ニューヨーク警官も一目置く、腕利き黒人私立探偵シャフト。ある日、彼は黒人街ハーレムのボス、バンピーから、愛娘マーシーの救出を依頼される。誘拐したのはシャフトの旧友ベンだという。ベンは黒人解放過激グループのボスになっていたのだ。現在のベンを知らないシャフトは、疑心暗鬼のまま操作を開始。ようやくベンの組織の集会所を探し出した時、突然の機関銃掃射を受ける！ベンとともに逃げ延びたシャフト…。彼の執拗な捜査によって、事件は意外な結末へと動き始める。
AIが作品の魅力を深く読み解いています
製作費: $1,125,000 (2億円)
興行収入: $12,121,618 (18億円)
推定収支: $10,996,618 (16億円)
※製作費・興行収入はTMDBのデータを参照しています。収支は(興行収入 - 製作費)で算出したFindKey独自の推定値であり、広告宣伝費や諸経費は含まれません (1ドル=150円換算)。
監督: Gordon Parks
脚本: Ernest Tidyman / John D.F. Black
音楽: Isaac Hayes / J.J. Johnson
制作: Joel Freeman / Roger H. Lewis / Stirling Silliphant
撮影監督: Urs Furrer
制作会社: Shaft Productions / Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Richard Roundtree was great and Shaft as a character was absolutely amazing, everything else from the plot which was thin and performances by the supporting cast was a bit iffy. The pacing was also pretty slow and despite only being 100 minutes, felt a bit longer. Still, a good opening into the franchise. **3.5/5**
Richard Rowntree exudes loads of charisma here as he takes on the role of the shrewd Harlem private investigator “Shaft” who finds himself embroiled in some fairly brutal New York politics. He’s drafted in by local gangster “Bumpy” (Moses Gunn) when this man’s daughter is kidnapped. He doesn’t know by whom or why - there are no ransom demands nor many breadcrumbs to follow, but there are plenty of suspects. Initially he suspects that it might be the “Black Power” movement but after some plausible, if double-edged, tip-offs begins to suspect that some other hustlers are planning on bumping off his employer and muscling in on the lucrative rackets of the city. “Shaft” knows full well that the truth is being drip-fed to him, and that both “Bumpy” and police officer “Androzzi” (Charles Cioffi) and trying to manipulate him as he tries to track down “Marcy” (Sherri Brewer). It’s a very slick and classy production, this, with Rowntree navigating the racial tensions of his city deftly and engagingly. His “Shaft” is quite a likeable rogue, and though many of the scenarios do tax even the most vivid of imaginations, he manages to more subtly and skilfully illustrate just how unintegrated this supposedly integrated society actually was. There’s a bit of violence and some sex, but they are mostly implied as the story gathers pace in an unforgiving community where the goodies and baddies do not follow all of the expected stereotypical assumptions. Isaac Hayes’s theme complements the whole look and feel of the early 1970s with big cars, big shoes, big hair and big opportunities and though it has dated, it’s still builds on a solid story that delivers well.
