a white male who is waiting for a cab further down the road. With this short scene many people could relate to the problems the hero had to face, therefore attracting a wider, more sympathetic audience.

While at the same time showing many people the truth about what goes on and what people can get away with.

The film was aimed at black people and was in a new forming genre called 'Blaxploitation'. There was a very subtle but very important scene between shaft and a white cop. In the scene the cop tells Shaft not to play the race card and then he holds up a black pen to Shafts face, and says "you ain't so black" and Shaft does the same with a white mug. Although the tension was strong between the two characters the overall message is clear, why do black and white people hate each other? after all we "ain't so black" or "white".

The film did not become prejudice against white people. In fact there was an interracial love scene between Shaft and a white female, during its first release in theatres in America there have been reports of people walking out of the film because of that scene, even today the footage still shocks people. A friend of mine who watched the film with me said that it seemed "strange" to see a black and white couple get it on. Although this was meant in a completely non offensive way, it still goes to show why the film is so important, because it doesn't seem to care too much about racism when it comes down to love scenes. And so it gives out the message that this is o.k. "Black and White people can sleep together and the world will not come to an end".

The morning-after scene didn't stir up as much trouble as the love scene, maybe because many people had already walked out of the cinema or because back in the seventies it was o.k. to sleep with women and then treat them like second class citizens in the morning. Although Shaft wasn't as loving as he was during the night, he was only doing what his stereotypical lover man character would do. Back in the seventies this was considered cool among many males, thus enforcing Shafts image and again getting people to relate to the characters and subsequently getting more involved in the story and issues covered.

The sound track was also a major factor of the films success. It was written and performed by Isaac Hayes, who had already became quite famous writing hits for Motown. The sound was an up beat typical seventies feel with horn section and wonderful drum rhythm. The lyrics were also quite important they gave a descriptive view of Shaft, making him (as the poster says) 'cooler than Bullitt, hotter than Bond'.

However the song does contradict Shaft, in the second line when it describes him as 'a sex machine to all the chicks'. In another love scene Shaft is reading a paper, in the nude, in someone's home. And when the woman owner walks in and sees him, she asks "what's wrong" he replies "I got to feeling like a machine and that ain't no way to feel baby" and then they get it on.

It wasn't just the music that was involved with the film that made it a success, Marvin Gaye had just released his 'What's Going On' album, on which he sings about the struggle of modern black people. No doubt inspiring many people to see 'what's going on', and 'Shaft' was a good place to do this, as it shows you the streets, of what could be any run-down city, as our main man walks around in the cold looking for clues.

There where many versions of the Shaft poster, each said the same kind of thing, 'Shaft was cool and the action is fast'. In the poster included in this essay it has an image of Shaft in his famous black leather jacket. Swinging in firing a gun and rescuing the damsel in distress. The text is in two parts, but each give a hint to the other side of Shaft, his lover-man side, e.g. 'SHAFT's his name. SHAFT's his game'. This simple image and quirky saying sums up the whole 'Shaft' film, it has action and a cool P.I. as your hero, who delivers the goods with an attitude and a bloody big gun!