Shaft

"The mob wanted Harlem back. They got Shaft...up to here."

1971 1h 40m EN

😐

6.4

MID

🍅

88%

FRESH

👌

METACRITIC

⭐

6.6

IMDB

★6.4TMDB · 443🍅88%Rotten Tomatoes●66Metacritic★6.6IMDB · 22,070

CrimeThrillerDramaAction

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Cool Black private eye John Shaft is hired by a crime lord to find and retrieve his kidnapped daughter.

“The mob wanted Harlem back. They got Shaft...up to here.”

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Cast

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
Victor Arnold
Charlie
Sherri Brewer
Marcy

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Gordon Parks
Writers: Ernest Tidyman, John D.F. Black
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $1.1M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Grossed $12M — a 10.8× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

55 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "Shaft Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Gordon Parks, shot by Urs Furrer. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Isaac Hayes. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Hugh A. Robertson shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Richard Roundtree and Moses Gunn and Charles Cioffi carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Gordon Parks directs. Urs Furrer behind the camera. Isaac Hayes scores. Hugh A. Robertson cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Shot for just $1.1M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
2Grossed $12M — a 10.8× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.
355 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
4Part of the "Shaft Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
5Directed by Gordon Parks, shot by Urs Furrer. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by Isaac Hayes. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor Hugh A. Robertson shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Richard Roundtree and Moses Gunn and Charles Cioffi carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "The mob wanted Harlem back. They got Shaft...up to here.".
10IMDB entry: tt0067741 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
11Classified under 11 themes, including "daughter", "new york city", "police", "gangster".
12Released under 13 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Urs Furrer
Original score: Isaac Hayes
Editing: Hugh A. Robertson
Makeup / hair: Martin Bell
Runtime: 100 min · 1h 40m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $1,125,000
Box office: $12,121,618
Return: 1077% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Shaft (1971)
Rotten Tomatoes: 88% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 66/100
IMDB rating: 6.6/10 · 22,070 votes
MPAA: R

Awards

Won 1 Oscar. 6 wins & 6 nominations total

Part of

Shaft Collection

The Shaft trilogy is composed of action-crime films centered on an African-American police detective named John Shaft, who over the course of the films have altercations with a variety of crime. The films are characterized by their blaxploitation characteristics.

Also by

Gordon Parks

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Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

JPV8522022-06-10
★ 7/10
Richard Roundtree was great and Shaft as a character was absolutely amazing, everything else from the plot which was thin and performances by the supporting cast was a bit iffy. The pacing was also pretty slow and despite only being 100 minutes, felt a bit longer. Still, a good opening into the franchise. 3.5/5
CinemaSerf2025-09-01
★ 7/10
Richard Rowntree exudes loads of charisma here as he takes on the role of the shrewd Harlem private investigator “Shaft” who finds himself embroiled in some fairly brutal New York politics. He’s drafted in by local gangster “Bumpy” (Moses Gunn) when this man’s daughter is kidnapped. He doesn’t know by whom or why - there are no ransom demands nor many breadcrumbs to follow, but there are plenty of suspects. Initially he suspects that it might be the “Black Power” movement but after some plausible, if double-edged, tip-offs begins to suspect that some other hustlers are planning on bumping off his employer and muscling in on the lucrative rackets of the city. “Shaft” knows full well that the truth is being drip-fed to him, and that both “Bumpy” and police officer “Androzzi” (Charles Cioffi) and trying to manipulate him as he tries to track down “Marcy” (Sherri Brewer). It’s a very slick and classy production, this, with Rowntree navigating the racial tensions of his city deftly and engagingly. His “Shaft” is quite a likeable rogue, and though many of the scenarios do tax even the most vivid of imaginations, he manages to more subtly and skilfully illustrate just how unintegrated this supposedly integrated society actually was. There’s a bit of violence and some sex, but they are mostly implied as the story gathers pace in an unforgiving community where the goodies and baddies do not follow all of the expected stereotypical assumptions. Isaac Hayes’s theme complements the whole look and feel of the early 1970s with big cars, big shoes, big hair and big opportunities and though it has dated, it’s still builds on a solid story that delivers well.