Super Fly

Director: Gordon Parks Jr
Screenplay: Phillip Fenty
Minutes: 93
Year: 1972
Score: 6.80
Release: Warner Archive

Released one year after his father’s Shaft, and the genres original film Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song. Gordon Parks Jr. gives us a great Curtis Mayfield music video, even if it is a little long.

From WBShop.com:

Priest is a prince of the streets, a charismatic businessman who wants out of cocaine-dealing. But a mysterious kingpin doesn’t want Priest to change his ways. And that triggers murder, revenge and double-crosses that push Priest into a corner – and heat the neighborhood to flash point.Super Fly is one of the more enduring streetwise films of its era, due to the dynamic central performance of Ron O’Neal (Red Dawn, Original Gangstas), the sizzling score by Curtis Mayfield and the gritty direction of the late Gordon Parks, Jr. (Three the Hard Way, Aaron Loves Angela). Super Fly is super entertainment with an indelible message. It’s life on the edge, put together by talents who know just how sharp it can get.

There was never a time when I was growing up that I expected I would have enough experience with blaxploitation films that I would have a negative opinion of this movie. But here we are. Years and years ago I watched Shaft and Sweet Sweetback and those two films formed the basis for everything I assumed that the 1970s looked like. A slight sepia tint, a slight blur while also weirdly sharp. And an amazing soundtrack.

Between this Curtis Mayfield score, Isaac Hayes on Shaft, and Earth Wind and Fire on Sweet Sweetback it is difficult to watch a blaxploitation film with a, I don’t know, common score. This is something that the other genre films I’ve seen are lacking, but, compared to Super Fly, those other films are, overall, more enjoyable.

Special Features:

• Commentary by Dr. Todd Boyd
• One Last Deal: A Retrospective
• Ron O’Neal on the Making of Super Fly
• Curtis Mayfield on Super Fly (audio only)
• Behind the Threads
• Behind the Hog with Les Dunham
• Trailer

Director: 5 – Cinematography: 6 – Edit: 7 – Parity: 8 – Main performance: 7 – Else performance: 3 – Score: 10 – Sound: 6 – Story: 8 – Script: 7 – Effects: 7 – Design: 7 – Costumes: 9 – Keeps interest: 7 – Lasting: 5