Shaft Movie Essay

It is morning. The film begins with an extreme long shot that showcases not only the chaotic and crowded scenery of New York City, but the man in which this city encapsulates, John Shaft (Richard Roundtree). Despite its opening sequence, Shaft (Parks, 1971) utilizes a multitude of two shots to convey the dominance of John Shaft to the city, but more importantly the dominance of power to all other social constructions. Gordon Parks utilized the two shot to specifically establish John Shaft’s dominance when he contrasted others in conversations. Often Parks would reference Shaft’s power over his community through his occupation as a private detective. The scene under analysis is the one where Shaft and local thugs discuss the kidnapping of another character. In this shot Shaft and head thug were placed in a two

The film emphasizes this through the overwhelming use of two shots, character placement and physical sizing. Two shots in this film allow John Shaft to appear logically and physically superior in every situation he is put in, much like the way power will always dominant any label it comes up against. This suggests that power is the real issue in society. Who we give power, and what we allow them to do with it. Shaft, a man with power, has the ability to make everyone he comes in contact with fall to their knees. Shaft resembles power both physically and theoretically and parks utilizes the two shot to convey that. When a person has power, their race, sex, age and size are not factors when it comes to them getting things down. Power can be possessed by anyone, and with that power true division is made. One has race because someone with power says that is the way it is supposed to be. One has sex because someone of power says that is the way it is supposed to be. The list goes on and on and yet it still concludes: without power, social constructions have no meaning at