A ★★★★ review of Shaft (1971)

Looking at this now, it seems almost conventional. John Shaft (Richard Roundtree) is equal parts classic noir private eye and spaghetti western/chambara anti-hero. He's hired by a Bumpy Johnson-type gangster named Bumpy (Moses Gunn) to find his kidnapped daughter. Shaft figures out it's part of a turf war between the Mafia and Bumpy's Harlem mob. He plays everyone (plus the cops and black militants) against each other Leone/Mifune style. Another essential for both blaxploitation and 70s noir fans. I think I idolized Shaft even more than I did Bond or Bruce Lee back in my elementary school days in the