Superfly

Starring:Ron O'Neal, Carl Lee, Sheila Frazier, Julius Harris, Charles McGregor, Nate Adams, Polly Niles, Yvonne Delaine, Henry Shapiro, K.C., James G. Richardson, Make Bray, Al Kiggins, Bob Bonds, Fred Rolaf, Alex Stevens, Harry Manson, Floyd Levine, Mike Richards, Chris Arnett
Director: Gordon Parks Jr.
Studio: Warner Home Video
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

The pinnacle of blaxploitation movies, the 1972 Superfly stars Ron O'Neal as a drug dealer who wants out of the business but decides to take out some enemies in the process. With its criminal hero, one might almost think this could be an existential crime movie, but no...it's really just an effective piece of pulp with a strong performance by O'Neal, grim settings, cool direction by Gordon Parks Jr., and a famous soundtrack by Curtis Mayfield. --Tom Keogh

Description

Ron O'Neal in the smart, streetwise box office success about a pusher who tries to make one last killer deal before kicking the business. Featuring a hit Curtis Mayfield score. Year: 1972 Director: Gordon Parks, Jr. Starring: Ron O'Neal, Carl Lee, Julius W. Harris

Customer Reviews:

the real deal !!!!!!!!!!.......2007-06-14

Having grown up in the Bronx in the 60's and 70's, I can honestly say this is as close to the real deal as it gets. Hats off to Gordon Parker, Jr.

Doesn't Hold Up.......2007-05-07

I loved it so much when I saw it in the early 70's, but over time it seems dated and corny. Ron O'Neal's performance as Priest seems stilted and forced. Best thing I can say about it now is that it has a wonderful score from Curtis Mayfield that DOES still hold up. Buy the music and forget the film.

"Superfly" helps represent the era of the Seventies. .......2006-11-16

This movie is outrageous. Gordon Parks Jr.'s "Superfly" is interesting enough with its cliches of drug pushers, users, pimps, hos, and the dismal life in 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.

A director today, for example, could never get away with making a movie like this. The movie moves along like a series of music videos, stopping periodically to insert some dialogue and characters and situations, after which it moves back into another music video. Even that sex scene in the bathtub seemed to go on forever, panning up and down and up and down and up and down the naked bodies in the tub, presumably long enough for the song to play out before we can move on to the next scene.

From a technical standpoint, the film is an absolute disaster. There's a foot-chase early in the movie during which a wire of some sort falls directly in front of the camera lens not once, but twice, the audio is numerous scenes does not even remotely match the video (the never-ending bathtub scene, for example), and the acting is abysmal.

Throughout the film, the enjoyment comes from Curtis Mayfield's superb soundtrack. It 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.

Classic.......2006-11-03

This movie is the typical 1970's Blacksploitation movie with great music and bad acting. Hovever, it's a classic and I love it. As soon as I was able to find it on DVD I knew I had to get it.

Curtis Mayfield's soundtrack is the real star.......2006-07-15

I've been a fan of Superfly as soundtrack for years. Curtis Mayfield is the man, crooner, poet, and funkateer all put into one wise package. The lyrics of his songs for Superfly tell the story for me better than the plot itself at times.

So in figuring out this flick in my own mind, it was hard for me to see how beyond the soundtrack it was so great. Part of this is me facing the hard facts of how low budget it was for the first time. The chase scenes go on too long for me and there's a lot of footage of guys just running around in their cars. There were some real gaps in the story for me.

But ultimately I just wasn't really connecting with Priest. Yeah, he wants to get out of the game. But he's also high all the time. That's the hardest thing for me. There's a certain glamour in how he balances his women and how he flips the man's script. But he's flippin high all the time. If he's really beyond the game and the existential hero/antihero who can fly above the dope industry, I just think he'd avoid sampling the product.

You've got to see this film because I think part of the reason I'm less blown away by it is that it's the foundation for some modern blaxploitation films I'd dig more.

But Curtis is and always will be the man. Check it out if for no other reason to see how his cuts are the film. Plus there's a scene with him lipsynching "Pusherman" in a bar.

3 stars

--SD

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