Shaft

Shaft is the first blaxsploitation film I ever saw. Shaft (Richard Roundtree) is a private eye that is hired to find a ganster's daughter. Shaft figures out the Mafia has taken her and he forms a group to save the girl.

I remember watching Shaft when I was younger. I thought it was a good movie but back then I never realized the importance of it. Even though blacks had equal rights by the 70's they weren't really treated as equals. Movies like Shaft really gave everyone involved in the black rights movement another rallying cry. Showing such a strong and good hearted black leading character, was a first. With Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and other black rights leaders out of the picture, the black community really needed a new leader. It turned out Shaft was that guy. Real person or not he was a decent person for young blacks to look up to. It was such a perfect time for blaxsploitation films, the country and the people need it.

I talked to my mom about the film and she remembers it well. She was going to nursing school in Chicago at the time, and had a few black friends from school. They all went out to see the film together. She said it was something she would never forget. Before there would never be a theater full of black people, but she remembered being one of the only white people in the crowd. She also said she had never seen a theater with people that were so excited about a movie.

She told me in the theater they were yelling at the screen and cheering for Shaft. Even when everyone was leaving they were pretending to be Shaft and saying they wanted to be more like him.

My mom said just walking into the theater she knew it would be an "epic" movie.