This week, 1971’s Shaft kicks off a month of Monday night blaxploitation screenings at the Belcourt. But despite the props Shaft gets for being the most iconic and successful film of the blaxploitation era (it reportedly made something like $13 million against a $500,000 budget), the film that inspired a thousand badass black mofos to whup corrupt white asses on the big screen does have its problems. For starters — and I may get my black card revoked for this — private dick John Shaft is kind of a dick. Richard Roundtree’s leather-wearing detective often strikes me as more arrogant than righteous. And while Gordon Parks is a legend in the field of photography, this wasn’t his most polished work behind the lens. But hey, Isaac Hayes’ black-and-proud soundtrack — with the Oscar-winning “Theme From Shaft” as its cornerstone — is still the funkiest score ever paired to film. So if you’ve ever wanted to know the origins of the oft-referenced line “They say this cat Shaft is a bad mutha — shut yo mouth,” here’s your chance to check out where it came from. CRAIG D. LINDSEY
Music City Mondays: Shaft
