Shaft In Africa

Shaft in Africa (1973)

Runtime: 112 minutes

Directed by: John Guillermin

Starring: Richard Roundtree, Frank Finlay, Vonetta McGee, Neda Arneric, Debebe Eshetu

From: MGM

A movie featuring... a clitoridectomy subplot and the lead villain being a cuckold!?

Last month I viewed the second movie in the Shaft series; the previous night I had the itch to check out this final entry in the trilogy. Some have given it rave reviews; if only I could do the same.

To be frank, the entire story does not hold up well if looked at with even a little scrutiny-admittedly that can be said about many movies-and the first 25 minutes were more an annoyance and a slog than any fun. Thankfully it it more fun once they leave the United States, albeit that was also when I started to notice the illogic of the film. The story-as it is-has Shaft recruited by an emir of an African country to go undercover and gather information on a slavery ring that transports Africans to Europe. A large amount of the film was filmed in Ethiopia & it was fascinating to have a snapshot of what life was like in the capital of Addis Ababa and out on the savannas.

There are fun moments (including stick fights) and badass scenes so I can't say this was bad... just disappointing. For what I've heard some say was “an attempt at a Black James Bond”, that was not it for me. There were some baffling aspects; the one in particular I will mention is the subplot involving the emir's daughter (Vonetta McGee). The film introduced to me the term clitoridectomy, which in short is female genital mutilation and I will step FAR away from that topic & not discuss it any further, as nothing good can come from that. I am confounded it was actually a plot point here. At least there were more humorous details I can mention. That includes the size of Shaft's phallus-addressed as such-being canon and the evil slave-trading villain being a cuckold. I don't mean to kink-shame here, but...

At least a few great elements are present. As with the first two, it has a badass funk score, this time from Johnny Pate, along with a quality opening credits song from the Four Tops. And of course Richard Roundtree is still a bad mother... as John Shaft. If only in Africa could have been better in my eyes-all those elements plus John Guillermin as a director and Sterling Siliphant as the writer should have meant a groovy good time instead of a meh experience that still made me guffaw a few times.