Shaft...he is a "bad mother ******"

At the beginning of Shaft, it's very clear that the protagonist is going to be a complete badass.

"Where the hell are you going?"

"To get laid, where the hell are you going?"

He is the stereotype of a 1970's black cop, bound to the law, but still somewhat lawless, in the legal sense. His confidence and masculinity played a big role, and sometimes his intimidation was what really made a scene awesome, not necessarily the action. In Matthew Henry's article, there are comparisons to the remake of Shaft, done in 2000. The 2000 version was more about a man with a 'personal vendetta', whereas the 1971 version was more political. It was about a man trying to "navigate a tenuous position between the highly politicized black and white worlds, the one defined by law and the other largely by crime." I haven't yet seen the 2000 version, but the 1971 version has more cultural relevance, and the film itself therefore had more to say than just telling a story.