First you have to get over how catastrophically obsolete this film is, and then it might be enjoyable on some deep, subconscious level. Having watched it and learned that it was one of the most controversial blaxploitation films of the 70s, I am a little hesitant to write a scathing review of it, since I'm sure it has some sort of cult following somewhere, but the movie is so badly made and so goofy that it's almost impossible to praise it. I was also shocked to read one IMDb reviewer call the soundtrack one of the greatest in film history. Way off, buddy, but I am willing to admit that at one point, presumably early 1970s, this kind of music was considered great, but today it is so preposterous that it's almost weird.
And by the way, I'd like to once again protest the word blaxploitation, an utterly meaningless description used to describe something which strikes me as something similar to those FUBU clothes, or rap music. By black people, for black people, so who they're exploiting and for whom is beyond me. Being mostly white myself, I'm outside the target audience, but I decided to watch it because I think that ancient styles are so funny. See the teenagers in 80s teen comedies or horror movies, for instance.
Speaking of ancient styles, it's interesting to notice how much the typical audience has evolved over the years since Super Fly was made. A director today, for example, could never get away with making a movie like this, modern audiences just don't have the attention span. 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.
(spoilers) The story is about a drug dealer who wants to do the One Last Gig And Then Get Out For Good, and runs into all kinds of obstacles along the way. All of which, of course, are obstacles just long enough to create some periodic dialogue scenes and then become solved when it's time for the plot to move along. The ending has something of a twist, I suppose, although that may be because I was envisioning a bit of a tragic ending because of the way things were leading, but the movie as a whole is a tired, plodding exercise through the jive of the streets of the big city in the early 1970s, with lots of badass blacks and evil white cops screwing everything up.
I don't like the way the black people were portrayed in the film, as far as being dedicated dope smugglers and cocaine dealers and whatnot, but I still don't think that the term blaxploitation is appropriate, because you have to admit that Priest's intentions were honorable. Sure, he had been leading a less than honorable life and had less than honorable means for getting out of it, but the important thing is that he wanted to get out, he wanted to change his life for the better. I think the only way that blaxploitation can be used to accurately describe movies like this is in the way stereotypes are used as a starting point for the story. Lots of black criminals, basically.
I've heard that Denzel Washington has talked about doing a remake of this movie with the director of Training Day. Given how far Denzel has fallen in his acting career because he keeps making the same movie over and over, it seems that he doesn't care as much about where his career goes from now on. Surely he has more than enough money to last the rest of his life, but why would he want to do something as crazy as that? Did he not see the train wreck that was Samuel L. Jackson's remake of Shaft?
And by the way, I'd like to once again protest the word blaxploitation, an utterly meaningless description used to describe something which strikes me as something similar to those FUBU clothes, or rap music. By black people, for black people, so who they're exploiting and for whom is beyond me. Being mostly white myself, I'm outside the target audience, but I decided to watch it because I think that ancient styles are so funny. See the teenagers in 80s teen comedies or horror movies, for instance.
Speaking of ancient styles, it's interesting to notice how much the typical audience has evolved over the years since Super Fly was made. A director today, for example, could never get away with making a movie like this, modern audiences just don't have the attention span. 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.
(spoilers) The story is about a drug dealer who wants to do the One Last Gig And Then Get Out For Good, and runs into all kinds of obstacles along the way. All of which, of course, are obstacles just long enough to create some periodic dialogue scenes and then become solved when it's time for the plot to move along. The ending has something of a twist, I suppose, although that may be because I was envisioning a bit of a tragic ending because of the way things were leading, but the movie as a whole is a tired, plodding exercise through the jive of the streets of the big city in the early 1970s, with lots of badass blacks and evil white cops screwing everything up.
I don't like the way the black people were portrayed in the film, as far as being dedicated dope smugglers and cocaine dealers and whatnot, but I still don't think that the term blaxploitation is appropriate, because you have to admit that Priest's intentions were honorable. Sure, he had been leading a less than honorable life and had less than honorable means for getting out of it, but the important thing is that he wanted to get out, he wanted to change his life for the better. I think the only way that blaxploitation can be used to accurately describe movies like this is in the way stereotypes are used as a starting point for the story. Lots of black criminals, basically.
I've heard that Denzel Washington has talked about doing a remake of this movie with the director of Training Day. Given how far Denzel has fallen in his acting career because he keeps making the same movie over and over, it seems that he doesn't care as much about where his career goes from now on. Surely he has more than enough money to last the rest of his life, but why would he want to do something as crazy as that? Did he not see the train wreck that was Samuel L. Jackson's remake of Shaft?