I highly recommend cinephiles check out both versions. But Director X’s woke and super heroic take on the material hit a sweet spot that I can’t shake, providing both an energetic action film and a barn burner of angry Black youth sentiment. It simply birthed too many imitators to ever truly become forgotten. There’s no doubt that O’Neal’s Priest and the original film are more iconic and will stand the test of time even decades from now. Maybe I just prefer Superfly ’18 because I’m so personally frustrated by the current political and social climate (not to mention the state of race relations in America today), that the satisfaction factor was simply higher for the modern version. And having their fingers on the pulse of a generation who need to see their heroes coming out on top against odds that are stacked as improbably against them as they’re experiencing in their current day to day life. Director X and writer Alex Tse won’t be up for many awards come year’s end, but what they potentially lacked in nuance or craft, they made up for in entertainment factor. There are times when the digital photography feels cheap, and there’s a chase scene that is outright ugly and sloppy. And while Superfly ’18 is slick in its own way, similar criticisms could be leveled. There’s a lot of dead space in the original film that contributes to its somewhat languid pace and highlights that although the sum of its parts added up to a film that’s stood the test of time, at least some of the Super Fly phenomenon had to do with being in the right place at the right time, and not necessarily because of the genius of craft on display. Gordon Parks, Jr.’s direction of the film leaves something to be desired, with lots of extraneous shots of people getting in and out of cars or simply walking from one place to the next. The Warner Archive’s presentation of Super Fly on Blu-ray is quite pleasing, with an appropriately grainy and natural feel to the high definition scan. Rather than take away the tension, our certainty that Priest will come out on top in 2018 gives it a most satisfying and fist-pumping conclusion… complete with a thrown in confederate statue being blown up and Priest beating the shit out of a uniformed cop who had murdered a black man on the job in a most brutal fashion. Priest’s quest to transcend the system must take on almost supernatural odds, and in doing so helps the audience feel throughout that he is going to succeed. It feels right for Priest to not only have the best skills, best outfits, and the most strict discipline, but also to have a mastery over freakin’ crypto-currency. Racism is alive and thriving both in more overt ways and in more insidious ones. The super heroic version of this tale mythologizes Youngblood Priest in a new era of chaos in which threats to the black community are more amorphous and multi-faceted than they used to be. This may sound like a criticism of Superfly, but in all honesty is does the narrative quite a few favors. It’s as satisfying today as it must have been for audiences in the 1970s, and makes up for a lot of the film’s sloppy direction and clumsy editing by today’s standards. And in the end, Priest gets to outsmart The Man, tell him to go to hell, and walk off into the sunset free and clear. His lifestyle is chronicled more so than judged or condemned. He’s a man who feels trapped in the game and desperate to do just about anything to get out. Ron O’Neal’s Priest, himself both a cocaine user and dealer, is the HERO of this story. Perhaps most significantly, the story it told and the reality it pointed a spotlight towards, was fairly unprecedented and historically relevant. The garish styles and vehicles, played entirely straight and utilized to authentically portray a certain time and place in African-American culture in New York City, have been eternally referenced or played for laughs ever since. The Curtis Mayfield tracks have potentially had even more staying power than the film itself, with very few adults unaware of “Pusher Man”, or the title track. This exploration of both Super Fly (1972) and Superfly (2018) will spoil both films with abandon.Īmong the early and most sacred films in the Blacksploitation cannon, 1972’s Super Fly is a towering pillar in many circles. Join us as we explore this treasure trove of cinematic discovery! The Archive has expanded to include a streaming service, revivals of out-of-print DVDs, and Blu-rays. established the Archive Collection, a Manufacture-On-Demand DVD operation devoted to thousands of idiosyncratic and ephemeral works of cinema. As home video formats have evolved over the years, a multitude of films have found themselves in danger of being forgotten forever due to their niche appeal.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |