a subtle feel for both the grit and the humanity of the script. Excellent cast, headed by newcomer Richard Roundtree, may shock some audiences with a heavy dose of candid dialog and situation." Vincent Canby of The New York Times called it "the first good Saturday night movie I've seen in years ... 'Shaft' is not a great film, but it's very entertaining." In a review for The Monthly Film Bulletin, Nigel Andrews called it "in the main a highly workmanlike and enjoyable thriller." Gary Arnold of The Washington Post called it "a diverting commercial thriller, inconsequential but slick and casually enjoyable." Other critics like Clayton Riley mainly found fault in the films' failure to "deal with Black life in serious terms," writing that "Sam Spade is all right for the field hands because the White folks don't want to carry that weight any more. But how seriously would 'Five Easy Pieces' have been taken with a Black pianist as the weary protagonist?" Riley also harshly stated, "Mediocre is the only word to describe the work of Gordon Parks, the director of this nonsense, inept is the kindest thing to say about the performances of Richard Roundtree as John Shaft, a Black private eye on the prowl for kicks in the Big Apple underworld." Parks responded to Riley's social criticisms with a letter to the editor in The New York Times, stating that "Riley seems sadly alone among blacks in this reaction. Most black critics have lauded the film for its portrayal of Shaft as a strong black hero ... I share Riley's desire to see black actors playing roles now assumed by actors such as Jack Nicholson or Dustin Hoffman, but I don't think the choice for black people is limited to either 'Five Easy Pieces' or Stepin Fetchit." Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 87% based on 46 reviews from critics, with an average rating of 7.5/10. The website's "Critics Consensus" quotes the movie's opening song: "This is the man that would risk his neck for his brother, man. Can you dig it?" Awards and nominations In 2000, Shaft was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In 2003, Shaft was chosen as one of The 1000 Best Movies Ever Made by The New York Times. In 2004, the song was