Shaft

Name: Shaft
Released: 1971-7-2
Cast: Richard Roundtree, Moses Gunn, Charles Cioffi, Christopher St. John, Gwenn Mitchell

Shaft

R
1h 30m
1971

88%

age 16+

PRICING SUBJECT TO CHANGE. Confirm current pricing with applicable retailer. All transactions subject to applicable license terms and conditions.

The mob wants Harlem back. But they're gonna get Shaft. Richard Roundtree stars as New York City private detective John Shaft. He's cool, tough and won't back down to anybody. But when the New York Mafia wants to take over the Harlem drug trade, they kidnap local crime lord Bumpy Jonas' (Moses Gunn) daughter. Now in the middle of a war between mobsters that's ready to ignite a racial tinderbox, Jonas hires the one man tough enough to get his daughter back--John Shaft.

Director:

Gordon Parks

Producer:

Joel Freeman, David Golden

Writer:

Ernest Tidyman, John D.F. Black

Cast:

Richard Roundtree, Moses Gunn, Charles Cioffi, Christopher St. John, Gwenn Mitchell, Lawrence Pressman, Victor Arnold, Sherri Brewer, Rex Robbins

Special Features

Locked video

Soul in Cinema: Filming SHAFT on Location

Locked video

"Shaft" TV Episode - "The Killing"

Rotten Tomatoes® Score

TOMATOMETER®

88%

Critics Consensus: This is the man that would risk his neck for his brother, man. Can you dig it?

Reviews

Gone With The Twins

Mike Massie

Even when interactions remain low-key, Shaft's screen presence and larger-than-life attitude are enough to spice things up.

A good, gutsy crime yarn in the 'forties style.

One of the best of all blaxploitation flicks.

Violence, some sex, profanity in '70s classic.

If Shaft were indeed a hard-hitting, fast-paced, action-packed detective thriller, as it was meant to be, then it would be an acceptable entertainment. But it isn't.

June 25, 2018

FULL REVIEW

Common Sense Media

age 16+

Common Sense Says

Update of '70s classic has lots of violence and cursing.

What Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Shaft is the 2000 reboot of the 1971 original in which Samuel L. Jackson plays the nephew of the original Shaft. There's frequent profanity throughout the movie, including "motherf---er" and the "N" word. The movie centers on Shaft's attempt to bring a wealthy racist white man to justice after he kills an innocent African American man on the sidewalk in front of a nightclub. There's some violence, including dead bodies found on the street, characters thrown out of apartments, characters shot, hit by cars, stabbed in the hand. Marijuana smoking, cigar smoking, drinking. The movie opens with a sex scene montage, with breasts shown. Movie explores themes of racial injustice, both on the street and in the courtroom.