Max’s Drive-In Movie – Superfly

When the idea of the drive-in movie posts came up…this was one of the first ones I thought of. You get a glimpse of the 1970s drug dealing life in New York. I will eventually hit some other eras rather than just the early to mid-seventies.

I saw this movie at the Belcourt Theatre in Nashville in 2018. It was like being in a time warp and back in 1972. This movie has some padding and some wooden acting (but there is a reason) but you can tell where Quentin Tarantino was inspired. I’ve always liked the movie and seeing it on the big screen made it that much better. I do think Tarantino’s Jackie Brown was hugely influenced by this movie.

They filmed Superfly on the cheap with some real criminals in the movie to add authenticity. The character “KC” was a pimp in real life and the famous car from the movie is, in fact, KC’s car. The car is no longer with us…it was seized by the IRS when KC got into trouble.

Charles McGrego“Fat Freddie”(Charles McGregor) in real life was a reformed criminal. He helped the realism and went on to appear in more blaxploitation films in the 1970s. He also ended up going to schools and counseling children on the dangers of a life in crime.

I had some sympathy for the lead character Youngblood Priest played by Ron O’Neal. He lived well financially but knew he was living on borrowed time. He was a cocaine dealer who knew the walls were closing in. He wanted out but was in a cycle that was almost impossible to break. He needed a great plan to get out of it. It reminds me of mafia members wanting out but are trapped.

The highlight of the movie, of course, is the music. Curtis Mayfield’s soundtrack is great. Curtis does appear in the movie playing in a bar. The movie’s budget was under 500,000 but grossed over 30 million at the box office. The film was shot in only 19 days! This led to some creative choices, like using a car’s headlights for lighting in certain scenes. The film was celebrated but also condemned by civil rights groups who said it glorified drug dealers. I didn’t see that as much. Yeah, Priest had a lot of money but at what cost?

One quote got a laugh from the 2018 audience…and it was because of the mention of an eight-track. You’re gunna give all this up? Eight Track Stereo, color T.V. in every room, and can snort a half a piece of dope everyday?! That’s the American Dream.” I’m glad they didn’t clean the film up too much. It had some grainy elements and it fit the atmosphere perfectly. It’s not a great, great movie but the story is good with a nice twist… and it did make a cultural impact.

Quotes:

Georgia (Priest’s Girlfriend): Look maybe you should get out now, now before something really bad happens. I could be happy with a plain life, a poor one if only you were.

Youngblood Priest: Look what would I do? With my record I can’t even work civil service or join the damn army. If I quit now, then I took all this chance for nothing and I go back to being nothing. Working some jive job for chump change day after day. Well if that’s all I’m supposed to do then they gonna have to kill me ’cause that ain’t enough.

Superfly

From IMDB

The plot revolves around Youngblood Priest, an African-American cocaine dealer in New York City who is looking to make one last big score before getting out of the drug business for good. The film is a defining example of the blaxploitation genre and became iconic for its gritty portrayal of the urban drug trade and its anti-hero protagonist.

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

27 thoughts on “Max’s Drive-In Movie – Superfly”

      1. cool! I remember Cadillac having the pointed grille like that but don’t remember them having the oversized, single headlights. My dad always dreamed of having a CAddy, closest he got was an almost new Oldsmobile 88 around 1977 or so- was same size as a Caddy and pretty near as luxurious

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      2. The Cadillac for a long time was THE car for that generation. I would gamble to say that you really never wanted one…maybe I’m wrong…but I didn’t.
        BUT yes they were luxurious.

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    2. I think those big-as headlights look like they’ve been taken off a 30’s Rolls or Jaguar and been put in place of the original dual lights. The lights have that odd triangular headlight glass that those earlier luxury cars had. (Sorry, Car Nerd has left the building.)

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    1. Amen Hallelujah! Yes it does…it’s a pretty good movie as well. Not Citizen Kane but it’s a great representation of that time period. A New Yorker at the time may see him or herself.

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      1. Yeah, seeing yourself in the background might not have been the best thing though; ‘But darling, I was just giving that poor lost girl directions to the YWCA, honest!’

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  10. “Glorified drug dealers” to me are “legal” pharmaceutical companies and the doctors who write the scripts. I remember the name, the look, the music of it, and you just shared the plot of the movie. When I see the costumes they wore, I remember that look being in my town at one point, but now I have to wonder what came first, the movie or the drug dealers trying to emulate the movie.

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    1. Oh…I hate pharmaceutical companies… one thing I hate is the damn greed they have. Cancer medicine that cost them pennies on the dollar and charging thousands of dollars…I get making a profit…no problem with that…but come on…WAY too much.
      Oh since a few of these “actors” were already in the game…yea the drugs came first.

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