Shaft movie review!

 This week's film of Shaft was by far my favorite film thus far. This film centers around a man named John Shaft who is a private detective working in New York City. Shaft is contacted by Bumpy Jonas, who is the head of a mob located in Harlem, and wants to hire him to locate his daughter, Marcy Jonas, who was kidnapped by white mobsters in New York. Bumpy gives Shaft some information of who he thinks might be involved in it and mentions the name of Ben Buford. Shaft agrees to help Bumpy find his daughter with the information he has and can find. 

In this film, shaft is seen to have connections with both the Black and the White community in Harlem. Shaft is contacted by NYPD Lieutenant Vic Androzzi who asks him several questions about Bumpy and his whereabouts. Lieutenant assumes that Shaft and Bumpy know one another.   Shaft chooses not to say much because he doesn't feel that he can totally trust Vic. Vic warns Shaft about the potential race war that might take place in the city over the crime mob bosses. 

As Shaft continues to search for Marcy, he learns of the motive for why Bumpy’s daughter was kidnapped and teams up with Ben. They confront Bumpy and make a deal where they are paid for doing this job for him. Later, Shaft sets up a meeting with the mobsters to try to get to the bottom of where the daughter is being held. Shaft soon learns that his room was bugged by Vic and is confronted about the situation because he initially said that he knew nothing about Bumpy. Vic lets the shaft go and soon the shaft gets back to his case. He tries to rescue Marcy and fails to do so in that attempt and ends up getting shot. Shaft comes up with a plan ultimately to rescue Marcy and asks for some help from Ben’s friends in Harlem They end up retrieving Marcy without any harm and she is safely rescued. 

This film puts race at the forefront, utilizes the character of shaft to bring new meaning to the black man and puts black people in a different light. Just coming out of the 50’s, 60’s era and into the early 1970’s racial tension was still high and in full effect. So, the idea of a black man placed in an overly racist society and calling the shots to his white bosses such as the NYPD was very interesting to see.  In the previous films, that we have been watching, race has been used to distinguish certain characters and, in this film, we see it seen as power through the character Shaft. Many in society during that time would view white Americans as being higher in status and more in charge compared to African Americans. Shaft was a very bold, unapologetic black man that did what he felt like. He didn’t allow the order from his white bosses at the NYPD to govern his life. Shaft was also aware of the racial tension going on and addressed it as he felt it was necessary. Compared to other black actors at the time it wasn’t talked about on film as much through certain characters. Through Shaft's character African Americans were able to see themselves portrayed as heroes that save the day and bold individuals unlike what they were used to seeing in past portrayals in cinema thus far. I want to add that the amount of action such as fighting scenes were very laughable and looked more staged than the fighting scenes that I see in films present day.