July 9 Richard Roundtree

Happy Birthday to Brian Denney & Richard Roundtree.

To celebrate Richard Roundtree’s birthday I watched Shaft’s Big Score. I was expecting more violence than there was and I kept anticipating violence by closing my eyes. The film has great photography and editing. Shaft’s girlfriend’s brother is killed. At the funeral, the camera starts in the grave and comes up and over the actors, but it is off to the side so the actors are not looking at the camera, very unique angle. During a scene where Shaft is being beaten in the basement there is moment of fighting then a moment of girls dancing in the bar, then a moment of fighting and back to the girls dancing, this happens several times. It is a very long sequence, but seems to go very fast if that makes sense. Richard Roundtree seems to act with his whole body and eyes. You see everything the character is thinking and feeling on his face and in his body language. At the funeral Richard eyes all the men around the grave trying to figure out who killed the man while all the time comforting his girlfriend. He moves fast too. When they go back to her place after the funeral, the place is ransacked. He pulls out his gun moves throughout the rooms lighting fast.

The music is amazing. It is 1970’s music, but there is an influence of jazz. There is a theme song, but it not the original Shaft song, very similar, but not the same. The dialog is like a 1950’s film noir. You understand what is being said but people don’t use words in that way any longer.

I was 10 minutes into the climatic scene when I realized there had little talking for awhile after the film ended I went back to the start of the end. The climatic scene is about 17 minutes long. Action and music with very little words. This was great. It is difficult to explain action but here is the basic run down.

Starts as the grave is being dug up because they think there is money in the casket. The money is pulled out and put in a bag with several people being killed. Shaft gets the money and the head man and gets him in his car with his girlfriend driving. The man’s men follow and the car chase is on. Shaft aims the gun at the wheels and the front of the other car. The other man are careful to shoot because they don’t want their man shot. They try to ram the car off the road. With a helicopter following but having a hard time because of wires and high vegetation.

Shaft’s car is stopped and they get out on foot at the boat drive. Shaft forces the man onto a motor boat. He handcuff’s the leader to the boat. The helicopter follows the boat and flies very low and eventually strike the with bullets. Shaft gets out of the boat at a power plant (or ship building or construction, I can’t tell which) with the bag of money and leaves the man handcuffed and the boat explodes. The other car gets there along with the helicopter. One man gets out of the car and the other tries to ram Shaft, but Shaft shoots him and the car runs into a pole. The helicopter follows and tries to shoot him but can’t get close enough. Shaft leaves the bag of money on the ground.

Shaft is shot but still shooting. He gets the one man on foot. He runs into a building and the helicopter follows leaving a trail of sparks from bullets on the ground. The gunman is shot in the leg and Shaft goes out the door. The helicopter leaves the building looking for Shaft. The glass is shot out and the gun man falls. The helicopter seems to be floating for a few minutes and then Shaft fires and the helicopter comes down in a blaze of flame. The police finally arrive. Shaft states he doesn’t know where the money is, but the film cuts to where the bag is sitting.