Respond to these rapid questions in our Shaft quiz and we will tell you which Shaft character you are. Play it now.
Gordon Parks’ “Shaft” introduced us to the world’s first truly convincing black private investigator. I’ve always enjoyed movies about private detectives — they seem to be superior to most other formula films — and John Shaft, played by Richard Roundtree, is a worthy successor to the likes of Philip Marlowe, Sam Spade, and Lew Archer, among other legendary private investigators. He belongs because, like them, he does not maintain a regular social circle. Private investigators (at least in the movies) are loners in the most literal sense of the word. They work in dingy walk-up offices, sipping bourbon from office bottles while they wait for the phone to ring, which never does.
It’s true that all of these are clichés, but let’s face it: a private-eye film without clichés wouldn’t be worth the money to watch. We don’t go to Westerns to see cowboys on ostriches, and we certainly don’t go to see them on horses. The strength of Parks’ film is his willingness to allow his hero to fully inhabit the private-eye genre, complete with all of the obligatory violence, blood, obscenity, and plot gimmicks that come with it. The weakness of “Shaft,” I believe, is that Parks is not particularly eager to immerse himself in the world that his hero finds himself in.
But you shouldn’t waste any more time and start this Shaft quiz.
Shaft Quiz
‘The Learning Tree’ (1969), directed by Gordon Parks, was the first major studio film directed by a black director, and it was a deeply felt, lyrically beautiful film that was perhaps a little too simple and honest to be commercially successful. As a result, it failed to attract a large audience, and I believe Parks turned to “Shaft” for commercial survival after that.
Also, you will find out which character are you in this Shaft quiz.
About the quiz
It’s a good thing that “Shaft” appreciates the private-eye genre and takes special pleasure in inventing new twists on the traditional relationship between the private eye and the boys down at homicide headquarters. It covers some of the same ground as the previous story, “Cotton Comes to Harlem,” but it does so in a different way. When Shaft is hired, it is at the request of a Harlem rackets boss (Moses Gunn), whose traditional slice of power is being threatened by the Mafia. After deciding that they no longer want to be in a partnership with the company, they kidnap the boss’s daughter. It is Shaft’s responsibility to bring her back.
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His exploits along the way include a particularly unpleasant encounter with a white pick-up truck, which is insulted because all black exploitation films must insult at least one white pick-up truck (and why not?). What’s fair is what’s fair). During the climax, Shaft and his allies execute a complicated plan that involves them swinging from ropes and using firehoses to accomplish with five people in five minutes what could have been accomplished with one person in one minute. Parks isn’t particularly gifted at action direction, but the heart of a private-eye film is in the mood scenes, and he provides two such scenes in this film: one in a bar and another with the Harlem rackets boss, both of which are particularly effective.
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