THE Q&A
Josiah Howard is the author of Blaxploitation Cinema: The Essential Reference Guide (FAB Press, 2008).
Lee Pfeiffer is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Cinema Retro magazine.
Chris Utley is one of Shaft’s biggest fans.
The interviews were conducted separately and have been edited into a “roundtable” conversation format.
Michael Coate (The Digital Bits): How do you think Shaft ought to be remembered and/or celebrated on its 50th anniversary?
Josiah Howard: It’s the very first brand recognition Blaxploitation film—and the only franchise film from the genre—which includes more than 200 pictures. Over the past fifty years Shaft has been revisited four times: Shaft’s Big Score! (1972), Shaft in Africa (1973), Shaft (2000) and Shaft (2019). There was also a short-lived Shaft television series. That’s a pretty amazing accomplishment for what really was a standard detective drama that chose to feature a Black actor rather than a white one.
Lee Pfeiffer: Shaft was a groundbreaking film that was largely responsible for launching the so-called Blaxploitation genre, which burned briefly but very brightly and afforded showcase roles to Black actors and actresses who were generally relegated to nondescript parts in mainstream Hollywood films. Until the release of Shaft, there were precious few Black actors working in leading roles who were considered to be a good boxoffice draw. The most prominent were Sidney Poitier, Jim Brown and to a lesser extent Harry Belafonte, who primarily considered acting as a sideline to his main profession as a singer. With the avalanche of films geared to Black audiences, many African American veteran actors were finally able to thrive, and this pertained to behind-the-scenes talent as well. The film was a reflection of its time. The Civil Rights movement was becoming more aggressive in taking to the streets especially following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968. King’s message of non-violent resistance was seen as a dead end by many young Black people who were fed up with the slow process of gaining equality. There were riots in the streets and an ugly period emerged in America. Shaft reflected that reality. Sidney Poitier was an often-underrated pioneer in blazing the trail for Black actors, but he was generally playing highly civilized, morally correct characters. Shaft, however, was cynical and operated on the edges of the law. He was on the right side morally, but his methods of achieving his goals were unconventional, to say the least. He had a strained relationship with the police, but they understood and needed each other—although Shaft always made sure the police needed him more than he needed them. He was a kickass action hero who surprised a lot of studio executives by appealing across racial lines and attracting white fans.
Chris Utley: Shaft is to be remembered as the catalyst to the 1970s Black film movement—oftentimes referred to as Blaxploitation. While many would give that title to Melvin Van Peebles’ independently produced Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, which was released a couple of months prior to this film, Shaft was the bigger splash. Produced within the studio system by MGM, the film became an instant classic; revered and emulated within the African American community at large and respected with mainstream audiences as well. The success of the film, of course, led to several copycats and imitators which seemed to follow the same playbook: Handsome Black man (or woman) with a big gun on the poster, gritty urban theme, infectious theme music by Soul/R&B music stars of the time, rinse, repeat.
The Digital Bits: When did you first see Shaft?
Howard: I first saw Shaft on TV in edited form, so its impact was muted. I thought he was cool, and I loved the New York City travelogue, but I also thought he was relatively tame: a Black man working within the system—a hero: not an anti-hero. Looking back, the first film starring a modern looking/talking/acting Black man couldn’t have been any other way. It was shrewd to keep him relatively safe and palatable: they wanted a boxoffice hit after all!
Pfeiffer: I saw the film in my hometown of Jersey City when it opened in 1971. I was 15 years old and I recognized we were seeing a new kind of character and leading man in Richard Roundtree. I was hooked immediately. It would be an overstatement to call it a great film. It wasn’t. Much of it was workmanlike in its execution but it was very significant in its sense of style. I was aware of the fact that the predominantly white audience was cheering a Black hero. The only comparable experience I had in that regard was in Norman Jewison’s In the Heat of the Night when Sidney Poitier’s Virgil Tibbs slaps actor Larry Gates, who played an upper crust white bigot. The audience gasped when that happened in a 1967 movie but cheered outright when a Black hero stood up to snoots and bigots only four years later.
Utley: I was a year and a half away from being born when Shaft was first released in Summer 1971. Therefore, I first saw it on TV as a very little kid with my dad and my cousins sometime in the mid-1970s. I remembered bits and pieces of it before I saw it again from start to finish as a teenager on TV in the 1980s. What I remember more than anything is my father being obsessed over the film. His passing in 1985 ended up casting a grand mystique over the film in my eyes. That mystique ultimately led to Shaft becoming my favorite movie of all time; eventually seeing it twice at theatrical screenings in Los Angeles over the last twenty-five years.
The Digital Bits: In what way is Shaft a significant motion picture?
Howard: Well, although the Black-cast comedy Cotton Comes to Harlem was released a year earlier and was a tremendous success, it really was Shaft that proved the true value of the Black dollar. Up until then Hollywood hadn’t seriously considered the breadth, scope and power of the Black moviegoing audience. It was also one of the very first Black films to have product tie ins. There were Shaft playing cards, suits, sunglasses, towels, cologne; you name it. And it was also one of the very first A-list Hollywood films directed by an African American. Without a doubt Shaft changed things for Black people in front of—and behind the cameras.
Pfeiffer: The film is significant both culturally and from a sociological standpoint. Its success as the boxoffice provided an unexpected boon for MGM, which was struggling financially. More importantly, it gave Black moviegoers a new hero to identify with. In that sense, it broke a lot of barriers and launched a tidal wave of films with Black actors rising to varying degrees of prominence.
Utley: On the surface, Shaft is just another detective story. The hero is conned by a crime boss to rescue his kidnapped daughter from other mobsters who want to move in on his territory. No major significance there, right? But add to that the optics and the climate of the early 1970s. MLK is assassinated, the Black Power Movement is in full swing, and Black audiences wanted to see something more than the earnest, non-confrontational themes of Sidney Poitier’s body of work. They wanted to see a hero that looked like them, walked and talked like them, carried and possessed their style and swagger. Richard Roundtree as John Shaft fit that bill and then some. He could stand toe to toe with NYPD brass without caving into subservient intimidation as well as maintain the respect and street cred within his community, as the lyrics of the theme song so eloquently state. This onscreen image of Black masculinity was how so many Black men saw themselves. With Shaft, an underrepresented audience finally got the representation they were thirsty for. And they ate it up!
The Digital Bits: What are your thoughts on the casting choices and performances in the film (in particular Richard Roundtree as John Shaft and Moses Gunn as Bumpy Jonas)?
Howard: Roundtree is really the only person one can imagine in the lead. Every Black actor in Hollywood auditioned for the John Shaft role including Jim Brown, Fred Williamson and Bernie Casey—all of whom would later have success in the Blaxploitation film genre. Roundtree was fresh, new and natural. His eagerness to please is palpable—it’s one of the many elements that make the film work. As for Moses Gunn: wow! He always brings it. I love everything about him: his voice, his demeanor, and his confidence. This is a man who operated in the world without being anybody’s first choice. He’s an everyman. You know him, you’ve seen him in your life. You need an actor like Gunn in a film striving for authenticity.
Pfeiffer: Richard Roundtree was a major “find” in terms of casting. He was incredibly handsome and had the ability to toss of quips in Bondian style, never letting the fact that he was facing death bother him very much. Roundtree fit the role like a glove, and he had great rapport with Moses Gunn, a respected character actor who had a meaty role to show off his considerable talents. Gunn’s performance as Bumpy was well-received and he would appear again in Shaft’s Big Score.
Utley: Legend has it that, for many years, Roundtree struggled with his success as the iconic main character. Some stories claim that he refused to sign autographs for Shaft memorabilia. It’s a shame if that legend is true because, frankly, Roundtree is to John Shaft what Sean Connery is to James Bond. It’s his role. It’s his legacy. From the time he rises up from under the subway platform to the closing frame of him in the phone booth telling his NYPD contact to "Close [the case] yourself, SHITTY," Roundtree owns that movie top to bottom, start to finish, without question.
Now it is interesting to note that Moses Gunn is only in about four scenes in the entire film as Harlem crime boss Bumpy Jonas. Two scenes are brief phone calls but the other two are the drivers of the plot: One is the scene in Shaft’s office in when he tearfully hires Shaft to rescue his daughter. The other is the scene when Shaft arrives at Bumpy’s office with Ben Buford to uncover the truth that Bumpy hustled Shaft into the job in the first place. Gunn hits all the right emotional beats in the hiring scene and reveals his cunning deceitfulness via facial expression in the "hustle" scene. Effective work on all counts.
The Digital Bits: In what way was Gordon Parks suited to direct Shaft and where do you think the film ranks among his body of work?
Howard: You might know that Gordon Parks refused to talk to me for my book Blaxploitation Cinema: The Essential Reference Guide. He never liked the term “Blaxploitation” and didn’t want me to include Shaft it in my book; but that didn’t stop me! That said, Parks was chosen as director because of his already established history as an African American photojournalist and documentarian. At the time he was best known for his black-and-white photographs of working class and poor African Americans in everyday situations. His photographs of the Black American experience were sublime and made an impact. He also had previously directed 1969’s The Learning Tree, so he could play with the big boys. In my opinion Shaft and the follow-up Shaft’s Big Score! (1972) represent his best directorial work.
Pfeiffer: Gordon Parks was a celebrated photographer who, I believe, became the first Black director to helm a major Hollywood film production with his semi-autobiographical tale The Learning Tree in 1969. It was a sensitive coming-of-age movie set in the segregated South and wasn’t a major boxoffice sensation. However, it was well-received critically and MGM wisely hired him to direct Shaft. It was a gamble not only because of Hollywood prejudices that cast doubt on Black directors’ abilities but also because Parks was in his late fifties at the time and there was good reason to doubt he had his finger on the pulse of the younger viewers that the film was intended to reach. Nevertheless, while some of his scenes are shot in a clunky and uninspired manner, he proved to be very good with actors and his background as a photographer benefited the film immeasurably. The famed opening aerial shot of Shaft emerging from a subway station and walking through grungy Times Square is mesmerizing.
Utley: Shaft was Parks’ second film after 1969’s The Learning Tree, but it’s the film that he will be forever remembered for. Parks returned a year later to direct the first sequel Shaft’s Big Score and had only a few more directing credits after that. But when we think of Gordon Parks, we’ll always think of his work directing Shaft.
The Digital Bits: Care to share any thoughts on Isaac Hayes’ music?
Howard: The film would not have happened as big as it did without Hayes’ soundtrack album. At the time he was the Black community’s favorite singing star. More than that, he had the Black cred that the picture needed. The thought was: “If Isaac Hayes, ’The Black Moses,’ is involved it’s got to be good!” Moreover, Hayes’ music, like Curits Mayfield’s, Marvin Gaye’s and James Brown’s (three other singers who recorded Blaxploitation soundtrack albums), tackled Black issues like urban strife and racism. Hayes was political, even though that was never his intention, and his philanthropy was common knowledge. Add that seductive baritone and his signature look—a bald head and chains (!)—and you’ve got a winning formula. He didn’t just bring the music; he brought the Hayes mystique.
Pfeiffer: Hayes’ theme was—and is—iconic. It fit the film perfectly, just as the James Bond Theme did with the 007 films. It was so innovative and popular that even the staid Academy had to shake off its barnacles and award Hayes an Oscar, making it the first hip song to achieve that status. Unfortunately, Hayes got into a dispute over his contract on the film and forbade MGM from using the main theme in the sequels. The absence of the music in those two movies is glaring.
Utley: Theme from Shaft is my favorite song of all time. To this day, when I imagine myself in the best of my strength, dignity and gravitas, that theme song is the soundtrack playing in my head. I would imagine that is true for so many African American men of a certain age. Again, I wasn’t around for the impact of the song on the music charts in 1971, but we know it was Isaac Hayes’ only #1 pop single and, of course, it won Best Original Song. For me, it’s the ultimate theme song: pulse racing beat, three movements that weave in other portions of the score (if you listen closely, you’ll hear hints of Bumpy’s Lament and Ellie’s Love Theme interspersed within the track) and those iconic lyrics! For those who choose to revisit the film on Blu-ray, the original 1971 making-of documentary features footage of Gordon Parks, Hayes and Hayes’s band (The Issac Hayes Movement) creating the building blocks of that world-famous instrumental groove. It’s a fun watch!
The Digital Bits: How do the Shaft sequels compare to the original film?
Howard: Aside from Shaft’s Big Score! (which I personally like better than the original) they don’t! They feel opportunistic: like Hollywood had no new “Black” film ideas so they just dipped back into the well. Don’t get me wrong, the follow-up films and remakes are useful in that they kept the franchise alive and brought the character to several new generations, but the original and the sequel are all one needs to see.
Pfeiffer: I recently revisited Shaft’s Big Score and Shaft in Africa for the first time in decades and was surprised how good they held up. In fact, I believe both are superior to the original film. Score, which was also directed by Gordon Parks, has more spectacular action scenes and Africa, which was directed by John Guillerman, has the best script of all as well as a memorably eccentric villain played by Frank Finlay, who has a kinky mistress who insists on seducing Shaft before she attempts to kill him. The movie’s script is the strongest of the trio of films and Roundtree had by then grown more comfortable in the role, giving his best performance. The movie also benefits from a much larger budget and exotic on-location photography in Ethiopia and France. I haven’t seen the Samuel L. Jackson reboots, so I can’t comment on them.
Utley: Shaft’s Big Score! was bigger and bloodier but plays more like a straight up detective flick than the first. Gone is the dynamic of Shaft being able to stand toe to toe with his white counterparts and adversaries with his wit and charm. That alone makes the film lesser than the first.
Shaft in Africa was MGM’s attempt to make the franchise a Black 007 flick. For the first two-thirds of the film Shaft is navigating through Africa without a gun, smuggling his way onto a modern-day slave trade. This kinda makes the film a little dull in my opinion. The action doesn’t really heat up until the climax, which, by then, is too much, too little, too late.
The less said about the spayed and neutered TV show version of Shaft, the better.
Now the two reboots are interesting. Samuel L. Jackson, quite possibly the only actor worthy of Shaft’s leather coat, brings the heat and swagger in the 2000 reboot. Roundtree returns as "Uncle John Shaft" in that version. The cast is loaded, the action is fierce, but the climax is lame, the result of too much studio interference.
The 2019 edition I have mixed feelings about to this day. While it’s always great to see a new round of your favorite movie, the filmmakers’ choice to devolve Shaft’s antics into comedy rubs me the wrong way. I showed up to the theater to see the next generation of a BAAAAD MUTHA...not a FUNNY MUTHA!
The Digital Bits: Where do you think Shaft ranks among the Blaxploitation genre/era of filmmaking?
Howard: Shaft may rank No. 1 because it was the first: Roundtree was on the cover of Newsweek, Hayes’ single and album were chart toppers and award winners, and it remains a lasting Black brand. But Shaft isn’t the best Blaxploitation film; it’s the most popular one, the one that everyone’s heard of. To me Super Fly, Coffy and Black Caesar do what Shaft does more memorably, more daringly, and with less desire to appeal to a general (white) audience. They advance the themes put forward in Shaft and go places that Shaft didn’t… or couldn’t.
Pfeiffer: The films are probably at or near the top of the genre. That may sound like faint praise, since so many of the Blaxploitation movies were quickly turned out for a fast profit with little concern about overall quality. The Shaft films are different. They were carefully constructed and were slickly produced and directed. That’s why they stand the test of time, as opposed to most films in the genre.
The Digital Bits: What do you think is the legacy of Shaft?
Howard: Shaft’s legacy is that it ignited America’s very first Black motion picture boom. It wasn’t just a film; it was a phenomenon. And it translated internationally: Shaft was just as popular in France, Mexico, Brazil and Japan as it was here in America. Released in tandem with what was going on at the time—the Black Power movement, the Black Panther Party, the popularity of black music, TV shows and black sports stars—it came along at the right time. It also created the Blaxploitation film template. Almost every picture that followed duplicated Shaft’s major elements: a young good-looking Black star, action, sex, car chases, and a slamming soundtrack by a well-known and respected black artist. That’s a pretty big accomplishment!
Pfeiffer: While the Blaxploitation genre lasted less than a decade before burning out, I always thought the Shaft franchise could have endured indefinitely, as the Bond films did. However, there was a bone-headed decision to turn it into a weekly TV series. Given the censorship policies of the 1970s, it only ensured that Shaft’s crustier character traits had to be watered down for popular consumption. The show flopped and we didn’t hear any more about the character until the reboot in 2000. Yet, the character endures and just about everyone recognizes the reference of the Shaft name. The films have also aged well and remain enjoyable viewing today. I think the original three films will always be popular—but I sure wish MGM had found a way to include Isaac Hayes’ theme song in those sequels.
Utley: Its legacy extends far beyond the reaches of 1970s Blaxploitation. I would go so far as to say that every expression of Black masculinity and force on screen—from Jim Brown and Fred Williamson making their own variants in the 1970s, to Wesley Snipes in Blade and New Jack City in the 1990s, to Will Smith and Martin Lawrence in the Bad Boys franchise from the mid 90s to today, and every major Black action star in between—owes all their gratitude to Shaft. As we celebrate the film’s 50th birthday, we cannot forget how it paved the way for Black artists to prove that they can carry a film to boxoffice success. We also can’t forget how its success kept MGM afloat for a few more years after its release as well. Above all else, as I stated before, it gave Black audiences a hero that belonged exclusively to us. As we saw John Shaft stroll across New York in that superbad leather, we, Black men over the last 50 years, saw a glimpse of ourselves—our pride, our honor, our dignity. Seeing that man who risked his neck for his brother man onscreen was what we sought to become in real life.
And, again, when I think of Shaft, I think of my dad. He was bold like John Shaft was. He was fearless like John Shaft was. He was complicated too. My dad was my real-life hero. And, in my mind, John Shaft was his onscreen alter ego. Two BAAAAD MUTHAS!
The Digital Bits: Thank you—Josiah, Lee, and Chris—for sharing your thoughts about Shaft on the occasion of its 50th anniversary.
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IMAGES:
Selected images copyright/courtesy Detroit Free Press, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, National Screen Service, Shaft Productions, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Warner Home Video.
SOURCES/REFERENCES:
The primary references for this project were the motion picture Shaft, regional newspaper coverage and trade reports published in Boxoffice, The Hollywood Reporter and Variety, and interviews conducted by the author. All figures and data pertain to North America (i.e. United States and Canada) except where stated otherwise.
SPECIAL THANKS:
David Ayers, Don Beelik, Ray Caple, Chris Chiarella, Sheldon Hall, Josiah Howard, Mark Lensenmayer, Adam Martin, W.R. Miller, Scott Neff, Lee Pfeiffer, Chris Utley, and a very special thank-you to the librarians, genealogists and private researchers who assisted with this project, in particular Nick Abrahamson (Tulsa City-County Library), Jennifer Andrew (Grand Rapids Public Library), Ann and Sara (Champaign County Historical Archives), Ann Marie (Dauphin County Library System), Anne Marie (Boise Public Library), Courtney Baran (Erie County Public Library), Leah Barbee (Stephens Central Library), Stephanie Barnwell (Durham County Library), Deb Bier (Peoria Public Library), Linda Bridges (Live Oak Public Libraries), Diane Buckley (Virginia Beach Public Library), Amy Cantu (Ann Arbor District Library), Charles (Buffalo & Erie County Public Library), Scott Clark (Kitchener Public Library), Clara (Providence Public Library), Caitlyn Cook and reference staff (New Jersey State Library), Jamie Corson (Memphis Public Library), Jessica Cosgrove (Wyoming State Archives), Tabitha Davis (Pueblo-City-County Library), Margaret Dunlap (Richland Library), Dyron (Roanoke Public Library), Erin Edwards (Carnegie Library for Local History), Lunden England (Norman Public Library), Sandra Enskat (St. Catharines Public Library), Laura Fazekas (Chapin Memorial Library), Elizabeth Fraser (Kanawha County Public Library), Anne Girouard (Daniel Boone Regional Library), Ian Holmes (Poudre River Public Library), Caroline Huguet (Alachua County Library District), Jason (Birmingham Public Library), Leigh Anne Johnson (Indiana State Library), Julia and Vicky (Halifax Public Libraries), Justin Kau (Athens-Clarke County Library), Kaylie (Greater Sudbury Public Library), Jim (Parkersburg & Wood County Public Library), Patrick Kilmer (Jefferson-Madison Regional Library), Tammy Kiter (Jacksonville Public Library), Kristin and Abby (Bristol Public Library), Stacy LaVres (Duluth Pubic Library), Michael Lara and Shane Curtin (San Jose Pubic Library), David Lilly (Huntsville-Madison County Public Library), Alex Merrill (Kalamazoo Public Library), Dylan May (Albany County Public Library), Stacy McNally (Public Libraries of Saginaw), Nancy Miller (Rochester Public Library), Sana Moulder (Cumberland County Public Library), Katherine Muto (Osterhout Free Library), Nick (Falmouth Public Library), Nicole (Moorhead Public Library), James O’Neal (Middle Georgia Regional Library), Jody Osicki (Saint John Free Public Library), Debra Jean Pfendler (Stark Library), Roxanne Puder (Onslow County Public Library), Alison Purgiel (Muskegon Area District Library), Reference Staff (Cabell County Public Library), Reference Staff (Jonesboro Public Library), Reference Staff (Knox County Public Library), Reference Staff (Portland Public Library), Reference Staff (Stockton-San Joaquin County Public Library), Reference Staff (Worcester Public Library), Stephen Rice (Connecticut State Library), Tim Rohe (New Hampshire State Library), Amy Ruhe (Forsyth County Public Library), Emily Rundle (Jervis Public Library), Russ (New Bedford Free Public Library), Mary Schaff (Washington State Library), Desirée Sharland (Thompson Library, University of Michigan-Flint), Daniel Sheahan (Fall River Main Library), Joyce Sonnier (Calcasieu Parish Public Library), Sean Sutcliffe (Waco McLennan County Library), Beth Swenson (Idaho Falls Public Library), Meneka Thiru (Anchorage Public Library), Nathaniel A. Thomas (Reading Public Library), Kate Towers (Stanislaus County Library), Laura Treat (University of California Santa Barbara Library), Sarah J. Wagner (Chapel Hill Public Library), Galen Webb (Fort Smith Public Library).
IN MEMORIAM:
- Emanuel Gerard (art director), 1926-1973
- Edmund Hashim (“Lee”), 1933-1974
- Urs Furrer (director of photography), 1934-1975
- Shimen Ruskin (“Dr. Sam”), 1907-1976
- Ernest Tidyman (novel and screenplay), 1928-1984
- Roger H. Lewis (producer), 1918-1984
- David Golden (associate producer), 1907-1985
- Steven Skloot (unit production manager), 1943-1985
- Drew Bundini Brown (“Willy”), 1928-1987
- Hugh A. Robertson (editor), 1932-1988
- Jon Richards (“Elevator Starter”), 1904-1988
- Lee Steele (“Blind Vendor”), 1913-1990
- Dennis Tate (“Dotts”), 1931-1993
- Hal Watkins (sound), 1914-1993
- Moses Gunn (“Bumpy Jonas”), 1929-1993
- Cle Kent (script supervisor), 1921-1996
- Stirling Silliphant (executive producer), 1918-1996
- Robert Drumheller (set decorator), 19??-1998
- Arnold Johnson (“Cul”), 1921-2000
- J.J. Johnson (composer), 1924-2001
- Joseph Leon (“Byron Leibowitz”), 1918-2001
- James Hainesworth (“Brother #2”), 1945-2002
- Rex Robbins (”Rollie”), 1935-2003
- Gordon Parks (director), 1912-2006
- Paul Nevins (“Elevator Man”), 1912-2006
- Donny Burks (“Remmy”), 1939-2008
- Isaac Hayes (composer), 1942-2008
- Sylvia Fay (extras casting), 1917-2008
- Ed Barth (“Tony”), 1931-2010
- Victor Arnold (”Charlie”), 1932-2012
- Alan Weeks (“Gus”), 1948-2015
- Damu King (“Mal”), 1939-2017
- Joel Freeman (producer), 1922-2018
- Gertrude Jeannette (“Old Lady”), 1914-2018
- John D.F. Black (screenplay), 1932-2018
- Dominic Barto (“Patsy”), 1930-2019
- Gonzalo Madurga (“Counterman”), 1932-2020
- Michael Coate
Michael Coate can be reached via e-mail through this link. (You can also follow Michael on social media at these links: Twitter and Facebook)
