59%User score 59 percent
Black Caesar
1973 · Action · Crime
User Score
431 votes
The mob wanted Harlem back. They got Shaft...up to here.
Cool Black private eye John Shaft is hired by a crime lord to find and retrieve his kidnapped daughter.
Recommendations based on this film
JPV852
June 10, 2022
Richard Roundtree was great and Shaft as a character was absolutely amazing, everything else from the plot which was thin and performances by the supporting cast was a bit iffy. The pacing was also pretty slow and despite only being 100 minutes, felt a bit longer. Still, a good opening into the franchise. **3.5/5**
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CinemaSerf
September 1, 2025
Richard Rowntree exudes loads of charisma here as he takes on the role of the shrewd Harlem private investigator “Shaft” who finds himself embroiled in some fairly brutal New York politics. He’s drafted in by local gangster “Bumpy” (Moses Gunn) when this man’s daughter is kidnapped. He doesn’t know by whom or why - there are no ransom demands nor many breadcrumbs to follow, but there are plenty of suspects. Initially…
Read the full review on TMDBReviews are written by the TMDB community, not by Shaft's publisher.
