Continuity mistake: The first time the slaver is setting his table up in the village to recruit workers, he is sitting down and starting to open the bag. Amazingly enough, the next shot has him just arriving from out of frame and banging the same bag on that table to call for attention. He'll sit down in another shot later, when Shaft's dog jumps in the line. (00:51:35)
Continuity mistake: In the village of Maiberra, two baddies dismount from a truck. You can see by the truck a series of women sitting against the wall. Shaft and his bodyguard arrive mere seconds after, but the natural light changed (look at the shadows on the wall), some women left and the curtain has been moved. (00:51:15)
Continuity mistake: Kopo talks to the "district headman" and turns his heels followed by Shaft. To the right of the venerable man you can see three men, two of them with long spears in hand. In the reverse shot when Kopo begins to explain the situation to Shaft, the three guys are chilling with the spears no longer in their hands, the one in the middle turned in the opposite direction (away from Shaft) than before. (00:49:10)
Continuity mistake: After leaving his belle, Shaft meets a man in the plains (Kopo, he says later). When that man lowers his stick, in the first shot (from distance) he's doing it simply letting the left hand go off it, but in the view with the camera right behind him, his motion is repeated more slowly and accompanying the stick with that hand for a longer period. (00:47:10)
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)
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 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)
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)
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'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)
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)
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: After killing Marco Sassari, Shaft goes back to the corpse of Kopo. He finds him lying down with his arms close to the body and a blood splatter all over the mouth and right side of the shirt. But he died with the arms spread and no blood from his mouth. (00:56:55 - 00:59:15)
Revealing mistake: Shaft kills two guys who are climbing the stairs out of the catacombs Amafi is holed in. No bullet holes or blood appear on the clothes, and they both use the railings to help their backward tumble down the stairs in a rather noticeable fashion. (01:46:00)
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: While Shaft and the girl are lowering the boat, a bad guy with a knife approaches. He has an almost intact cigarette in mouth, which burns down an inch in between shots between that time and when he does his bowling-like throw and dies. (01:25:05)
Continuity mistake: When Aleme reads from the book about castles, there's an obvious difference between the close-ups (right hand moving on the page) and the wider shots (she holds the page, then she is moving the left hand on it instead of the right). (01:43:20)
Continuity mistake: Shaft slips out of the prostitute's room as he hears the clamor downstairs. He slides under the railing; his right hand holds the stick all the way at the top in the second shot, in contrast with the position in the previous. (01:10:15)
Continuity mistake: Shaft offers his hand to Aleme helping her up into the scarecrow nest; his left leg is held considerably higher than the right, but in the side view of the ladder the feet are exactly at the opposite; right up, left down. (00:44:10)
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)
