In Memory of Isaac Hayes -- Shaft's 3 Best Qualities

Isaac Hayes will be remembered for many things -- voicing Chef on South Park, playing an aging gangster who comes out of retirement to teach the youth a less in I'm Gonna Git You Sucka, and for becoming a Scientologist and alienating everyone around him. What he will most likely be remembered for, though, is the music that defined John Shaft, street-smart detective and one bad motha..... watch your mouth! In honor of that great contribution, I would like to memorialize Hayes with a list of Shaft's three best qualities, as embodied by moments in his films (as portrayed by Richard Roundtree).

One thing that made Shaft unique among action heroes was that he not only fought bad guys, but you got the idea he also psychologically fought oppression. Between scenes of blown up bus and failed hi-jacking attempts, the Shaft trilogy (Shaft, Shaft's Big Score, and Shaft In Africa) inserted little nuggets of moral characterization where we'd see what Shaft stood up for. After all, if you stand up for nothing, you'll fall for anything and more than any other action movie hero I can think of, we know what John Shaft stood for. Here are his three greatest values:

3. Animal Rights

Shaft would have been PETA's most hardcore activist if he were a real person and around today. In Shaft In Africa Shaft befriends a stray dog. Later, Shaft is in a tough spot. When he gets hit, he just turns the other cheek, but when they kick his dog, Shaft pulls out a longbow and kills the bad guy, chiding him for hitting the dog right before delivering the final death blow.

2. Gay Rights

In Shaft, Shaft walks into an expresso bar and sips his treat out of a shot-glass sized coffee cup, preparing us to see him as the gentle giant. When the garcon comes by the audience notices at once that he is effiminate, which has long been the way Hollywood has stereotyped gay men. What makes this notable, however, is they way Shaft treats him back. He isn't taken aback at all, but jokes around with him and treats him with the utmost respect. The waiter tips him off to some bad guys, and Shaft just stays cool. The key moment though is right before Shaft leaves. The waiter offers to hook Shaft up with one of his friends, another guy. Most masculinized movie heroes would get squeamish at best, but Shaft just grins as though he takes it as a compliment before thanking the guy for the offer and then respectfully declining. You don't see this often enough in films now, and I can only imagine it was all the more rare in 1971.

1. Feminism

Shaft had more ladies than James Bond, but he always treated them with respect and acknowledged their power in the relationship. He comes out as a straight-up feminist though in Shaft In Africa when he is trying to seduce the king's daughter. As they lay in bed kissing and talking, she reveals to Shaft that her country's laws will soon force her to have a clitoredectomy as a rite of passage. When she says this, the mixture of disgust, outrage and compassion which comes over Richard Roundtree's face is all you need to know where he stands. When he suggests that as the king's daughter she try to use her influence to stop this horrible ritual and offers to do what he can to help, it only solidifies his position even more. Solid.