Shaft

Dir. Gordon Parks

USA 1971 | Colour | 100 mins | Cert 15 | Hollywood Classics | Thriller

Cast: Richard Roundtree, Moses Gunn

John Shaft is part-James Bond part-Black Panther, ‘a sex machine to all the chicks’. He wears his Afro with pride as he hunts for a Harlem ganglord’s kidnapped daughter. In this, first of the so-called ‘blaxploitation’ movies, Roundtree shines as the violent yet supercool black detective hero taken from Ernest Tidyman’s novels. With an Oscar-winning score from Isaac Hayes.

Available on: 35mm