''Super Fly T.N.T.'' is a 1973 American

blaxploitation In American cinema, Blaxploitation is the film subgenre of action movie derived from the exploitation film genre in the early 1970s, consequent to the combined cultural momentum of the black civil rights movement, the black power movement, ...

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definiti ...

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

film directed by and starring Ron O'Neal. O'Neal reprises his role of Youngblood Priest from the 1972 film '' Super Fly''. The film was both a critical and commercial failure. The film was released on

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

in 1993, but it has not been released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

. It was shot in

Rome, Italy Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

and other locations such as Senegal. A sequel, '' The Return of Superfly'', was released in 1990, with Nathan Purdee as Priest.

Plot

Youngblood Priest and Georgia are now living in Rome, having relocated from New York City. Priest drops Georgia off and when she goes to the place, she meets a black American man named Jordan who recognizes her from New York City. Priest meanwhile has been feeling bored in Rome, so he plays poker games with Italian businessmen every day to entertain himself. In one of the games, Priest has a run-in with Dr. Lamine Sonko, whose country of Umbria was destroyed by battle tanks and who came here to talk to Priest, however he ignores him. Priest then has a dinner engagement with Georgia, Jordan and his girlfriend, Lisa and after they talk, Jordan starts singing, much to the dismay of Priest. Georgia tells Priest that she wants children and to start a family, but Priest refuses. He then meets Jordan the next morning and they talk about their previous lives in New York City, with Priest mentioning a little bit about him being a drug dealer. After he has a horse riding lesson, Priest meets dr. Sonko, however they’re attacked by an assassin, but dr. Sonko manages to subdue him in time. Priest and the doctor go to Priest’s place, where they talk about Umbria, Priest refuses to help dr. Sonko however and he leaves. Priest then realizes that dr. Sonko was right about Umbria and tells Georgia that he’s going there, which makes her angry. The next morning, Priest arrives in Umbria, and then back in Rome, decides to help dr. Sonko. In one of his casino games, he talks to one of the businessmen, Matty Smith, to help him with the weapons. Matty agrees and the next morning, Priest says goodbye to Georgia and dr. Sonko before he boards the plane. After landing however, he is betrayed by the people and detained by soldiers in the airport, who bring them to their commander and beat him up before keeping him in a jail cell. The commander then calls Dr. Sonko, and Priest overhears how the poor doctor has to accept defeat from the soldiers. The commander then leaves, and one of his henchmen goes to check on Priest, but is electrocuted by him. The other henchman also goes to check, but he is also killed, being beaten to death by Priest. Priest then leaves the cell into the daylight and finds himself in the middle of a circle of Africans. Priest then returns from Umbria, and reunites with Georgia.

Cast

* Ron O'Neal as "Youngblood" Priest *

Roscoe Lee Browne Roscoe Lee Browne (May 2, 1922 – April 11, 2007) was an American actor and theatre director, director. He resisted playing Stereotypes of African Americans, stereotypically black roles, instead performing in several productions with New York Ci ...

Dr. Lamine Sonko * Sheila Frazier as Georgia *

Robert Guillaume Robert Guillaume (born Robert Peter Williams; November 30, 1927 – October 24, 2017) was an American actor and singer. He played Fishbone on television series " Good Times", Benson DuBois in the ABC television series ''Soap'' and its spin-o ...

as Jordan Gaines * Jacques Sernas as Matty Smith * William Berger as Lefebre * Silvio Noto as George, Restaurant Proprietor * Olga Bisera as Lisa * Federico Boido as Rik, Mercenary * Dominic Barto as Rand * Minister Dem as General * Jeannie McNeil as Riding Instructress * Luigi Orso as Crew Chief *

Curtis Mayfield Curtis Lee Mayfield (June 3, 1942 – December 26, 1999) was an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. Dubbed the " Gentle Genius", he is considered one of the most influential musicians of soul and socially conscious Afric ...

as Himself; his band, The Curtis Mayfield Experience, also appears in the film.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was done by English/African/Caribbean band

Osibisa Osibisa is a Ghanaian-Caribbean Afro rock band founded in London in the late 1960s by four expatriate West African and three London-based Caribbean musicians. Osibisa was the most successful and longest lived of the African-heritage bands in ...

and charted at #159 on the

Billboard charts The ''Billboard'' charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs and albums in the United States and elsewhere. The results are published in ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' magazine. ''Billboard'' biz, the online extension of the ' ...

and #41 on R&B albums. It has been re-issued on CD by Red Steel Music with bonus tracks in 1995.

Track listing

All songs arranged, performed and composed by Osibisa.

Musicians

Teddy Osei Francis Osei (17 December 1935 – 14 January 2025), known as Teddy Osei, was a Ghanaian musician who was a saxophone player, drummer and vocalist, and best known as the leader of the Afro-pop band Osibisa, founded in 1969. Born in Kumasi, Osei ...

, from

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

; - tenor sax, flute, African drums & vocals
Sol Amarfio, from Ghana; - drums
Mac Tontoh, from Ghana; - trumpet, flugel horn, kabasa
Jean Mandengue, from the French Cameroons; – bass guitar, percussion, vocals
Gordon Hunte, from

Guyana Guyana, officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern coast of South America, part of the historic British West Indies. entry "Guyana" Georgetown, Guyana, Georgetown is the capital of Guyana and is also the co ...

; - lead guitar & vocals
Robert Bailey, from

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger, more populous island of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, the country. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is the southernmost island in ...

; - organ, piano, timbales
Kofi Ayivor, from Ghana; - congas, African drums, percussion, vocals Additional brass arrangements by Mike Gibbs

Release

The film was to be released by

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

but they dropped the film a month before it was due to be released due to concerns about unfavourable reaction from certain groups, similar to that received by the original. The film premiered in New York City on June 15, 1973, which was boycotted by members of the

Congress of Racial Equality The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States that played a pivotal role for African Americans in the civil rights movement. Founded in 1942, its stated mission is "to bring about ...

In popular culture

*In the 1994 film ''

Pulp Fiction ''Pulp Fiction'' is a 1994 American independent crime film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino from a story he conceived with Roger Avary.See, e.g., King (2002), pp. 185–7; ; It tells four intertwining tales of crime and violence ...

'', Jules Winnfield, portrayed by Samuel L. Jackson (who acts in '' The Return of Superfly''), says to

John Travolta John Joseph Travolta (born February 18, 1954) is an American actor. He began acting in television before transitioning into a leading man in films. List of awards and nominations received by John Travolta, His accolades include a Primetime Em ...

's Vincent Vega, "Every time my fingers touch brain, I'm Super Fly T.N.T. I'm the Guns of the Navarone ."

References

External links

* * * {{Super Fly 1973 films 1973 crime drama films American crime drama films American gangster films American sequel films Blaxploitation films Films set in Africa Films shot in Rome Films shot in Senegal Paramount Pictures films Works by Alex Haley African-American films 1970s English-language films 1970s American films English-language crime drama films