The theme song is a masterpeiece..and connotes something grand..one would expect a James Bond type character trying to save the world from catastrophe..jumping out planes..surviving explosions etc. Not some small time detective trying to fight a mob boss in Harlem. The theme is actually a take off of the James Bond theme.
I don't get all of that from the theme song. All the theme asks is "who's the cat who's a sex machine to all the chicks?" Granted, there are only two, but Shaft is able to perform quite well. "Who is the man who would risk his neck for his brother man?" He takes a chance to save old friend Ben Buford, not to mention Marcie Jonas. "Who's the cat that won't cop out when there's danger all about?" When there's trouble, Shaft is right in the middle of things. "He's a complicated man, but nobody understands him but his woman." Self-explanatory. Nothing in the theme song suggests that some madman is trying to destroy/take over the world or anything like that. Maybe they should have had the silhouette of half-naked women dancing over the credits while the theme song plays? I had no problems watching this and enjoying the Hell out of it back in 1971, don't have any problems now. But, if you want helicopters, there's a great chase at the end of the first sequel SHAFT'S BIG SCORE!
s to the left of me. s to the right. Here I am, stuck in the middle with you!
There is one similarity with the part of Bond theme. When the trumpets and the snare drum crack out 4 sixteenths followed by an eigth going up the minor scale to the minor third, this part is similar to the brass and snare attack in Shaft, only they sit on the same note. Roughly the same idea, the same orchestration, and similar rhythm but, sounds different enough. I heard this Bond part in From Russia with Love. Don't remember if it's in the other series.
The theme song set the stage for the movie. The song itself gives you a little back story of who Shaft is. "He's a sex machine with all the chicks." Sure, we may only see him make it with one, but that's enough. Via the theme song, we KNOW he's never let a lady down in the past and certainly won't in the future ;)
The song backs up the story. The story plays off the song. Everything ties together nicely.
In Isaac Julien's film Quentin Tarantino made that same point he felt that the score was in his words criminally underused and also that as much as he liked Gordon Parks senior he didn't use it properly.
I agree that song is over the top..a theme for someone trying to save the world from nuclear destruction having to jump onto an hindenburg type airship with only secodns to deactivate the bomb..and what not.. Not some petty private detective in Harlem chasing small time gangsters..
I do also agree somewhat. I immediately thought of films from the genre that do live up to their soundtracks and Coffy (1973) is the first one that comes to mind.