Super Fly: The Sights of 1970s New York

Gordon Parks, Jr.’s Super Fly is an experiment in realism rather than expressionism in the way that it does not purposely alter or distort any of Block’s Visual Components—Space, Line, Shape, Tone, Color, Movement, Rhythm—and only aims to recreate New York as realistically as possible on-screen, using previously released films like The French Connection or Shaft as the blueprint for success. While watching Parks, Jr.’s film, one might tell themselves that the film has 70s written all over it, as if there has never been another film that so effectively provides a snapshot of an entire decade, an entire place, an entire attitude. If you’re looking for one of the definitive films of the 1970s, look no further than Super Fly.

The visual components and narrative content go hand in hand, never forced to combat each other for what will receive more attention from the audience. As should be with any film, the visual components are structured around the content at hand, and since the audience is presented a relatively simple, non-abstract story, they will get simple, non-abstract visuals. The film employs color beautifully, as the film stock used tends to make the images appear washed out, adding to the work’s role as a timepiece for the 1970s as well as adding to the work’s toughness, its take-no-prisoners attitude.

The boldest and most successful part of the film is without a doubt the now infamous still image montage to Curtis Mayfield’s “Pusherman.” The idea to construct a montage made up of only still images was a daring feat and could not have been more successful. The montage ends up being more exciting than almost any other montage composed in all the years of cinema, for the images move with such fluidity that it’s hard to pay attention to the fact that they are only still images. Overall, the strength of the montage is its rhythm, displaying an astute illusion of movement that wouldn’t have been able to be accomplished if they constructed normal cinematic images rather than taking this unique approach.

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