NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

Warner Archive bring the iconic Blaxploitation classic Super Fly to a new Blu-ray edition. It's on a dual-layered disc in 1080P with a max'ed out bitrate. It suffers from the production roots but has never looked better on digital. It is in a slightly bastardized 1.78:1 aspect ratio but looks quite reasonable with heavy film textures and a grass roots 16mm feel. 

The film is presented in a DTS-HD Master 2.0 channel mono track. Effects don't carry much weight with the flat, modest, production sound. With is first film composure credit Curtis Mayfield cranks out memorable tunes like Little Child Runnin' Wild, Pusherman, Freddy's Dead, Junkie Chase, Give Me Your Love (Love Song) , Eddie You Should Know Better, No Thing On Me (Cocaine Song) and, of course, Super Fly. The audio quality is decent and dialogue is clear and audible. There are optional English (SDH) subtitles on this Region FREE Blu-ray.

Warner include a commentary by Dr. Todd Boyd aka "Notorious Ph.D.", he is a Professor of Critical Studies at USC and is an expert on media, race, cinema, and related culture. He provides a thorough commentary for Super Fly with focus and analysis on many facets of the genre, the prevalence of cocaine and era of production. He sees Super Fly is a far better film than Shaft. We also get a 25-minute video piece entitled One Last Deal: A Retrospective - it's nostalgic and informative. It’s from the 2004 DVD and sadly O’Neal died a day after the film was released in that disc edition. Ron O'Neal on the Making of Super Fly is short piece reflecting back of the film. Many my appreciate the audio-only piece entitled Curtis Mayfield on Super Fly that runs just over 7-minutes. Behind the Threads takes a look at some of the film's extravagant wardrobe and Behinds the Hog with Les Dunham takes a fun look at the pimped-out cars in the film and of the era. Lastly, there is a trailer.

This is definitely the one film that turned the corner for black-action films of the early 70s. Super Fly is more than just a cool crime-revenge-drama and it is wonderful to see it get the Blu-ray treatment from Warner Archive with the commentary and other extras included! For the Blaxploitation genre this has immense appeal as one of the quintessential efforts. A must own, imo.

Gary Tooze