![]() ![]() "Money always was an issue, all the way through shooting," says Adams. Adams said the lack of permits and money meant they were often running around New York City, dodging the Teamsters Union and police, like guerilla filmmakers. He says they also got money from two Black dentists and the director, Gordon Parks Jr., eventually had to ask his famous father – legendary photographer/director Gordon Parks, who directed Shaft – for funds. Adams found the tricked-out car Priest drives – a Cadillac Eldorado with a custom Rolls Royce-style grill and special headlights – driven by a guy at a local shoeshine parlor.įenty teamed with producer Sig Shore, who helped dig up funding the writer says he had three credit cards and Shore had two. "We ain't got no shot at doing a movie."īut Adams eventually went along, developing the signature look of the characters by digging up the clothing himself: flashy trenchcoats and bold hats for Priest, plush fur coats for Georgia. "Excuse my French, I said 'N-s ain't doing no movies,'" Adams notes, laughing. According to Adams, when Fenty originally suggested they develop a film together, he had a curt reply. That friend who brought over the drug dealer was Nate Adams, who grew up with Fenty in Cleveland. ![]() "It was, truly, one of the most incredible evenings I've ever spent in my entire life." "He said, 'Boy don't you square up on me,'" Fenty says, using a slang term for acting too straitlaced, which eventually wound up in the film. And then a friend brought a drug dealer to Fenty's home in New York, with a warning. He saw a 1971 cover story in New York magazine about a rising Black drug dealer called The Man With the Golden Nose. As an executive at a Black-owned advertising agency, Fenty wanted to use skills he'd developed making commercials to write his own film. "I just put super to it and made Super Fly.I could have heard it someplace and it stuck because it's cool."īack then, Fenty was aware of the success of Shaft – another blaxploitation classic released just a year earlier - and inspired by a burgeoning, Black-centered independent film and theater movement in New York. "Fly was the term at the time," says Philip Fenty, who wrote the script for Super Fly. Still, there is a lot some people don't know about the film Super Fly, including the meaning of the title - which describes the high quality of cocaine Priest puts on the street. LMPC via Getty Images Super Fly, poster, Ron O'Neal, 1972. Blige's I'm the Only Woman to Fishbone's version of Freddie's Deadeither samples or outright copies the legendary hits Mayfield created to amplify the film's story. Or Idris Elba's ruthless drug kingpin Stringer Bell, who wants to leave the criminal life and convert his ill-gotten wealth into a legitimate business on HBO's series The Wire.Įven Prince's soft spoken, inscrutable performance as The Kid in Purple Rain feels like it owes some kind of debt to O'Neal's intense, enigmatic take on Priest. Since then, the movie's gritty, authentic depiction of street life and its flamboyant lead character – a sharp dressing, karate-kicking drug dealer looking for one last, big score before leaving the game – helped create archetypes that have inspired legions of future storytellers and musicians.Ĭonsider Wesley Snipes' flashy gangster Nino Brown from the 1991 film New Jack City. The soundtrack helped turn the film into one of the most profitable movies of its time, earning millions while briefly dethroning The Godfather as the top film of 1972. "Maybe it still reflects what some of our communities are dealing with."Įven people who haven't seen Super Fly recognize its theme song: A grooving, funky hit written by R&B star Curtis Mayfield, which became one of the most successful movie themes of the blaxploitation era. "It does surprise me that it's been 50 years and people are still talking about it," says Frazier, who initially took the job thinking it would be great to act in a movie with Ron O'Neal, who played Priest. It has been 50 years since Sheila Frazier made her big-screen debut as Georgia, girlfriend to wily drug dealer Youngblood Priest, in the blaxploitation film classic Super Fly.Īnd Frazier estimates there hasn't been a week in her life that has passed since the premiere without someone mentioning the movie.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |