American Icons: ‘Shaft’

The new movie “Shaft,” starring Jessie T. Usher and Samuel L. Jackson, opened to middling reviews and disappointing ticket sales. Perhaps it’s a case of “Shaft” overdraft. It is the fifth movie in the franchise and the third to be called simply “Shaft.” But looking back to the original “Shaft,” it’s understandable why the studio would want to try again.

In 1971 Richard Roundtree stepped out of a subway entrance to the Oscar-winning sounds of Isaac Hayes, and changed American movie-making. The box-office success of “Shaft,” about a fiercely independent, courageous and sexy private eye, led to an explosion of black action B-movies and crystalized a version of black macho cool that hadn’t been shown on the big screen before. And it was all put together by one of the most important American photographers of the mid-20th century, Gordon Parks. The story of “Shaft” is told by those that made the movie, and those they inspired.

Special thanks to The Gordon Parks Foundation, Dapper Dan and Jelani Day, David Walker, Alan Rinzler, Telma Hopkins, Sophia Chang, and Tam Ridley.

American Icons is made possible by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.