But I'm talkin' 'bout Shaft (Can you dig it?)
My story actually begins in 1972 when my brother call me and ask me to come over to his house ASAP. He just got a new reel to reel tape and he wanted me to hear it. It was the soundtrack to Shaft and we loved it.
Criterion, which always does a great job, continues and does a great job here on the video. This movie, even after fifty years looks great and I give it a very high video rating.
The soundtrack is wonderful. I love the score. (However, the latest Shaft CDs sound even better.) You have a choice between a newly remastered mono or stereo track. I choose the stereo.
The story is not so hot. Shaft, played by Richard Roundtree, is hired by a mob boss to find his kidnapped daughter. Shaft recruits’ (well, he pays for) mobsters and guerilla fighters to help. There was nothing new or very exciting here, but this film did help introduce Blaxploitation into the movies.
Bonus features:
Alternate uncompressed stereo soundtrack remastered with creative input from Isaac Hayes III
Shaft’s Big Score!, the 1972 follow-up to Shaft by director Gordon Parks
New documentary on the making of Shaft featuring curator Rhea L. Combs, film scholar Racquel J. Gates, filmmaker Nelson George, and music scholar Shana L. Redmond
Behind-the-scenes program featuring Parks, actor Richard Roundtree, and musician Isaac Hayes
Archival interviews with Hayes, Parks, and Roundtree
New interview with costume designer Joseph G. Aulisi
New program on the Black detective and the legacy of John Shaft, featuring scholar Kinohi Nishikawa and novelist Walter Mosley
A Complicated Man: The “Shaft” Legacy (2019)
Behind-the-scenes footage from Shaft’s Big Score!
PLUS: An essay by film scholar Amy Abugo Ongiri
I give the video and audio a 4.5 out of 5 rating. As a movie I rate it as "sit throughable."
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