Super Fly

This was Director Gordon Parks'Jr. follow-up to one of the most successful and also one of the top five highest grossing pictures of 1971,the straight in-your face blaxploitation crime-drama,"Shaft",starring Richard Roundtree. This time around,he goes for the exploitation genre a bit further and this time it comes up a bona fide winner. Say what you want about this film,but when it first came out in the summer of 1972,the film became one of the top ten highest grossing pictures of that year. SUPER FLY was a major classic that was a huge success,and established Gordon Parks to make a second film for Warner Bors. Pictures,because he made history three years earlier as one of the first African-Americans to get financing for his first feature for the Warner Bors. studio,the 1969 autobiographical drama "The Learning Tree". However,SUPER FLY made a fortune for Warner Bors.,since the studio was about to jump on board the blaxploitation genre,and opened the doors for several movies to be produced for the studio,which including the following year the comedies,"Uptown Saturday Night",and the blaxploitation crime-dramas,"Cleopatra Jones",the sequel,"Casino Of Gold","Black Sampson","Black Cobra",and the classic martial-arts adventure/blaxploitation flick "Enter The Dragon". SUPER FLY was a slick urban romp had an appeal to its adult audiences,but because of the content of the film and its usage of drug abuse and drug substance together with the over count of its violent content,made it one of the most controversial movie ever made,and even for the year 1972,it was describe by some to be very intense with its subject matter and explicit language and some nudity. This was in fact shot on an low-budget theme that was released at the beginning of the blaxploitation/Black Cinema experience and it came out at a time when the Black Cinema movement exploded after the huge success of SHAFT and SWEET SWEETBACK. The main character here is Priest(played with absolute perfection by Ron O'Neal),who wants out of the drug business,but wants to make one last score before he calls it quits. Along the way,he is hassled by the cops,former associates and not to mention those who want to settle a score with him,but in all he gets back at them towards the end,but here the film delivers a powerful message here:the emptiness of the American dream. Priest may want to be out of the business,not because he hates them,but dealing with the endless hassle to sell anything illegal,and from that he just trying to make the best of what he has here,not just by selling but by any means necessary to survive. This is one hard edged gritty crime drama that tells it like it is with no holds-barred punches and straight to the point. A real honest look at the effect and ultimate destruction of drugs and the life of the drug dealer up close and personal. With an supporting cast that includes Shelia Frazier as Priest's girlfriend,Georgia,along with Julius Harris, the late Carl Lee,and Charles McGregor,with a brilliant screenplay by Phillip Fenty and music by Curtis Mayfield,whose brilliant soundtrack to this film was Grammy Nominated in 1972 for Best Soundtrack Album and Best R&B Album of that year...whose songs on this soundtrack for this film are standard classics these days,but as for the movie itself,its a piece of Black Cinema not to be missed. Rating:**** out of *****

Ron Earl is the Priest, independent Harlem coke dealer who is out for the big deal, one last push before he's out of there and out of the street. He also happens to be the protagonist and the one character we're called to empathize with and if that pose a problem for some, it's a directorial choice I applaud even only for its disregard of PC norm. In a genre populated for the most part by cops, private dicks and other manifestations of the law, having a drug dealer kicking ass and not in the name of some higher value, without him renouncing his past or seeing the error of his ways and becoming goodie two-shoes in a last minute, flimsy attempt to redeem the movie in the eyes of moral censors, without being heavy-handed or trashy is certainly admirable. Those that enjoy taking the moral high ground against the movie they're watching will find plenty of ground here to do so. I don't. I might oppose a movie on a political level but only when it tries to make a political statement out of it and Superfly sure as hell doesn't, at least not beyond what genre conventions might dictate (i.e. whitey is bad). The Priest however renounces the hypocrisy of "Black Nation" scumballs going around asking him for money just as much as he rails against the "redneck faggot" captain who doubletimes as the local drug lord.

So if Super Fly is so good, it's because The Priest's desire comes across so transparent, strong and clear. Get off the street. A home, a vine, his woman, that's all he wants out of life now, despite (or perhaps because of) him being a societal leech feeding off people's addiction. Dealing drugs is just a job for him, a means to an end. His partner Eddie rambles on at one point early in the movie about how "it's all whitey left them to do" on which I call shenanigans; that way of thinking is never further expounded upon in relation to the Priest's goal and Eddie in the end proves himself to be a backstabbing, greedy son of a bitch. I think the best way to sketch out The Priest's character is by using Lee Marvin's words when he was asked what it felt like to have played so many bad guys in his life: "My characters weren't bad. They were just trying to get through the day". That's pretty much the wavelength Super Fly channels its protagonist through. Neither condemnation, nor approval, it's just the way it is.

Super Fly is so damn good however, not just because its drug dealer protagonist comes across as genuine and sympathetic, but more so because it never allows itself to be drawn to the sillier end of blaxploitation. No 'mack daddy' sleazy pimpin' fabulousness here, the movie is constantly rooted in reality, taking itself serious before asking the viewer to do the same, but also groovy and funky as only blaxploitation flicks can be. A big part of that distinct seventies charm is due to Curtis Mayfield's stupendous score, playing over most of the film, but also the seedy back-alleys and rundown neighborhoods of then contemporary Harlem, the grime almost reaching across the screen.

Grade A blaxpoitation then, but also a smokin' hot crime flick with characterization that is better than most, good pace, all-around good acting, booty-shaking' music, afros and a few punches thrown in for good measure, Super Fly is among the best of its kind. Strongly recommended.

One of the grittiest of the so-called blaxploitation films of the 1970s, Gordon Parks Jr's Superfly can really catch audiences off guard and sober them up. Ron O'Neal's brooding performance as retiring drug dealer Youngblood Priest is excellent, as is the consistently evident tension between the races (expertly captured by Parks). I recently had the opportunity to see Superfly at a film festival, and Curtis Mayfield's on-screen appearance in a nightclub received a warm round of applause from the packed theater. Mayfield really did deliver one of the greatest soundtracks in film history for Superfly. "Pusherman," "Freddie's Dead," the title song and many others are just incredible.

'Superfly' is the best movie of the short-lived 1970s blaxploitation boom which gave the world the better known, but less substantial 'Shaft'. The 'Shaft' series are incredibly entertaining movies, no argument there, but most of the films from this period starring Richard Roundtree, Fred Williamson, Jim Kelly,et al are essentially action movies which feature "a black Dirty Harry", "a black Bruce Lee", "a black Philip Marlowe" or even "a black James Bond". In other words they are genre action thrillers with black protagonists. 'Superfly' is very different from most of those movies because Ron O'Neal plays Priest, who isn't a private eye or a "righteous dude" but a DRUG DEALER. And while Priest is tired of "the life" and wants to retire the movie doesn't feature any knee-jerk anti-drug stance or moralizing. This meant that many in the black community at the time detested it and what they perceived as being the glamorization of drugs and drug dealing. All these years later, in an era that is in many ways even more conservative (or at least more hypocritical!), this is what gives the movie a genuine edge, especially when what is on the screen is given a musical debate by Curtis Mayfield's superb score, one of the greatest of all time. O'Neal is charismatic and super cool and displays some genuine acting talent. Which makes it such a shame that his career quickly went down the toilet with little more than small supporting roles in 80s garbage like 'Red Dawn' and 'Hero and the Terror'. O'Neal is supported by an excellent cast of mainly obscure actors such as the late Carl Lee and Charles MacGregor ('Blazing Saddles') as Fat Freddy. The best known face is veteran Julius Harris ('Live And Let Die') who has a pivotal role as Priest's former mentor Scatter. Director Gordon Parks Jr. went on to make 'Three The Hard Way' starring Fred Williamson and Jims Brown and Kelly, but never fulfilled the his potential before being cut down in a plane crash in the late 70s. What a pity. At least he left us with 'Superfly', which is not just a great blaxploitation movie, but a great movie period. Highly recommended to all fans of gritty 70s crime movies.

Long "Maxi" coats and "Superfly" hats with platform shoes: yes, I was one who jumped into the fashion trend at the time. I hat a purple hat and coat and four-inch platforms after this film came out. I wish I had a picture. :-)

This was a defining film that mightily affect a generation. The music of Curtis Mayfield made it even more enjoyable. It wasn't just a blaxploitation film, it was a good experience.

Sure the fights were lame, the acting nothing to write home about, and even the sex scenes left a lot to be desired, but this was an important film. See it ass soon as you can.