Super Fly

In addition to Last Tango in Paris, another great film from 1972 is Super Fly, by Gordon Parks, Jr. I don't think I had ever sat down and made a study of it until I was laid off in 2011 (over the years since I was a kid I've seen parts of the movie many times over on television). What struck me is that it's all about trying to get out of the rat race (the rat race in this case being the drug trade). Priest, played by Ron O'Neal, is trying to hit one more big score and then he's out. He's just like every other American. We all go to work every day in the hope that one day we won't have to. This is what unites the minimum-wage worker with the 1% -- the desire to be free of the rat race.

The Curtis Mayfield soundtrack is timeless; I always have it loaded on my iPod. Tonight on a brisk run (so brisk my left hamstring is aching) I was accompanied by "Little Child Runnin' Wild":