Melvin Van Peebles’ , helped launch the Seventies era of so-called “blaxploitation” films that would dominate the world of Black entertainment for nearly a decade. Directed by prominent Black photographer Gordon Parks with Richard Roundtree in the title role and featuring a sizzling soundtrack by didn’t quite fit the mold of its subsequent ilk. Sure, it was a crime drama that explored the dregs of society, like pimp Bumpy Jonas (Moses Gunn), whose daughter is kidnapped, but there’s a key difference: Shaft himself is not a criminal. He’s not a pimp or a drug dealer like the main characters of or —he’s a private detective, hired to find the Bumpy’s daughter. In 1971, Shaft was like a superhero to the Black community, a Black man who took no guff, dressed sharp, and talked back to the cops, outperforming them while he was doing it.
