{"id":153491,"date":"2021-06-25T15:40:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-25T19:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.blackfilm.com\/read\/?p=153491"},"modified":"2021-06-26T21:48:57","modified_gmt":"2021-06-27T01:48:57","slug":"50-years-of-shaft-chronicled-by-cultural-critic-michael-gonzales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.blackfilm.com\/read\/50-years-of-shaft-chronicled-by-cultural-critic-michael-gonzales\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8217;50 years of SHAFT&#8217; Chronicled by Cultural Critic Michael Gonzales"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Fifty years ago the first SHAFT film was released. Based on a novel by journalist Ernest Tidyman and directed by respected photographer Gordon Parks it changed the world. As a kid growing-up in Harlem, that was the first time I got to see my neighborhood on screen, but it wouldn&#8217;t be the last. Shaft influenced future films Superfly, Black Caesar and Gordon&#8217;s War.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Over the years I&#8217;ve written a few stories on the impact of both the movie and soundtrack.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blackfilm.com\/read\/2021\/06\/tribeca-2021-a-choice-of-weapons-inspired-by-gordon-parks-film-review\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Tribeca 2021 \u2014 &#8216;A Choice of Weapons: Inspired by Gordon Parks&#8217; Film Review<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-expand=\"600\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns%3D'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg' viewBox%3D'0 0 1 1'%2F%3E\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.blackfilm.com\/read\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Gordon-Parks-A-Choice-of-Weapons-Review-Featured-1024x536-1.png\" alt=\"50 years of SHAFT Cultural Critic Michael Gonzales years Shaft\" class=\"lazyload wp-image-153486\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ebony.com\/entertainment\/vintage-vision-when-shaft-ruled-hollywood-333\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">When &#8216;Shaft&#8217; Ruled Hollywood for Ebony<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-expand=\"600\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns%3D'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg' viewBox%3D'0 0 1 1'%2F%3E\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.blackfilm.com\/read\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Shaft-1024x640.jpeg\" alt=\"50 years of SHAFT Cultural Critic Michael Gonzales years Shaft\" class=\"lazyload wp-image-153492\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"On Ernest R. Tidyman and the Makings of Shaft for Mulholland Books\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Shafted: On Ernest R. Tidyman and the Makings of Shaft for Mulholland Books<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-expand=\"600\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns%3D'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg' viewBox%3D'0 0 408 618'%2F%3E\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.blackfilm.com\/read\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Shaft-2.jpeg\" alt=\"50 years of SHAFT Cultural Critic Michael Gonzales years Shaft\" class=\"lazyload wp-image-153493\" width=\"408\" height=\"618\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blackadelicpop.blogspot.com\/2007\/10\/on-shaft.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">On Shaft: The&nbsp; Soundtrack &amp; Isaac Hayes for Blackadelic Pop<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-expand=\"600\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns%3D'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg' viewBox%3D'0 0 439 436'%2F%3E\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.blackfilm.com\/read\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Shaft-3.jpeg\" alt=\"'50 years of SHAFT' Chronicled by Cultural Critic Michael Gonzales\" class=\"lazyload wp-image-153494\" width=\"439\" height=\"436\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-expand=\"600\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns%3D'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg' viewBox%3D'0 0 191 191'%2F%3E\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.soulhead.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Michael_Gonzales-dream.jpg\" alt=\"Michael_Gonzales-dream\" class=\"lazyload wp-image-36067\" width=\"191\" height=\"191\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/gonzomike\"><strong>Michael A. Gonzales<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0has been writing about music and culture since the 1980s. He has written for Vibe, Essence, The Source and Spin. Currently he writes true-crime features for CrimeReads, a book column (The Blacklist) for Catapult, essays for LongReads and music features for Wax Poetics. Forthcoming essay subjects include Octavia E. Butler, The Wire and Isaac Hayes. Gonzales blogs at\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/blackadelicpop.blogspot.com\/\">Blackadelicpop.blogspot.com<\/a>.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.soulhead.com\/?s=michael+gonzales\">Check out some of his work for soulhead<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><span style=\"color:#ffffff\" class=\"has-inline-color\">&#8217;50 years of SHAFT&#8217; Chronicled by Cultural Critic Michael Gonzales<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fifty years ago the first SHAFT film was released. Based on a novel by journalist Ernest Tidyman and directed by respected photographer Gordon Parks it changed the world. As a kid growing-up in Harlem, that was the first time I got to see my neighborhood on screen, but it wouldn&#8217;t be the last. Shaft influenced [&hellip;] <a class=\"g1-link g1-link-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.blackfilm.com\/read\/50-years-of-shaft-chronicled-by-cultural-critic-michael-gonzales\/\">More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":153495,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[145,16,143],"tags":[2071,34040,6038,15449,34031,34036,34032,34035,27636,34038],"reaction":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-153491","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-featured","8":"category-news","9":"category-read","10":"tag-black-film","11":"tag-blackadelic-pop","12":"tag-blaxploitation","13":"tag-ebony-magazine","14":"tag-ernest-tidyman","15":"tag-isaac-hayes","16":"tag-michael-gonzales","17":"tag-mulholland-books","18":"tag-shaft","19":"tag-shaft-soundtrack"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v19.7 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>&#039;50 years of SHAFT&#039; Chronicled by Cultural Critic Michael Gonzales - blackfilm.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"&#039;50 years of SHAFT&#039; Chronicled by Cultural Critic Michael Gonzales. 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