Viking Night: Super Fly

By Bruce Hall

August 16, 2011

He'll probably have to buy The Man dinner first.

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Similarly, Carl Lee has one of the best scenes in the film when Eddie starts having second thoughts about the Plan and bares his soul to Priest. Maybe they’re fooling themselves. Maybe they belong at the bottom of the barrel. Maybe self improvement is a pipe dream. Sometimes the easy road is the wrong way to go but just as often, doing the right thing will get you killed too. Watching both men go in different directions with the same struggle turns out to be more effective than you’d expect. Julius Harris does a good job of making Scatter seem less like a hardened killer and more like your uncle Phil who was a good guy, but could never stop betting on horses. None of these are legendary performances - but they add critical depth, and they make you feel more invested in this movie than you should.

And then there’s the soundtrack. You just can’t talk about Super Fly without mentioning Curtis Mayfield’s brilliant score. His music literally makes the movie come alive and like the film itself, it served as an easy template for countless imitators. Like Purple Rain or Footloose, you may find yourself listening to songs from the movie long after you’ve lost track of the movie itself. In fact, just watch Super Fly with your eyes closed, and provided you have an appropriately vintage sound system and wardrobe to go with it, you’ll probably enjoy it. Maybe that’s the best way to appreciate this movie. Just immerse yourself in it from a distance, and let the inferior parts assemble themselves into a satisfying whole.




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Go ahead and roll your eyes at the dialogue. There are a quarter million words in the English language but it seems like only 50 of them ever get used. It’s fantastic the way this movie unintentionally highlights this. Laugh at the wild clothes, and pretend you wouldn’t wear a calfskin leisure suit if you had one - and could fit into it. Raise your eyebrows at the racial tension that saturates the story. Hatred is hard to kill but it doesn’t take bullets, it takes brains - the one weapon everyone has but nobody likes to use. Super Fly’s attempts to frame Priest’s dilemma in this way are weak, but noteworthy nonetheless, because the struggle is still out there. So put your feet up, put your arm around someone, and make sure you’ve poured yourself a Courvoisier. Enjoy Super Fly the way it was intended and you’ll get the message. The more you have, the more you have to lose - that’s exactly why it’s hard to be a pimp, baby. Real hard.


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