Continuity mistake: In the back of the limo at the beginning of the movie, the woman with Mr. Amafi blows cigar smoke in his face. She does so opening her mouth at the end of the first shot, but has her lip still puckered in the one that follows. (00:01:40)
Factual error: Facing the mysterious fighter from Africa in his apartment, Shaft shoots him twice with no results. It is later revealed that he was wearing a bulletproof vest, but it's the overpowered movie kind: the guy doesn't suffer from the impact of the bullet in the slightest. Not just that: there's not a single hole or mark on his white robe in that scene. (00:08:40)
Revealing mistake: Richard Roundtree is quite literally butt naked during his stick fight in the Emir's stable towards the beginning of the movie, except in one shot where the person in frame is wearing blue sweatpants. (00:12:50)
Continuity mistake: As Shaft is stick fighting in the stable, the Emir's attendant makes a comment about his penis (no, seriously, he does!). The man is leaning against the door with his hand positioned 3 different ways in 3 different shots. (00:13:00)
Revealing mistake: Flashback to the truck on fire past the Franco-Italian border; the driver chops the lock open, with all the slaves inside banging desperately at the cargo doors to get out of the inferno. Or not; when there's a cut between shots, you can see the lock already came off, but the extras who are supposedly trying with all their might to escape death do in fact wait for the driver to open the door before they start coming out. (00:19:50)
Continuity mistake: Shaft listens to all the info about the slave trade; Osiat always stands stoic without moving in single shots, hands on his stick pointed vertically before him, but between shots you can see the hands swapped position. A particularly obvious one since it's in a direct transition with camera on him happens when the Emir tells him to let his daughter in. There's a clear swap, and also a discontinuity when his hand suddenly is off the door handle. (00:22:10)
Continuity mistake: Shaft is asking his charming teacher to shoo the jolly giant while they "get down to the finer strokes." He has a closed fist on top of the sofa, but a different hand pose with the thumb and index outstretched over the corner in the next shot. (00:23:35)
Continuity mistake: In the Paris toilet, Shaft is ambushed by a fearsome assassin dressed as a cleaning lady. Three shots are exploded against the door (two that we see, plus one pre-existing hole presumably from one of the first bullets) but when he barges in the stall the door has 4 holes. (00:28:50)
Visible crew/equipment: When the camera moves in showing the dead short guy in drag killed in the toilet, on the toilet is the shadow of the moving camera. (00:29:24)
Continuity mistake: When Shaft arrives in Addis Ababa, the first close-up on Richard Roundtree shows a man with a hat behind him. No men with hats are behind him in the opening shot of the plane ladder, nor the following. (00:31:05)
Continuity mistake: In the scene with the tame lion at Shaft's arrival at the Ethiopian Hilton, the movements of the extras in the background are inconsistent from shot to shot (easy seen if you focus on the bright yellow valet loading the car trunk, which keeps having people appear and disappear by him). (00:31:55)
Continuity mistake: In the close-up of the lion looking at Shaft, the light of the scene is entirely different, plus he is also turned differently and with its tamer behind it when he was just a moment before leaning on the pillar. Despite being still, the lion moves around. (00:32:00)
Continuity mistake: When the Colonel proudly shows the stick and with a skillful hand motion covers the knob before offering it to Shaft, Richard Roundtree's hand is by the glass at first, close to his chest after. (00:34:25)
Continuity mistake: Having received the Colonel's big knotty stick, Shaft is cupping his special pouch; you can see it turn around (look at the strings). (00:34:50)
Continuity mistake: When Shaft says that his folks were not into cotton but tobacco, the Colonel has his hands (and the recorder) on the table, but jump suddenly up at the cut. Shaft's glass is also more full than at the beginning of the scene. (00:35:05)
Continuity mistake: The thin man with greasy hair that draws Shaft's suspicion on the bus out of Addis Ababa, is shown with one arm on the back of the seat and one arm on his lap in close-ups, but he has his arms folded in the wider shot. (00:36:50)
Continuity mistake: In his secret mission, Shaft keeps meeting assassins perfectly tipped about his position. Once he murders the one on the bus elbowing him in the windpipe (which, as we know, causes instant silent death) he grabs his wallet. He puts it in his left hand, but as he pushes back the ex-assassin in order get up his right arm is in a different position and is now the one holding the wallet. (00:38:55)
Revealing mistake: When Shaft props the dead guy on the bus against the seat, the blood he drooled on his arm is gone, and as he tries to shut the dead guy's eyelids the not-so-dead actor closes his eyes a second before Richard Roundtree's fingers get to his eyeballs. (00:39:05)
Factual error: The document Shaft checks out when he kills the bus assassin is not a passport, but a driving license. It's also missing the signature, and the name of the city (Sardinia's capital city) is misspelled as Caliari instead of Cagliari; even worse, a scribbled line where the issue date should be. An official document like it's supposed to be generally had all the information typed and not handwritten, but if it were handwritten, it needed to be in block letters, not the way it is in the movie, in longhand and with such awful penmanship. (00:40:35)
Continuity mistake: Shaft's new four legged companion is standing in the middle of the dirt road; in his close-ups we see him cast a shadow in the direction the car comes from, but in the long shots of the road the shadows traverse it side to side (and look at the shadow cast by the bush). (00:42:30)
