Revisit: Super Fly

A Warner Brothers Picture 1972

Directed by Gordon Parks Jr.

Written by Phillip Fenty

A cocaine dealer who begins to realize that his life will soon end with either prison or death decides to build an escape by making his biggest deal yet.



Super Fly is not a good movie. It's a trashy, poorly shot, sloppy, boring, silly, incoherent mess. There's little to no action, tons of slow, extended sequences, terrible acting, and still image montages galore. That said, there are two redeeming factors to this film. One is Curtis Mayfield's soundtrack, which made him super-famous and stands today as one of the best soundtracks of all time. Mental Defective's Tim Slowikowski recently compiled a list of the best music moments in film and how this one is not included is beyond me. It's one of the major centerpieces, and the song appears at least 12 times throughout the film, which would be annoying if it weren't so damn good.



The second redeeming aspect is the long takes, which make for some of the most boring yet bizarrely engrossing moments in the film. The best example of this is an extended sex scene, which I can't seem to find online, but it's unmissable if you catch the film. It goes on for like 10 minutes and there are so many close ups it's almost obscene.

Super Fly was director Gordon Parks Jr.'s follow up to his debut film Shaft, a classic blaxploitation film. According to legend, the script for Super Fly was only 45 pages long, hence all the still images, cut aways and extended slow motion sequences. If you're a fan of blaxploitation, you've probably already seen this film, but if you're new to the genre, I wouldn't recommend this as the place to start.

Revisit: 1776

A Columbia Pictures release 1972

Directed by Peter H. Hunt

Written by Sherman Edwards & Peter Stone (also play)

A musical outlining the birth of the Declaration of Independence.



Before he was roaming the halls as Mr. Fenie in Boy Meets World, William Daniels portrayed John Adams in this musical interpretation of the events that led to the birth of the United States. The film, based on the Broadway musical of the same name, is fairly straight-forward, unflashy, and lacks any real memorable numbers. However, if you're a history buff, or if the thought of seeing our fore-fathers parading around while singing songs about voting and Congress piques your interest, this may be the film for you.

Revisit: Tout Va Bien

A New Yorker Films release 1972

Written & Directed by
Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Pierre Gorin

Examines the structure of movies, relationships and revolutions through the life of a couple (Jane Fonda, Yves Montand) in Paris.



One of the biggest problems I have with Godard is that his politics are often misinterpreted as sincere, concrete beliefs. It's easy to romaticize the iconoclast ideals of May '68, and unfortunately Godard's films are too often regarded as soapboxes for the student revolution. While he may be aligned with the left simply through his intellectual status, Godard himself would be the first to admit that he knows nothing of politics. Politics of the cinema, however, is Godard's fortee, and he uses his distinct ability to manipulate image and sound to playfully comment on all sorts of political manifesto.

No film may make this more clear than Tout Va Bien, in which Godard examines the rapidly changing politics of post-68 France. The film comically depicts both the bourgeoisie and working class, using multilayered sound, response style monologues, slow pans and other traditional Godardian tactics to render all politics into senseless jargon. The film is swift despite its heavy thematic undertones, and effective in portraying languages inability to communicate the complicated needs and desires of political advocates both right and left. Remember that scene in The Life Aquatic where the Belafonte is dissected through a side shot of all the cabins? Wes Anderson got that from this film.



Ten years later, this is what the French were up to:

Revisit: Cries & Whispers

A New World Pictures release 1972

Written & Directed by Ingmar Bergman

Karin (Ingrid Thulin) and Maria (Liv Ullmann) watch as their sister Agnes (Harriet Andersson) slowly and painfully passes away. Anchored by the servant Anna (Kari Sylwan), the lives of both sisters are described through flashbacks, which are full of lies, deceit, callousness, self despise, guilt and forbidden love.



Unlike most of Bergman's films, Cries and Whispers uses saturated colour, particularly crimson red. Like, a lot of crimson red. Of course, the color is used frequently by directors to highlight certain themes - Hitchcock used it often to accent psychological shock, M. Night Shyamalan used it in Sixth Sense to let us know there were dead people afoot - but Cries & Whispers is probably the most red movie of all time. The color is so intense and pervading that it's almost impossible not to associate it with the film after you've seen it.

Bergman explained the use of the color by saying, "Cries and Whispers is an exploration of the soul, and ever since childhood, I have imagined the soul to be a damp membrane in varying shades of red." Sounds a bit silly, but it works - the film is an exploration into the hearts and minds of its characters, and displays a range of complex emotions that can only be described as utterly human. Bergman is relentless in his portrayal of contrition and callousness, and the staunch red backgrounds only reinforce the blow. The slow pace may be off-putting to some, but end result is rich, rewarding cinematic experience. Worthy of repeat viewings.