Super Fly (film)

Plot

Youngblood Priest (Ron O'Neal) is an African-American cocaine dealer who has a strong desire to exit the drug business. Before he can exit the drug world, he has to earn enough funds to support his lifestyle as he feels that a regular nine to five job will not satisfy his needs. He creates a plan to sell thirty kilos of cocaine, and use the profits to sustain him while he searches for a job, which he assumes will be a difficult process due to his criminal background. Along the way Priest has several run-ins with corrupt law enforcement. He also experiences betrayal from his close friend, Eddie. In the end, Priest is able to escape from the drug business with Georgia, his girlfriend, and walk away unharmed. Despite the controversy surrounding the film’s drug use, Ron O’Neal insists that Super Fly “is not really about drugs”; in fact, he asserts that it is the “greatest anti-drug film”.

Cast

Production

The film was financed by two black directors and Gordon Parks, Sr., who had directed the 1971 film Shaft. Sig Shore, who produced Super Fly, plays Deputy Commissioner Riordan, or "The Man".

Nate Adams coordinated the fashion and wardrobe for the film. He had done several fashion shows prior to Super Fly. He still owns many of the suits, shoes and fedora hats.

Charles McGregor, who plays Fat Freddie, was released from prison before the film's production. The film was shot by director of photography, James Signorelli, who would go on to become the film director at Saturday Night Live.

Of the people who acted in Super Fly, actor Carl Lee, who played Eddie, enjoyed great fame until he abused drugs -- in particular, heroin. He died in 1986 of an overdose. The film's soundtrack by Curtis Mayfield was received well enough that he was sought for other soundtracks. The songs "Freddie's Dead" and the title song both shot up to the Pop Top Ten chart in late 1972, each single selling over a million copies.

Large white companies produced many of the Blaxploitation films, and Super Fly is no exception. The film was appropriated by Warner Bros., and had a white producer, Sigissmund Shore. African-Americans were a part of the process as well; Gordon Parks, Jr. directed the film and Phillip Fenty wrote the script. The movie generated roughly $4 million in profits. Shore received the bulk of the profits, a whopping 40 percent, while the actors, directors, and scriptwriters split the remaining profits. The soundtrack alone generated about $5 million in profits; Super Fly was one of the first film soundtracks to do so. The biggest singles from the soundtrack were “Super Fly” and “Freddie’s Dead”. Curtis Mayfield, the artist behind the soundtrack, is the only person in the process that earned revenue close to Shore’s.

Despite the controversy surrounding Super Fly’s drug use, the production of the film made significant advances for African-Americans. The Harlem community backed Super Fly financially, and a number of black businesses helped with the production costs. Another quality that distinguishes Super Fly from other Blaxploitation films is the technical crew. The majority of the technical crew was non-white, and the film had the largest non-white technical crew in its time. There was huge financial backing for the independently financed film.

Car

Priest's car is a 1971 customized Cadillac Eldorado. The car belonged to K.C., an actual hustler and pimp from Harlem who plays a pimp in the film. K.C. met Nate Adams in a hotel lobby and was asked if his car could be used in the film. K.C. agreed but later telephoned Nate Adams accusing him of lying, stating, "No niggers are making no movies."

The car was customized by Les Dunham Coachworks of New Jersey, who modified the headlight covers, goddess hood ornament (Rolls Royce/Bentley style), lake pipes and circular porthole windows.

The film helped start a trend for car customization in the United States known as the Pimpmobile. Many aspiring drug dealers, gangsters, and pimps modified their cars during the 1970s as a result of watching Super Fly.

Reception & Reviews

There were many African-Americans that were displeased with the images of themselves portrayed in movies such as Super Fly, Sweet Sweetback’s Baadassssss Song, and Shaft. African-Americans voiced their opinions on the matter. Junius Griffin, the head of the Hollywood branch of the NAACP stated, “we must insist that our children are not exposed to a steady diet of so-called black movies that glorify black males as pimps, dope pushers, gangsters, and super males.”

Super Fly resonated with many of the post-Civil Rights Movement generation of African Americans, who saw Youngblood as a new example of how to rise in the American class system. Several California organized crime veterans, including drug trafficker "Freeway" Rick Ross, have cited the film as an influence in their decision to take up drug dealing and gang violence. The Congress for Racial Equality, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and other organizations attempted to block the film's distribution and pushed for more African-American involvement in Hollywood's creative process. The Student National Coordinating Committee also protested the film as a tool of white oppression.

One critic has suggested that the film's glorification of drug dealers serves to subtly critique the civil rights movement’s failure to provide better economic opportunities for black America and that the portrayal of a black community controlled by drug dealers serves to highlight that the initiatives of the civil rights movement were far from fully accomplished. The filmmakers maintain that it was their desire to show the negative and empty aspects of the drug subculture. This is evident in the movie from the beginning as Priest communicates his desire to leave the business. Nearly every character in the film, with the notable exception of his "main squeeze," tries to dissuade Priest from quitting; their chief argument being that dealing and snorting are the best he ever could achieve in life.

The film was re-released in 1973 and earned $2 million in North American rentals.

DVD release

A standard definition DVD was released by Warner Brothers on January 14, 2004—the day its star, Ron O'Neal, died after battling cancer. The original red and black Warner logo is replaced by the updated AOL/Warner logo used at the time of DVD release. Additionally, the end credits on the original film release and video cassette, differs from the DVD. On the original release and videocassette the film ends credits roll with a shot of the top of the Empire State building and the title track ("Superfly") plays. After "The End" is displayed, the film fades to black but Mayfield's "Superfly" continues to play for a few minutes until the track ends. In the DVD release, Warner Brothers decided to fade out the track midway right as "The End" is shown, and again brings up the AOL/Warner logo.