Shaft in Africa (1973)

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General		Extras
Category	Action	Main Menu Audio Listing-Cast & Crew Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	1973
Running Time	107:49
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Sided	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	John Guillermin
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Richard Roundtree Vonetta McGee
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$29.95	Music	Johnny Pate

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Pan & Scan	English Dolby Digital 1.0 (192Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 1.0 (192Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 1.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English French Italian Dutch Arabic Portuguese German Romanian Bulgarian English for the Hearing Impaired Italian for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    In the opening scene, we see someone running from the bad guys, and being killed. We cut to Shaft returning home and dodging a large man, only to have the man smash through the door to his apartment and attack him. This is the unusual way in which an Emir chooses to enlist Shaft for a detective assignment. The Emir wants Shaft to go undercover in Northern Africa to bust open a ring of people smugglers. The smugglers con African men into signing up for ultra-low wages, then smuggle them into France to do heavy and menial labour. Anyone causing trouble is killed, including the Emir's son - he was the previous person to try infiltration.

    Clearly, by now the budget had grown substantially. This film was shot on location in Ethiopia, as well as New York, but the original director was gone, as was Isaac Hayes. This was the last Shaft film made. That's not to say that it is bad - it isn't. I'm glad they didn't try to make another, though.

Video

    The movie is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1. It is 16x9 enhanced. Just like the other two Shaft DVDs, there is a 1.33:1 version on the other side of the DVD. Just like the other two Shaft DVDs, it is mislabelled - it is a 1.33:1 Pan & Scan transfer, not 2.35:1. The 1.33:1 transfer of this film has considerably more contrast than the widescreen version. Way too much, in my opinion, which makes it look quite harsh. I'm glad they made that mistake on the 1.33:1 side and not on the 2.35:1 16x9 enhanced side.

    The image is a little soft, but I attribute that mostly to fine film grain - I would not expect a movie of this age to show the incredible level of detail that can be achieved today. Shadow detail is quite good, and there is little or no low-level noise.

    Colours are a little muted, probably because of the film stock used.

    There are a few film artefacts, but they are small and not bothersome. There are no MPEG artefacts, and aliasing is not common.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The dialogue is clear and readily understood. There are some lines in an African language which are not subtitled, but we don't need to know what is being said - it is not important to the plot.

    The music, by Johnny Pate, is appropriate, and a little unusual - an interesting mixture of percussion (a hint of Africa?) and brass (echoing early Shaft music?).

    The surrounds and subwoofer are given nothing to do by a straight mono soundtrack.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

Cast and Crew

Trailer (2:52)

• trailers for the other two Shaft movies
• a bio for Richard Roundtree

• an Amaray case

    The video quality is quite good.

    The audio quality is good, for a mono track.

    The extras are minimal.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall