Shaft
Shaft is a 1971 film from the USA, directed by Gordon Parks, running 97 minutes. reelscum files it under blaxploitation.
- Year
- 1971 · 1970s films
- Country
- USA
- Runtime
- 97 min
- Director
- Gordon Parks
- Updated
- 29 Oct 2026
- Obscurity
- canon (12/100)
- Also known as
- Les nuits rouges de Harlem
Defined in the glossary: Blaxploitation
Gordon Parks directs a solid detective film. Isaac Hayes does the rest.
Gordon Parks, the first major Black studio director, makes a lean private-eye picture and lets Richard Roundtree walk through Harlem like he owns the pavement. The mystery is ordinary. The attitude, the coat, and Isaac Hayes's Oscar-winning score are not.
It kept MGM solvent and proved a Black-led film could cross over, which is the entire reason the next two hundred films on this shelf got made. Watch it for Roundtree and Hayes, who between them supply more cool than the plot deserves.
The theme alone earned its place in history.
Trailer
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Where to watch
Legal options in USA
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