Super Fly (1972) [Blu-ray]

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Super Fly is nothing like many potential reviewers would suspect. Like Shaft from 1971 it was one of the first films starring strong black characters with a mostly black cast. The two films were such box-office smashes that they spawned a whole genre, the "blaxploitation film". Unfortunately the genre, mostly consisting of low budget B-pictures soon became outlandish parodies featuring laughable dialogue, hot women and men fighting in maxi-coats and platform shoes. Today many people watch them for laughs. Not so for Superfly or Shaft. Both are serious pictures meant to be taken that way. Of the two I find Super fly far more interesting. Shaft is basically a standard action flick, a power fantasy for guys. With a few changes in a rewrite it could have starred Clint Eastwood. Super Fly was far more unique: a serious drama of daily life in Harlem, and in the world of ghetto dealers and corrupt police at that. It was tough and real and pulled no punches. In its day it was bigger than Shaft though over time shaft is the more remembered film.Super Fly was one of those films where everything seemed to fall into place and everything that would have seemed to work against it became an asset. Sig Shore, the Connecticut-based producer, had previously been an importer of foreign films (including The 400 Blows and Hiroshima Mon Amour) and had never produced a film before. The film's budget was somewhere between "under $100,000" to $500,000 (accounts vary) which should have doomed it from the start. Instead, this gave the film a gritty, almost cinema verite feeling that all the sheen and production money could buy would have lost. The movie was filmed in almost shoot-and-run fashion in the winter of '72, using Harlem's actual streets and people as the location without city permits or hired extras, which gave it a documentary look. Unable to hire well known actors, they lucked into Ron O'Neal, a classically trained actor who had been in theater since the 50's and had recently broken out in New York theater, winning an Obie, Drama Desk and other awards.Shore and his screenwriter Phillip Fenty then had the inspiration to ask Curtis Mayfield to write the score for the film backstage at a his concert in Lincoln Center. Not only did he say yes to the project, but he found himself highly inspired by the whole thing, turning in a song-score that was one of the great soul albums of the era, Interestingly, Mayfield's lyrics were, like him, essentially anti-drug, which gave the film much more balance. With a purely instrumental score it might have been seen as a glorification of drugs and a criminal lifestyle. In fact it was accused of that anyway, mostly by the more official African-American establishment groups whose aim at the time was to portray black people in positive roles (think Sidney Poitier, with all due respect). The Hollywood chapter of the NAACP wanted a new ending where Priest (Super Fly) died. But the film went out as it was. Freddie's Dead, the film's theme went Top 5 on the billboard charts, sold over a million copies and got tons of airplay, all free advertising for the film. As a final stroke of luck, Shore had used his film industry connections to get Warner Brothers to pick up distribution for his little independent film, giving it a wide opening. The end result was that the film grossed 30 million, a very big number in 1972.The film is a solid drama, well acted by everyone involved in a way that feels real. Best of all was O'Neal, who gave a considered, layered portrayal of the lead character that makes him come off as a totally authentic person trying to make his way to a better life in a tough situation. Carl Lee is excellent as the feckless Eddie, who sees his enslavement as a cog in a drug ring led by the police as an opportunity rather than a death sentence. Priest, portrayed as a thinking man who even has a chess set built into his coffee table, knows differently. Julius Hatter as Priest's mentor, Scatter, is totally sympathetic as a man pushed against his will into doing something he knows will likely have fatal consequences. His role led to more films including a memorable appearance in Live and Let Die. The only loser in the whole deal was Ron O'Neal, who thereafter became typecast in pimp and dealer roles and was never taken seriously again.So if you're looking for a laugh try something else. Super Fly is a fine film that is also a real look at America at a particular time and in a particular place.EXTRA NOTE On PICTURE QUALITY: Amazon's picture is sharp, clear and in sharp detail. By a crazy coincidence when I was about to start this film, what came on a local station but Super Fly! I watched it for a couple minutes. The picture was pale and faded-looking. No compairison. This is the way to see it.

Awesome

Nice

The transfer to Blu-Ray probably was as good as it could get due to the quality of the original prints. This wasn't a big budget film so you can't expect much, it is what it is. It doesn't look much better than (if at all) a DVD. I would say if you own the DVD don't bother to upgrade because it isn't. In general I don't buy old movies on Blu-Ray because there usually isn't much of and improvement over the DVD. Sometimes it is hard to determine if there is a picture quality upgrade since most of the reviews are about the movie as oppose to the product itself. I gave it 4 stars for the sound track and 1 for the movie. I always like the Mack more and still do. 100 Guns is the only old movie I bought so far that there is a definite picture quality boost with the Blu-Ray.

Love the movie 😊

t was good to see the Gordon Parks Jr. film “Super Fly” included on the list of 100 best New York City films in the “Hollywood” issue of Vanity Fair.Coincidentally, a few weeks ago, I watched the film for the first time in 43 years when it was shown as part of the Bounce network’s Saturday night blaxploitation slot. Every weekend, the broadcast/basic cable channel devotes four hours to the potent 1970s black melodramas that found a welcome home in the giant downtown urban movie houses that were being abandoned by white audiences.Sadly, when urban redevelopment claimed most of those theaters in the late 1970s, the genre dried up because there were few places left to book the films and turn a tidy profit.The Bounce series is a great way to catch up with all of those early Pam Grier vehicles like “Coffy” and “Friday Foster” and funky comedies such as “Cotton Comes to Harlem,” the 1970 hit, directed by Ossie Davis and starring Godfrey Cambridge, that helped launch the genre (after it made a lot more money than United Artists expected).“Super Fly” stands apart from many of the other films in the genre because of the visual craft Gordon Parks Jr. put into a very low-budget picture and the superior performances of a cast led by Ron O’Neal, who was featured in some of the biggest black stage hits of that period, including “Ceremonies in Dark Old Men” and “No Place to Be Somebody.”superfly3The commercial interruptions and many obvious cuts in the Bounce showing caused me to check out the original version of the movie via Amazon the other night. It still works very well as an example of high-quality low-budget NYC moviemaking back in the day when film crews could shoot on city streets with a lot less interference.What seemed like filler to me when I saw the movie in 1972 — the long views of real street life and the attention paid to the details in the production and costume design — is now one of the picture’s greatest strengths. Because the filmmakers couldn’t afford to shoot in studios, “Super Fly” has become a powerful pop culture time capsule (with a potent drug world plot bolstering it). In many scenes, it looks like we are seeing ordinary people on the street rather than extras.Like his father, Parks was a photographer before he became a filmmaker and his great eye is evident throughout “Super Fly” as he artfully frames and examines material that is technically “background” but which adds to the overwhelming feeling of realism. Right at the start — before the credits come on — we get a striking overhead view of a block in Harlem and follow two characters who turn out to be secondary to the main action.For a few minutes, the scene is set before we meet the main character, Priest, the cocaine dealer (played by Ron O’Neal) who has grown tired of his dangerous trade — in spite of all the perks — and who plots one last big score that will allow him to move on to another life.In addition to landing O’Neal, Parks was very lucky to convince Curtis Mayfield to compose a score that lends great energy to nearly every scene. While the movie often looks like a documentary, the soundtrack supplies plenty of drama to simple moments such as Priest driving from one part of the city to another, or a long sequence near the end where we watch the anti-hero making a deal with two mobsters but don’t get to hear a single word.Parks only made a few more films before he died in a plane crash in 1979 while location scouting in Kenya. “Super Fly” deserves the spot Vanity Fair gave it among the early films of Woody Allen and Martin Scorsese. Who knows where the director might have gone if he had been given more time and money?

Black exploitation at its finest

Je viens enfin de découvrir en dvd ce film, maitre étalon de la "blaxploitation", au même titre que" sweet sweetback baadasss song" de Melvin Van PEEBLES. Et là, c'est la claque audiovisuelle : l'histoire d'un dealer qui aimerait bien raccrocher après une dernière opération fructueuse, une bande originale signée Custis MAYFIELD (excusez du peu), une réalisation inventive effectuée par Gordon PARKS Jr.Dans ce film daté de 1972, tout y est : les pimps (maquereaux) afro américains déguisés comme pour le carnaval de RIO, avec pattes d'éph, cols pelles à tarte, velours chatoyants, chapeaux improbables, les putes (souvent blanches), les dealers, les flics de NEW YORK plus ou moins ripoux, heu... Plutôt plus, que moins d'ailleurs (la police Newyorkaise, à cette époque était gangrénée par la corruption, voir l'affaire "SERPICO").Tout amateur de Blaxploitation se doit de voir ce film, d'une profondeur scénaristique au dessus de la moyenne des productions du même type, faisant ressortir les doutes existentiels des personnages et leur philosophie de vie (malgré son "sale" métier, on ne peut s'empêcher d'avoir de l'empathie pour le personnage principal).Et tout débutant dans le genre doit le mettre dans sa liste à voir en priorité.Pour ce qui est du support, ce dvd Warner est donc région 1 américain mais, si vous avez un lecteur multi zones ou dézonné, n'hésitez pas car cette galette renferme une piste audio française, en plus de l'originale en anglais avec, bien entendu les sous titrages. Et de toutes façons, il n'est pas édité en France !L'image est granuleuse mais renforce une ambiance bien glauque, avec ses quartiers noirs à l'abandon, où vivent quand même des familles, ses courses poursuites, ses bars et boites réservées au afro américains (observez bien, quelques blancs se sont glissés pour écouter de la bonne zique, à droite, à gauche).Alors certes, si techniquement l'image ne répond pas aux canons actuels de qualité, sachez qu'il n'existe pas à ma connaissance de bluray de ce titre, encore moins en région B.Ah, et pour finir, sachez que cette galette renferme des bonus très intéressants (commentaire, interviews, documentaire), mais malheureusement non sous titrés (un niveau moyen à bon en anglais devrait suffire).Bon visionnage...

This is a realistic and gritty portrayal of the early 1970s street scene, with a great soundtrack as well. A classic from that period that is often overlooked.

dvd in standard americano ntsc quindi non utilizzabile con lettore europeo

Perfekt! In Deutschland nur geschnitten, deutsche Tonspur is eh egal. Region 0 bitte, danke!

One of the best of the blaxspliotion genre.