Richard Roundtree stars as the man himself, John Shaft, a private investigator and style icon who is hired by a mobster named Bumpy Jonas (Moses Gunn) to find his missing daughter Marcy, who he suspects has been kidnapped. In attempting to rescue Marcy, Shaft will come into conflict with Bumpy’s gang, a Black militant political organization, the white mafia and the police, all of whom are willing to kill to get what they want.

Pioneers get overlooked; it’s the second round, the improvement and expansion, that usually gets remembered. Shaft is close to originating and elaborating all at once: there were earlier Blaxploitation movies, but none were as big and successful (or as filmic) as Shaft, which solidified the genre’s themes (Black power, street-level action, aggressive visual style, up-front sexuality, brilliant soundtrack) and broke through to the mainstream. Like what if there was a film noir where the hero is strong and cool and can actually accomplish something? There’s a passage in our new book, Tampa Theatre: a Century of Stories, where film critic Steve Persall remembers coming to see Shaft with his father.

“We were probably the only two white people in the place. It was a matinee and not a big crowd, but the enthusiasm of that crowd, they were seeing something they had never seen before. I was able to sort of see it through their eyes and […] that has stuck with me my whole life, that experience, that movie, and of course the location.”

Shaft’s a load-bearing and vital piece of American film history, and you can tell ‘em we said so. We opened Shaft on its first run, then returned it later the same year.

Presented as part of BIG PICTURE: A Century of Stories

This screening is held in the Historic Duncan Auditorium. This space utilizes open seating for this event, seat selection is not required.