9. Shaft (1971)
It's Based On The Book... "Shaft" By Ernest Tidyman (1971) What's that movie about the black private dick that you had no idea was based on a book?
Shaft! Can you dig it? I certainly can, but I won't say I wasn't surprised to original discover that
Shaft, the '70s blaxploitation classic, was based on a novel of the same name, written in 1970 by Ernest Tidyman. And there were five more of these Shaft novels written in subsequent years, by the way, one of which was called "Shaft Among The Jews." I don't know what that's about exactly, but it sounds awesome. Same goes for "Shaft Has A Ball," which sounds just about as fun as any novel ever written. Anyway, Tidyman's series featured a black P.I., much like in the movie, who solved cases in New York with a sass mouth and mean fightin' skills.
How Close It It To The Book? Pretty close: you get more of a sense of who exactly Shaft is in the novel, whereas it's left pretty vague in the movie.