Shaft Is Back!

Over at the Kirkus Reviews site today you’ll find my anniversary tribute to the crime novel and movie Shaft. That column begins:

Forty years ago, America got Shafted. No, this isn’t going to be some wild-eyed rant about Big Business corruption or political malfeasance. It’s about Shaft, John Shaft. Can you dig it? It was in 1971 that the U.S. paperback edition of Ernest Tidyman’s Shaft and the big-screen adaptation of that novel both debuted, firmly establishing a cool, black, kick-ass private eye in literary territory dominated by cynical white gumshoes.

Click here to read more.

The Kirkus piece features the trailer and opening scene from the original Shaft film starring Richard Roundtree. But for extra fun, below I’ve embedded the trailers associated with the later two Shaft movies, Shaft’s Big Score (1972) and Shaft in Africa (1973).

All you cats just sit back and let the nostalgia roll over you!