SUPER FLY (1972) (Warner Archive Blu-ray Review)

SUPER FLY (1972) 

Label: Warner Archive Collection
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: R
Duration: 91 Minutes
Audio: English DTS HD-Master Audio 2.0 Mono with Optional English  Subtitles 
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78:1) 
Director: Gordon Parks Jr. 
Cast: Ron O'Neal, Carl Lee, Sheila Frazier, Julius W. Harris, Charles McGregor

70's blaxploitation classic Super Fly (1972) stars Ron O'Neal (The Final Countdown) as Youngblood Priest, a Harlem-based drug-dealer who has built himself a drug-empire, he sports long straightened hair and thick sideburns, always decked out in stylish pimpin' threads, he's a smooth operator who doesn't take shit from anyone. When one of his pushers, Fat Freddie (Charles McGregor, Blazing Saddles), falls behind in their payments he threatens to pimp out the guy's wife if the money owed doesn't show by the end of the night, and when a couple of junkie punks try to rob him he chases them down for several blocks before giving them a proper beat down, he's a straight-up bad-ass. Dealing coke has given him an envious lifestyle, but it's a hard life and he's looking to get out of the game, to that end he has devised one one last big score, with dreams of settling down with his foxy girlfriend Georgia (Sheila Frazier, Super Fly T.N.T.), but like pimpin', it ain't gonna be so easy. 

Priest's exit plan involves going all-in on a larger than usual quantity of uncut cocaine with his long-time partner Eddie (Carl Lee, Werewolves on Wheels), sourcing the white stuff from his former mentor, an aging make-it happen man named Scatter (the always great Julius W. Harris, Hell Up In Harlem), and then turning it on the street for a tidy profit, but to get out of the game he's gonna have to deal with betrayal by one of his pushers, a duplicitous partner who resents his desire to exit the business, and a crooked Deputy Commissioner with a small army of corrupt cops at his command. 

Drug dealers don't typically make admirable heroes in life and in the cinema, but the film doesn't paint a pretty picture of the drug culture, and Priest is a charismatic guy as played by O'Neal, so yeah, we're rooting for the drug pusher here, and in the face of all the other corruption happening around him it's actually not so hard to get behind the guy, he's really the only semi-decent guy in the whole damn film. 

The film was shot low-budget in gritty urban New York City locations with a documentary-like aesthetic, it's realism and tone is what makes it one of the best blaxploitation films of the era, a serious slice of seedy-cinema with Ron O'Neal as the drug-peddling pimp, he comes off super-cool, able to hold his own within his black community and also able to match wits with a powerful white nemesis with the power of the cops behind him, that he's able to get one over on the bad white guys is what makes him an anti-hero, you really wanna see him get one over on the man! 

Priest is always well mannered and dressed to the nines in 70's black fashion, he stands apart from the crowd, driving a sweet El Dorado with a Rolls Royce-styled custom grill that catches your eye right away, I love the 70's visuals here. The Curtis Mayfield score for this film is phenomenal, it's a score that actually adds to the characters and the story, tied to the movie like few soundtrack before it, it sort of reminds me the way the haunting Goblin score is so intrinsically linked to Dario Argento's Suspiria. I cannot imagine one without the other, though with classic songs like "Freddie's Dead", the album holds up just fine on it's own, but I think the film would be a bit less than what it is without the Mayfield penned soundtrack. 

Audio/Video: Super Fly (1972) arrives on Blu-ray from WAC with a new 2K scan of recently minted interpostive derived from the original 35mm negative, considering this was a low-budget production it looks good with tempered expectations. Super Fly was never a slick looking film, it was shot on the low budget with not a lot of style, it's gritty and that's how it comes across, capturing the urban environments with a docu-realism. That said, there's a consistent layer of film grain and the visuals look impressive compared to the previous DVD, skin tones look natural, colors are nicely saturated, with the reds and greens popping nicely on occasion, but overall this is a very earth-toned looking presentation set in the winter months, it's dreary looking. Audio comes by way of an English DTS-HD MA Mono track that is well-balanced and free of distortion, with the phenomenal Curtis Mayfield soundtrack coming through with some nice distinction, optional English subtitles are provided. 

  
Warner Archive wisely carry-over all the extras from the previous Warner DVD, beginning with the great audio commentary from Dr. Todd Boyd, who goes deep into the culture, blaxploitation cinema and 70's style of the movie and era, it's a great listen, he's funny and animated throughout, never short of information. We also get a 7-min audio interview with Mayfield who speaks about making the score for the film, and what his creative process was like. 'One Last Deal: A Retrospective Documentary' is a 25-min featurette with surviving cast and crew, a 4-min interview with Les Dunham who custom crafted Priest's signature El Dorado used in the film, though it's worth noting he didn't make it specifically for the film, the car was spotted by a producer who cast the car in the film, even casting it's owner in the film in a small part as a pimp. Costume designer Nate Adams shows up for a 4-min interview, he pulls out some of the threads used in the film and some that didn't make the cut, each with a bit of backstory. The disc is buttoned up with a trailer for the film, plus star Ryan O'Neil shows up for a 7-minute interview, looking to date back to around the time of the film's release. I would have loved an isolated score on this one, that Curtis Mayfield soundtrack is killer and would have been appreciated a lossless option to listen to it, but this thing is well-packed with extras. 

Special Features: 
- Theatrical Trailer (2 min) 
- One Last Deal: A Retrospective Documentary (25 min) 
- Commentary by Dr. Todd Boyd, USC Professor of Cinema and Television and author of "Am I Black Enough For You: Popular Culture From the 'Hood and Beyond"
- Curtis Mayfield on Super Fly (7 min) 
- "Behind the Hog" with Les Dunham (4 min) 
- Ron O'Neal on the Making of Super Fly (6 min) 
- Costume Designer Nate Adams Goes "Behind The Threads" (4 min) 

Super Fly (1972) is a 70's blaxploitation classic, the tale of a drug dealer with aspirations of getting out of the game, Priest is an urban anti-hero for era. It might not be steeped in straight-up action and violence as some of it's counterparts but it more than makes up for it with a gripping story and Ron O'Neal's turn as Priest, he's just one of the coolest cats of 70's cinema. The new Blu-ray from WAC is nice upgrade from the previous home video release, and the Curtis Mayfield score has never sounded better, this is an easy recommend for fans of gritty 70's crime-cinema. 

HELL UP IN HARLEM (1973) (Olive Films Blu-ray Review)

HELL UP IN HARLEM (1973)

Label: Olive Films
Region Code: A
Rating: R
Duration: 95 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA Mono 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles 
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1) 
Director: Larry Cohen 
Cast: Bobby Ramsen, D’urville Martin, Fred Williamson, Gerald Gordon, Gloria Hendry, Julius W. Harris, Margaret Avery, Tony King

Tommy Gibbs (Fred Williamson, 1990: The Bronx Warriors), the "Godfather of Harlem," returns in this amped-up sequel to Black Caesar (1973), coming out just a scant 10 months after the first film was a huge hit for distributor AIP. Director Larry Cohen (Q The Winged Serpent) ramps up the violence and the lunacy in this sequel right from the get-go, we have a crooked District Attorney DiAngelo (Gerald Gordon, Ants!) gunning to take-down Gibbs because he's is in possession of a ledger full of dirty secrets. Gibbs is gunned-down in broad daylight, he escapes but is bleeding out fast, desperately he calls his estranged father Papa Gibbs (Julius Harris, Live And Let Die) who comes to the rescue along with members of Gibbs gang who take him to a nearby hospital and hold the docs there hostage while they save his life, also holding off the NYPD in a tense stand-off, the only reason they don't blow a hole in the whole gang is that Gibbs is in possession of the ledger and the crooked D.A. doesn't want to be exposed for the scumbag that he is.

After surviving Gibbs discovers that his kid's mother Helen (Gloria Hendry, Diamonds Are Forever) was the one who set him up, he takes the kid away from her, and she resorts to hooking on the streets, until she is later murdered, which plays into the final stretch of the film. Gibbs and his father rule the streets, reigning supreme in other criminal enterprises while at the same time working hard to eradicate drugs from the streets of Harlem. 

The assault on the drug-peddlers are pretty awesome in a kitschy sort of way, there's a clumsily choreographed kung-fu fight with some Asians and an amphibious frog-men assault on a beach front home with a rather awesome gunfight ensuing after they've beached - it's good stuff, it might not all be executed to the best-degree but it is certainly entertaining, especially when Gibbs and the gang force some super-white dudes to eat soul-food at gunpoint!  

Eventually Gibbs and his father have a falling out when his enforcer Zach (Tony King, Cannibal Apocalypse) inform Gibbs that it was his father who had his former girlfriend Helen murdered. In disgust Gibbs hands his East Coast empire over to his father, who in turn takes out his enemies with brute-force, with Gibbs moving to L.A. with his new gal pal Sister Jennifer (Margaret Avery, TV's Being Mary Jane). However, when Papa Gibbs is betrayed and murdered back in New York by Zach Tommy Gibbs returns to the East Coast to dole out some dynamite revenge, but his murder spree puts his son Jason's life on the line, and we get a sweet murder-montage of Gibbs taking out associates of Zach and DiAngelo, including a sniper kill on a busy street and a particularly fun kill with Gibbs plunging the business end of a beach umbrella into the chest of a sunbather on the beach with a fun animated bloodletting that has to be seen to be believed, an image that deserves to only be seen in a drive-in, it's crazy!  

Fred Williamson offers loads of the effortless charm we love him for, a black criminal with a heart, but ruthless and a skilled killer, his scenes are always a lot of fun, whether he's kicking ass or just looking cool as Hell. Not all the acting is great though, at times both Hendry and Harris are straight up awful, but I love the fist fight with Big Papa and Zach, a street brawl to rule them all! There's also a wild coast to coast chase involving Gibbs and Zach that culminated on a luggage conveyor belt at the airport, total kick-ass awesomeness. Also keep an eye-out for D'Urville Martin (Dolemite, Sheba Baby)as a pimp turned pulpit-pounder, Reverend Rufus! 

Audio/Video: Hell Up In Harlem (1973) arrives on Blu-ray from Olive Film presented in 1.85:1 widescreen in 1080p HD, the source looks solid, some white speckling here and again but nothing stands out in regard to print damage, the colors are nice and bright, depth and clarity are improved from the 2001 MGM Soul Cinema series DVD, but there's not a lot of wow-factor here either, but still a solid filmic transfer with the natural grain intact without a lot of edge sharpening or digital scrubbing. Black levels can be weak at times, more grayish, and the night scenes also show some additional graininess to them, but overall a solid presentation.  

The lone audio option is an English language DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono track, it is nicely clean and crisp, the soundtrack featuring Edwin Starr, singer of the Vietnam War protest song "War" (1970), sounds great, though I must admit I found a few of these songs a bit on the corny side, not one of my favorite blaxploitation soundtracks, but I dig the Big Papa theme. Optional English subtitles are included. 

Onto the extras we get a 2-min HD trailer for the film, and an audio commentary, not the same one from the 2001 MGM DVD either, this is a new commentary with director Larry Cohen, moderated by Steve Mitchell, director of the upcoming documentary King Cohen: The Wild World of Filmmaker Larry Cohen. I have always found Cohen's commentaries to me solid, every damn one of them, a spark plug who tells it like it was and is, and it's no different here! My favorite take away was Cohen telling the story of what happened to James Brown's original score for the film and why it was not used, which is too bad, this is Big Payback era James Brown!  

Special Features: 
- NEW audio commentary with director Larry Cohen, moderated by Steve Mitchell, director of the upcoming documentary King Cohen: The Wild World of Filmmaker Larry Cohen.
- Trailer (2 min) HD 


Hell Up In Harlem (1973) is not the most stylish blaxploitation movie you will ever see, it can be a bit corny at times with the gangster posturing and near-impossible ridiculousness, but Larry Cohen knows how to make an damn entertaining and kinetic action film, obviously stealing shots on the streets of NYC, which give the film a gritty realism and some added punch, this was a blast and a recommend for fans of action-packed, and slightly ridiculous, 70s cinema.