Shaft's Big Score! is a 1972 American blaxploitation action-crime film starring Richard Roundtree as private detective John Shaft. It is the second entry in the Shaft franchise, with both director Gordon Parks and screenwriter Ernest Tidyman reprising their roles from the first film. Moses Gunn and Drew Bundini Brown also return from the previous film, alongside new appearances from acting veterans Joseph Mascolo, Julius Harris and Joe Santos. MGM rejected Ernest Tidyman's first submitted outline for the film, which he turned into the novel Shaft Among the Jews.
MGM attempted to get Isaac Hayes, composer of the soundtrack for Shaft, to score Shaft's Big Score, but negotiations broke down when MGM refused to pay Hayes the amount he demanded. It went on to earn theatrical rentals of $4 million in the United States and Canada. It had a total $10 million gross. Conversely, Roger Ebert awarded the film 3 stars out of 4, describing it as "mass-audience escapist entertainment" that works better than the original film did. Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune also gave the film 3 stars out of 4 and wrote, "The 'Shaft' series works, and will continue to work, because John Shaft is black, beautiful (to women), and a winner." Arthur D. Murphy of Variety stated, "The first 'Shaft' had a running-scared excitement not only in the characters, but also throughout the whole picture. The new film seems more self-conscious, contrived, ambitious, and sluggish." Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "As pure escapist fare it's every bit as successful as 'Shaft.'" Gary Arnold of The Washington Post panned the film as "strenuous but unimaginative," expressing disappointment that the filmmakers didn't "attempt to do a little more the second time around—maybe give the hero some more humor and dimension and his adventures more scope and relevance." He also called the absence of Isaac Hayes' score "a crucial loss ... You really miss that sound, which gave 'Shaft' a persistent, rhythmic drive and undercurrent." Clyde Jeavons of The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote, "It's efficient, exciting in a predictable, routine way, and excessively violent (with the emphasis on pyrotechnics, beatings and messy bullet-holes); but plot-wise it's patently absurd, with Shaft's invulnerability attaining supernatural proportions in the climax, as he makes life as easy as possible for his murderous opponents by scampering about suicidally in front of their machine guns, which he survives with nary a scratch."
On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a "rotten" rating of 58% based on 12 reviews.
Release
Shaft's Big Score! premiered in New York City on June 21, 1972.
See also
- List of American films of 1972