Superfly [Blu-ray]

Director: Gordon Parks Jr. Gordon Parks Jr.

Overview

Perhaps this definitive blaxploitation film is the story a stylish Harlem drug pusher (Ron O'Neal) trying to score one last big deal before retiring from a life of crime. The film shows how O'Neal's character is the richest, most respected, and envied man in his neighborhood.

Product Details

Release Date:	06/26/2018
UPC:	0888574645359
Original Release:	1972
Source:	Warner Archives
Language:	English
Time:	1:31:00
Sales rank:	2,010

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Ron O'Neal	Priest
Carl Lee	Eddie
Sheila Frazier	Georgia(as Shiela Frazier)
Julius Harris	Scatter(as Julius W. Harris)
Polly Niles	Cynthia
Yvonne Delaine	Mrs. Freddie
Henry Shapiro	Robbery Victim
James G. Richardson	Junkie(as Jim Richardson)
Make Bray	Junkie
Al Kiggins	Police
Sig Shore	Deputy Commissioner(as Mike Richards)
Cecil Alonzo	Militant
The Curtis Mayfield Experience	The Band
Curtis Mayfield	Composer

Technical Credits

Gordon Parks Jr.	Director
Sig Shore	Producer
Harry Lapham	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

Part of the 1970s blaxploitation vanguard, Superfly's (1972) gritty authenticity elevates it above its subsequent imitators. Directed by Gordon Parks Jr. -- the son of Shaft (1971) director Gordon Parks -- funded by black businessmen, and shot by a mostly black crew, Superfly was as much a statement against white-dominated Hollywood behind the camera as it was a convincing depiction of a certain segment of black city life. Shooting on-location in New York, Parks energetically evoked the violence and material allure of Youngblood Priest's (Ron O'Neal) drug dealer existence, while the famous still-photo montage of people of all races snorting coke attested to what enabled Priest's "superfly" life. Counterpointing the heroic effects of Priest's flamboyantly clothed charisma and his plot to stick it to the Man, Curtis Mayfield's trailblazing, best-selling soundtrack matched the urban mood while lyrically attesting to the negative effects of drugs. Even so, Superfly became a controversial hit, as African-American critics decried its influence on cocaine use and the glorification of criminals; the filmmakers observed that they were just telling it like it was. Either way, Superfly confirmed the financial as well as rhetorical power of the nascent blaxploitation genre in the wake of Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1970) and Shaft (1971).