The likes of 'Pusherman' and 'Freddie's Dead' provide the film with heart and depth that would otherwise be absent.
Superfly (1972)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:21
Fresh:19
Rotten:2
Average Rating:7.1/10
Runtime: 1 hr 33 mins
Genre: Action/Adventure
Synopsis: SUPERFLY, along with COFFY and SHAFT, completes Blaxploitations's best known triumvirate. One of the highest-grossing pictures of 1972, SUPERFLY became an instant classic, and established director... SUPERFLY, along with COFFY and SHAFT, completes Blaxploitations's best known triumvirate. One of the highest-grossing pictures of 1972, SUPERFLY became an instant classic, and established director Gordon Parks firmly in Warner Brothers' sights to make THREE THE HARD WAY in 1974. Parks was one of the first African American directors to get financing from a major Hollywood studio to make the 1969 film THE LEARNING TREE. Super Fly is a cocaine dealer who begins to realize that his life will soon end with either prison or his death. He decides to build an escape from the life by making his biggest deal yet, converting the coke to cash and running off to start a new life. The problem is that the Mob does not have a retirement plan and will give him a choice of staying and selling for them or dying if they find out his intentions. With a terrific score by Curtis Mayfield and a star wearing threads to match, SUPERFLY is chock full of the sass, flash, and action Blaxploitation is known for. [More]
Starring: Ron O'Neal, Carl Lee, Julius W. Harris, Charles McGregor
Starring: Ron O'Neal, Carl Lee, Julius W. Harris, Charles McGregor, Sheila Frazier, K.C., Sig Shore
Director: Gordon Parks
Director: Gordon Parks
Producer: Sig Shore
Composer: Curtis Mayfield
Reviews for Superfly
The moral ambiguity of the film may disturb some viewers, but the film smacks of realistic grit throughout.
Gordon Parks Jr. was one of the greatest casualties of the collapse of blaxploitation cinema, a director with a distinctive, tightly packed visual style nd a remarkably bitter vision for this supposedly escapist genre.
Super Fly, one of the most significant blaxploitation films ever made, is as fascinatingly entertaining as it is ethically wrongheaded.
O'Neal functioned as a suave but deadly post-Poitier antihero for an increasingly militant urban audience...
Classic blaxlpoitation film is still one of the best to come out of the genre. O'Neal gives a fine (but always funky) performance in one of the last movies before the genre ate itself and became self-parody. Terrific soudtrack.
Curtis Mayfield's sizzling score may be the most enduringly superfly aspect of this blaxploitation classic.
Latest News for Superfly
March 08, 2006:
Gordon Parks, Influential Director And Photojournalist, Dead At 93
Gordon Parks, one of the 20th Century's greatest photojournalists and an influential filmmaker, died Tuesday at 93. Parks' films, most notably "The Learning Tree"... More...
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