Super Fly

Gordon Parks Jr.'s "Superfly" is interesting enough with its cliches of drug pushers, users, pimps, hos, and the dismal life that is the ghetto. Good performances are given by Ron O'Neal as Priest, the drug pusher who wants to do the unthinkable -- get out of the business, and Julius Harris as Scatter, Priest's former connection to "The Man". After a little "help" from his friends Priest discovers he can only trust his woman, Georgia (Shelia Frazier). But, Priest has masterminded a way to take him and Georgia away from this life to another.

Throughout the film, Curtis Mayfield's superb soundtrack has a way of elevating what might be just another b film to a cult classic. From "Little Child Runnin' Wild" in the opening sequence to Curtis Mayfield's live performance of "Pusherman" in Scatter's club to the end credits with the title track, this is simply one of the finest pieces of music ever written specifically for a film. The soundtrack album, which produced hit singles with "Freddie's Dead" and "Superfly", stands with Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On" as perhaps the two greatest soul albums of the 1970's.

Life is rough. Drug dealer Priest (Ron O'Neal) decides to get out of the game after one final big score. He's looking to do a million dollar deal with his partner Eddie.

What a car! What a song! This is a relatively simple blaxploitation movie. Ron O'Neal is a functional lead. The production is what's expected. Most of all, the title is cool, the song is cool, and that's half the battle.

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 *****

Let me put in my two cents about this film.

If you weren't around when this film was released...you're going to miss much when writing a review. Let me try to help:

This film IS about an urban drug dealer that "sticks it to the man". This was NOT a known concept of that time which is why it attracted so many movie goers. What was ALSO interesting was the casting of the light skinned, straight haired actor Ron O'Neal as "Superfly" to "stick it to the man". "The Man", usually white in these films, formatically had to brace the rath of very dark skinned blacks. But here was something... different! "The Man", was really "The Law Establishment". And was "Superfly"...urban? New Concepts of the time.

Another thing: Curtis Mayfield HATED the theme of this movie. He was going to turn down writing the soundtrack when he thought it may be better to counteract this theme by writing POSITIVE messages for the audience to hear. Before "Saturday Night Fever", Curtis Mayfield wrote the ground breaking music to "Superfly". This made the film even more popular.

This was a low budget film released at the very beginning of the black film experience, and was meant to be the opposite of "Shaft" not a parellel to it. But based on the success of Shaft, Warner Bro's needed a project to enter in this arena and greenlighted "Superfly".

This film began a M-A-J-O-R fashion trend that was hard to overcome (only the Disco era of the late 70's knocked this one out.)

And that is "Superfly" in a nutshell.

"Priest", played by Ron O'Neal was 'supercool', he was slick, he had a nice existence, he was a drug dealer that you DIDN'T know was one -- not by outward appearances anyway...that didn't get his come-uppence at the end of the film, he GAVE it.

It is amazing what an impact "Superfly" had on the culture of that time. In looking at it now, it may look cheap, but it IS a timecapsule of fashion, of music and of breaking a movie taboo that all drug dealers are lowlifes and must be killed in the end.

About that fashion: This began the trend of white surban-ites dressing like pimps trying to be cool. Little white kids were wearing "maxi" coats with "Superfly" hats to Jr. High School and High School!!! Dancers were wearing platform shoes, etc., on American Bandstand!!! You think Hip-Hop did it? Where have you BEEN!!!

"Superfly" is one of the rare films that you must experience beyond judging it on how good or bad it is to watch...Rent this film to see how a film can INFLUENCE a culture.

'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.