Shaft (MGM, 1971)
Man, what a cool movie! Starting off with Isaac Hayes's incredible score, this one hits it out of the park. Richard Roundtree is amazing, and kudos to director Gordon Parks for introducing one of the great movie Tough Guys in this one.
Shaft's Big Score (MGM, 1972)
A year later, here comes a sequel that brings back pretty much everybody in the same jobs - and turns into a fine sequel that is another good time.
Shaft in Africa (MGM, 1973)
Another year later, and this one is the least of the three - with a change of writer and a change of director, something is lost - but Roundtree's screen presence keeps the movie on track and the movie is definitely watchable. I never saw the brief TV show that followed this one, but with the R rated elements scrubbed for The Tube, I doubt I was missing much.
I always liked Richard Roundtree, even moreso when I discovered we had both attended Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, although a couple of decades apart.
A few years later, I managed to get Shafted when I worked with Richard Roundtree on the movie Once Upon a Time...When We Were Colored. He was a joy to work with, totally professional and easygoing and I got to mention we both had attended SIU-C, which was fun. It was 1994, and we were shooting at an ice factory in downtown Wilmington NC.
There was a Shaft bonus working on this movie too - it also had Isaac Hayes in it! Sadly, my aging camera kinda crapped out on me, and although I did get a picture with Mr. Hayes, the focus is off and we look like we're being shot through gauze, so we'll skip that one.
Until next post, you Can Poke Me With A Fork, Cause I Am Outta Here!
Cool! I love Richard Roundtree. And I love your tee shirt. I had that one myself courtesy of Great America in Gurnee, IL.
ReplyDeleteAwesome! You met Shaft, the urban James Bond and still to this day, one of the coolest dudes on the face of the Earth. Great snippets here. The Shaft in Africa poster is hilarious.
ReplyDeleteWhoa, you and Roundtree... that's fucking awesome. Great pic!
ReplyDeleteAlso, love the posters. The one for "... In Africa" made me LOL :)
MB - I had a succession of goofy white tee shirts and baseball caps for the hot summer months - this one did garner a lot of attention. I think mine came from Wal-Mart, though.
ReplyDeleteMV - Yeah, there came a point when I realized I had Shaft and the composer of Shaft's theme song together on their last day on the picture - my teamster pals scoured Wilmington for a copy of the soundtrack CD - I was planning to have both sign it - but they couldn't find one. D'oh!
MM - Thanks! The posters are cool - the movies aren't bad either - I liked the recent one with Samuel L. Jackson too - especially the clever conceit that Jackson was Roundtree's nephew, so the original could cameo in character - and they got Gordon Parks in there too!
LOL I love the phallic imagery in the Shaft posters. Subtle yet hilarious.
ReplyDeleteOh, man. Shaft was awesome! That music was out of this world. Coolest dude EVER! How amazing that you actually worked with him. Love the pic of you two. Craig, as usual, the posters ROCK! The images are fantastic and the tag lines HILARIOUS!!!! Great post!
ReplyDeleteMaurice - Yeah, they definitely got more than a little Freudian there - and they didn't stop across three posters! Thanks for coming by!
ReplyDeleteLuana - Thank you so much - I really think I'm going to start a series of production anecdote posts in 2012 - with all my goofy pics and stories of ten years working in the film industry - as they say - Watch This Space...
That's the only shaft I want to get. Always was always will be a sweet and beautiful man.
ReplyDelete