Today is the birthday of Richard Roundtree so, of course, today’s scene that I love could only be the classic opening of 1971’s Shaft.

By doing something as simple as walking down a street in New York, Roundtree shows us exactly who Shaft is and why Shaft does what he does.  This is one of those scenes that’s been parodied so many times that it’s actually surprising to rewatch and see how just defiant and sexy Richard Roundtree’s confident strut actually was.

On another note, I enjoy seeing all of the names of the movies that were playing on 42nd Street when this scene was filmed.