Super Fly 
                                      
Director: Gordon Parks Jr
Year: 1972
Rating: 6.0
About five minutes into the film, it began to dawn on me that I had never seen this before. That is kind of surprising because it along with Shaft, Coffy and Black Caesar are considered some of the touchstones of the Blaxploitation films. But it had managed to slip by me. Like the heroes in those films as well as most in this genre, the protagonist has a coolness that he carries with him like a roll of hundred-dollar bills with no effort. With his Fu Manchu moustache and long sideburns, the fashionable trench coat and fedora, the small silver case with a sniff of cocaine always at the ready, he is the epitome of Harlem cool. Super Fly doesn't refer to him though it could, but instead to his product, cocaine. Looking back, it is interesting that the hero of the film is a drug dealer which was clearly a plague in black communities at the time but audiences just liked the fact that he was an entrepreneur in a world where black men had few choices and that in the end, he outplays the Man.



The film was made for $50,000 and over the years has earned $30 million. It was a true independent film with producer Sig Shore running around getting money from friends, small businessmen and the director Gordon Parks Jr. Park's father had directed Shaft. They shot it primarily on the run as they got no licenses for the outside scenes - which gives the film a feel of authenticity. But also limits what they can do in terms of ambition. There is practically no action or violence in the film. It is closer to a day in the life of a drug dealer. As his partner tells him at one point "You're gonna give all this up? 8-Track Stereo, color T.V. in every room, and can snort a half a piece of dope everyday? That's the American Dream". The script is from Phillip Fenty who has a real ear for dialogue and though a few scenes are sluggish the dialogue feels right as does the chattering of other people around but not in the main conversation.



Priest (O'Neal) feels it is time to get out of the business. It is a profession that has a built-in expiration date. As he tells his partner Eddie (Carl May) "I want to get out before I have to kill someone, or someone kills me". But he needs one more score so that he and his girlfriend (Sheila Frazier) will be able to enjoy retirement. A big one. 30 kilos of cocaine. He goes to his old friend and mentor Scatter (Julius Harris - Live and Let Die) to get the goods but one of his men - Fat Freddie - gets brutalized by the cops into giving it up. Freddie is Dead. The cops though are more crooked then the pushers and want to muscle in on the deal. The main cop was played by producer Sig Shore.



The plot is fairly generic and really has very little excitement but what made the film so popular are a couple of factors - O'Neal and his style, the sense of authenticity and the soundtrack. It is probably Curtis Mayfields best work with Pusherman, Freddie is Dead, Superfly and Little Child Running Wild. The album was a huge hit (number 72 on Rolling Stone's 500 Best albums). Mayfield performs one song on the stage. His silky high voice is a wonder. There was a sequel that by all telling isn't all that good titled Super Fly T.N.T. and there was a another Superfly shot in 1990 called The Return of Superfly (not starring O'Neal but produced by Sig Shore) and in 2018 there was a remake.