Celebrating 65 Years Of Richard Roundtree Sticking It To The Man

One of my favorite actors turns sixty-five today and I thought I would offer up a little tribute for him.
Since making his starring debut in Gordon Park's SHAFT in 1971, Richard Roundtree has been one of our most reliable, talented and unbelievably cool actors. With well over 100 films and tv appearances in his filmography, the New York born Roundtree has also been one of the most prolific actors of the past three decades.
Although he had a small role in 1970's WHAT DO YOU SAY TO A NAKED LADY, it was as detective John Shaft in 1971 that would mark Roundtree's introduction to film audiences all over the world. It is hard to over-emphasize the importance of SHAFT and Roundtree's performance in the film, and if it indeed has overshadowed the rest of his career then that only shows just how truly iconic it is.
SHAFT could have been just another early seventies cop picture starring any number of popular white male actors but talented photographer and director Gordon Parks had something else in mind. From the legendary sounds of Isaac Hayes score to Parks influential and kinetic directorial style, SHAFT remains a mind-blowing and door kicking down film. Much of the credit for the film's phenomenal success is due to Roundtree himself, who would not only give a a great performance but would provide a much needed positive and strong role model for kids of all colors all over the world. There had certainly been strong African American portrayals on the screen before Richard Roundtree as John Shaft but his success as a leading man, sex symbol and strong dramatic force was a triple play that few actors, black or white, had matched before or since. John Shaft is one of the most important, if often overlooked, characters in American film history.

Roundtree worked constantly throughout the seventies in films ranging from the SHAFT sequels and tv series to the big budget disaster film EARTHQUAKE to the interesting DIAMONDS and the ambitious A GAME FOR VULTURES.
James Fargo's A GAME FOR VULTURES really showed Roundtree attempting to escape the John Shaft persona and it remains one of his great performances even though the film is flawed. The film's failure could have hurt Roundtree but he didn't let it and he continued to work constantly throughout the eighties.
Highlights from Roundtree's second decade as one of our great leading men and character actors include Larry Cohen's awesome Q, the fun Fred Williamson collaborations ONE DOWN, TWO TO GO and THE BIG SCORE and William Lustig's fine MANIAC COP.
Even a cancer scare in 1993 couldn't slow Richard down and he continued to appear in many films and television roles throughout the decade, including a great spot in David Fincher's SEVEN and the underrated Larry Cohen picture ORIGINAL GANGSTAS.
Richard gives a really fantastic performance in ORIGINAL GANGSTAS and the sight of him, Fred Williamson, Pam Grier, Jim Brown and Ron Oneal in the same film still brings a smile to my face. This effective little film is deserving of much more attention than has been granted to it.
This decade began with the news that SHAFT was going to be remade. What could have been disastrous was actually handled very well by director John Singleton. Instead of a straight remake the film was a continuation, with Samuel L. Jackson playing the nephew of the original John Shaft. Richard had been a hero to both Jackson and Singleton and the new SHAFT was a splendid tribute to not only the original film but also to how much the character had meant to kids in the seventies. Roundtree would appear in the film, as would original director Gordon Parks, and essentially steal every scene he was in. His scenes with Jackson in Singleton's very solid film remain some of the best and most effective of his career.
Since the new SHAFT, the Golden Globe nominated Richard Roundtree has continued to work constantly and he remains at sixty five one of the most beautiful and best Actors in American cinema. I wish him a very happy birthday and many more years of success on and off the screen.

"Ethereal material that's straight up classic": Gordon Parks Jr's Three the Hard Way (1974)

The exciting second feature from the very gifted and much-missed Gordon Parks Jr., Three the Hard Way (1974) is one of the great Blaxploitation films of the seventies. Featuring a towering cast, energetic stunt-work, impressive photography and energized direction, Three the Hard Way remains an exploitation fans dream; a hard-hitting quickly paced racehorse of a film that is another reminder of the greatness of Gordon Parks Jr., one of the seventies most under-appreciated icons.






Gordon Parks Jr. was riding high when he set out to follow-up his first groundbreaking feature, the mega-hit masterwork Super Fly (1972). He was also a filmmaker enflamed by much of the unjustified criticism thrown at him for supposedly celebrating negative stereotypes with his first influential film. With Three the Hard Way, Parks Jr. was on a mission to squash those who condemned his first film by producing a follow-up that would offer up three of the biggest stars of the day near Super-Hero roles that had more in common with James Bond than John Shaft.




The plot of Three the Hard Way introduces a new element to the Blaxploitation genre, namely science fiction. Parks Jr’s film concerns a militant group of nazi-like white supremacists who have come up with a water-based formula that will kill off America’s black population. The group make a fatal error though when they kill the buddy of Record Producer Jimmy Lait and kidnap his girlfriend. All hell breaks loose when Jimmy enlists two of his hard-hitting-friends, Jagger Daniels and Mister Keyes, and sets out to get his girl back and stop this new evil empire from blossoming.





Three the Hard Way is more than anything else a star vehicle for Jim Brown, Fred Williamson and Jim Kelly and Park’s Jr. was clearly well aware of this. Photography the three with the same bravado that Terence Young had captured Sean Connery in Thunderball (1965), Parks Jr. highlights his stars considerable ass-kicking charisma at every turn. Kelly’s introduction into the film (highlighted by a jaw-dropping karate kickdown that has to be seen to be believed) alone would make Three the Hard Way a Blaxploitation classic, but Brown and Williamson also deliver the goods throughout, especially Brown who was fresh off his bruising success as the unstoppable Slaughter.




Three the Hard Way also features a vibrant supporting cast including Shelia Frazier as Jimmy’s kidnapped lady, Alex Rocco as a police lt. and in a small role the incredible Roberta Collins. The real scene-stealers though are Pamela Serpe, Marie O’Henry and Irene Tsu, who play one of the strangest (and most fetching) torture squads in screen history.




While Three the Hard Way is very much a vehicle for Parks Jr’s impressive cast, that doesn’t stop him from offering up the same skillful and inventive direction that is seen in all of his work through Super Fly onto Thomasine and Bushrod and his final-feature Aaron Loves Angela. Like in his other works, Parks Jr’s startling trademarked still-photography sections are here to punctuate the thematic elements of the film, and his peerless street shooting (helped wonderfully here by the dazzling work of cinematographer Lucien Ballard) is simply astonishing. Park’s Jr. was a force to be reckoned with behind the camera and Three the Hard Way is another fine example of a clear auteur at work.





Despite the greatness of the cast and the direction, perhaps the real star of Three the Hard Way is stunt coordinator Hal Needham, who was just a few years away from coming to fame as a director himself, with the extraordinary and uber-succesful Smokey and the Bandit (1977). Needham’s work here for Parks Jr. is incredible to say the least, and his bold decision to include all three of the stars within the stunts is genius and gives Three the Hard Way a real visceral punch lacking from many action movies before of since. The success of the film can finally be credited to Parks Jr’s exquisite shot choices, Needham’s stunt coordination and editor Robert Swink’s inspired cutting…not to mention the onscreen characterizations of three of seventies greatest stars in their absolute prime.






Three the Hard Way, and its soundtrack from Curtis Mayfield’s backing group The Impressions, was a big hit when it played to thrilled audiences in 1974. Unlike Thomasine and Bushrod and Aaron Loves Angela it didn’t slip under the radar and it quickly become known as one of the essential works of the new Black Cinema. Despite this, Three the Hard Way was only just released on DVD this past year, after being out of print on home video since a VHS release in the eighties. The DVD (part of the Urban Action Collection where it is matched up with Black Samson, Hot Potato and Black Belt Jones) features a sharp looking widescreen print of the film but no extras. Sadly the DVD is missing a sequence that runs about three minutes but all of the nudity and language are intact. The missing sequence (that should be between Kelly’s introduction and the car-wash shootout) is a jarring omission and it is truly unfortunate that Warner Brothers didn’t restore it for what is otherwise an essential DVD collection.





Three the Hard Way is Gordon Parks Jr’s most flat-out entertaining film. It perhaps isn’t as groundbreaking as Superfly, or as genre-bending as Thomasine and Bushrod, or as moving as Aaron Loves Angela but it’s an extremely exciting work and a great, great action film (which is exactly what Parks Jr. set out to make).







American cinema lost a true visionary when Gordon Parks Jr. was tragically killed in a plane crash less than five years after Three the Hard Way hit theaters. His four feature-length films stand as a vibrant tribute to his memorythough and are essential viewing for fans of American Cinema…to paraphrase a song The Beastie Boys Named after Three the Hard Way, Parks Jr certainly did ‘Rock the Motherfucker” and the stunning shock-waves can still be felt everytime one of his films is on.