Number one in a series of some. Maybe.
Following on from the horror-movie-athon I indulged in a couple of months ago, lately I’ve been watching exploitation films of a different kind. Other than the mostly terrible (sorry George) ‘Survival of the Dead’ – really, don’t bother – I’ve been enjoying some of the more notable entries of the Blaxploitation genre.
‘Super Fly’ may be the most famous of these films and rightly so. Naturally, it’s more than a little dated – all of these films are – and it’s often hard to suppress amusement when everyone throws around ‘ya dig?’ and ‘outta sight!’ as if they’re actually in a parody. Then there’s the fashions and decor, often enough to almost blind you with it’s mish-mash of mismatched colours and flares and collars that go on forever. And that’s absolutely nothing compared to the casual and frequent use of racial and sexual slurs that would make a white supremacist blush.
These things aside and, let’s face it, they’re just a product of their time, ‘Super Fly’ has a lot to recommend it. Ron O’Neal’s lead character, Youngblood Priest, is full of menace and quiet cool as he attempts to make one last big score and – as is often the point of these films – ‘stick it to the man’. What sets this film apart, however, is not only how well it’s constructed but it’s unrepentant protagonist. Often in films of this era, they’re revenge pieces of normal people forced to take the law into their own hands. ‘Super Fly’ doesn’t bother with such convenient moral ambiguity as – in some ways like Michael Caine’s ‘Carter’ although considerably cooler, naturally – the lead is already on the other side of the law and has few qualms about it. Priest has grown tired and jaded of the life of a dealer and wants to get out. True, the lifestyle isn’t shown to be particularly glamourous – Priest’s wardrobe and Pimpmobile (cinema’s first, allegedly) aside – but the alternative doesn’t seem to be much better if the corruption in the Police Department is anything to go by.
The Curtis Mayfield soundtrack is unfailingly excellent as you’d expect and if you’re not familiar with the title track, you really should be. Much like Bullitt’s car chase, the soundtrack is notably more famous than the film that spawned it. Bond fans will also recognize Julius ‘Tee Hee’ Harris from ‘Live and Let Die’ in the supporting cast.
‘Super Fly’ isn’t just a good Blaxploitation film, it’s a decent example of 70s film-making that I’m a big fan of. Things are rarely good versus bad, black and white – no pun intended – and a happy ending is usually one where the best you can hope for is the lead makes it to the end credits.
Next up are the Pam Grier starring pair ‘Coffy’ and it’s more famous partner ‘Foxy Brown’. The young Grier plays the titular leads and is excellent in both. Cool, aggressive, assured, independent and incredibly sexy, her titular heroines kick an unholy amount of ass and look great doing it. I suppose they can be written off as Blaxploitation examples of cliched revenge movies, but I imagine it was fairly ballsy to make such oft male-dominated fare with a female lead.
Although it’s far more famous, I found ‘Foxy Brown’ inferior to the earlier film. I know that these are exploitation films but a lot of the touchstones of this genre, especially the over the top violence and nudity, seemed a little forced in this film. I’m hardly one to complain about ever more entertaining death and dismemberment of baddies and I’d be lying if the frequent views of Pam Grier’s frankly spectacular breasts was anything other than tremendous. But after awhile it seemed like there was little else to the film and ‘Coffy’ gave Pam Grier more to do with a more rounded story and characters. I might be asking a little much of films of this ilk but a better film is a better film. A lot of the more important reasons Foxy is forced to go on her rampage seem to have happened before we’re introduced to her – her boyfriend’s previous career, for example – so there’s little to do but watch her exact vengeance. Coffy (and the audience), however, find out as the film progresses, leading to a far more tense and revealing (not like that) finale. The ending’s also a great example of the downbeat 70s ending I’m such a fan of. Stalwart of this era, Sid Haig, makes an appearance in both films but his character is much better in ‘Coffy’ unlike the cookie-cutter, one dimensional characters in ‘Foxy Brown’. Also notably featured in the latter – if you’re a fan of 70s TV – is Antonio ‘Huggy Bear’ Fargas chewing scenery with the best of them.
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