Coffy Movie 1973
Shawna Erholm
Coffy is a 1973 American blaxploitation action film written and directed by Jack Hill. The story is about a black female vigilante played by Pam Grier who seeks violent revenge against a heroin dealer responsible for her sister's addiction.[7]
Produced and distributed by American International Pictures (AIP), Coffy was the third Jack Hill film to star Grier, after The Big Doll House and The Big Bird Cage. Grier would go on to boost her career as the leading "femme fatale" of blaxploitation for the rest of the 1970s.[8][9]
After her shift, Coffy's police friend Carter offers to drive her home. Carter is a straight-shooting officer who is not willing to bend the law for the mob or the thugs who have been bribing officers at his precinct. Coffy doesn't believe his strong moral resolve until two hooded men break into Carter's house while she's visiting him and beat Carter, crippling him. This enrages Coffy, giving her further provocation to continue her work as a vigilante, killing those responsible for harming Carter and her sister.
Coffy's boyfriend, Howard Brunswick, is a city councilman. Coffy admires Brunswick for his contributions to the community. Brunswick announces his plan to run for Congress and his purchase of a night club. Coffy's next targets are a pimp named King George, one of the largest suppliers of prostitutes and illegal drugs in the city, and Mafia don Arturo Vitroni, a criminal associate of George's.
Coffy questions a former patient, a known drug user, to gain insight into the type of woman King George likes and where he keeps his stash of drugs. Coffy shows no sympathy for the drug-addled woman and abuses her as she looks for answers. With the information she gets from the woman, Coffy tracks down George and poses as a Jamaican woman looking to trick for him.
George, immediately interested in her exotic nature, hires her. One of the prostitutes becomes jealous. Later that day, Coffy and the other prostitutes get into a massive brawl. Coffy wins, which attracts mob boss Vitroni, who demands to have her that night. Coffy plans to kill Vitroni, but before she can shoot him, his men overtake her. She lies and tells Vitroni that King George ordered her to kill him, which makes Vitroni order George to be killed. Vitroni's men kill George by lynching him by the neck from his car, which they drive through an open field.
Coffy then discovers Brunswick, her clean-cut boyfriend, is corrupt when she's shown to him at a meeting of the mob and several police officials. He denies knowing her other than as a prostitute, and Coffy is sent to her death. Coffy seduces her would-be killers. They try injecting her with drugs to sedate her, but she had replaced the illicit drugs with a sugar solution earlier. Faking a high, she kills her unsuspecting hitman with a pointed metal wire she fashioned herself and hid in her hair, by stabbing him in the jugular vein.
Running to avoid capture, Coffy carjacks a vehicle to escape. Coffy drives to Vitroni's house, kills him, and then goes to Brunswick's to do the same. He pleads for forgiveness and just as she is about to accept, a naked white woman comes out of his bedroom. Coffy shoots Brunswick in the groin with a shotgun, emasculating and killing him. She leaves the house and walks along the beach as the sun rises.
According to writer/director Hill, the project began when American International Pictures (AIP)'s head of production Larry Gordon lost the rights to the film Cleopatra Jones after making a handshake deal with the producers. Gordon subsequently approached Hill to quickly make a movie about an African-American woman's revenge and beat Cleopatra Jones to market. Hill wanted to work with Pam Grier, whom he had worked with on The Big Doll House (1971). The film ended up earning more money than Cleopatra Jones and established Grier as an icon of the genre.[10]
Coffy opened at the Chicago Theatre in Chicago, Illinois, and grossed $85,000 in its opening week.[14][15] In its 14th week of release, it reached number one at the US box office.[16] By 1976, Variety estimated the film had earned $4 million in rentals.[4]
Over time, the film has garnered acclaim and is considered groundbreaking for its portrayal of a Black female protagonist.[12] On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, Coffy has an approval rating of 79% based on 24 critics' reviews, with an average rating of 6.8/10. The website's consensus states, "Pam Grier brings spunk and vinegar to Coffy, supported by director Jack Hill's combustible mixture of authentic grit and salacious thrills."[21] Researcher Karen Ross wrote that the film "let black audiences enjoy the sight of heroes kicking the white system and winning even while condemning the violence and recognized the implausibility. It allowed blacks the ultimate escape to cheer on the heroine that fought corruption and crime and then leave the theatre to be blighted by the racism in society."[22]
In 2003 Coffy was released on DVD,[25] and re-released on DVD on December 6, 2005, as part of the Vibe Fox In A Box collection.[26] Both DVD editions contained an audio commentary by director Jack Hill.
In April 2015, an extras-filled Blu-ray was issued from Arrow Video in the UK (Region 2/B only).[28] Arrow's edition contained new interviews with Pam Grier and Jack Hill, "Blaxploitation!", a video essay by author Mikel J. Koven on the history and development of the genre, a booklet featuring new writing on the film by critic Cullen Gallagher, and a profile of Pam Grier by Yvonne D. Sims, author of Women in Blaxploitation,[12] illustrated with archive stills and posters.
After her younger sister gets involved in drugs and is severely injured by contaminated heroin, a nurse sets out on a mission of vengeance and vigilante justice, killing drug dealers, pimps, and mobsters who cross her path.
Coffy has a sister who's addicted, receiving treatment as she's become quite afflicted, so she's taken up the fight, to remove all those who plight, those who peddle, push, promote, will be evicted.
A wonderful performance from Pam Grier who uses all of her assets (and some) as she takes revenge on those who inflict pain and misery through their drug dealing and deception. More than ably supported by Booker Bradshaw, Robert DoQui and Allan Arbus as those she seeks to rid; I only recently came across this 1973 classic and it's opened a door to the cult filmmaker that is Jack Hill, and the wonderful worlds that he conjured.
Very interesting movie. Pam is very hot looking as always. I think she was the Black Pamela Anderson of her time, only that her body is all natural and smoking hot!! Very surprised to see one of the co-stars in the movie was Alan Arbus of MASH fame. What a totally different direction for him playing a really nasty character compared to his really soft but firm part he played as Dr. Sydney Friedman in Mash. Also was very surprised that Turner Classics showed that movie including the nudity and graphic language on cable television. Any way, I enjoyed this movie and recommend this film if you want to see some great action and one great looking woman with a pretty great plot, great music sound track and one fantastic looking female lead character.
Just because she's beautiful and buxomed doesn't mean that she doesn't have a heart, and in fact, having heart is what this is all about. Coffy (Pam Grier) is a nurse, truly upset that her sister has become a victim of local drug pushers and sets out to take down everybody in the organization. Yes, this is exploitation, the epitome of what made blaxploitation in the 1970's great. In fact, if you mention blaxploitation to any film student, chances are that this will be one of five films that they mention. You know that she is one tough cookie the minute she pulls out her sawed off shotgun and literally blows the head off of a pusher, then frames one of his henchmen for the killing in a most unique way. She then manipulates her way into an organized prostitution ring so she can get to the big boss. One thing you can say for Coffy, she is determined.
I was familiar with the famous party fight scene where she arranges for one of the other working girls to pull on her hair with not so surprising results. What I didn't realize was actually how full of integrity that Grier's character is, risking her life not only to settle the score but to get evil dealers off the street and destroy the big main man.
Unlike Cleopatra Jones (Tamara Dobson the same year), Coffy isn't dealing with a clown like Shelley Winters. The men are cutthroat and prepare to deal with any barricade to their business. They are not buffoons like Shelley's boys. So that removes the camp element but there are definitely moments that are very funny. Coffy is also a character much respected in her real profession so that makes her more identifiable. Her character is desired by white men who genuinely love her as well as black men.
Why then is this considered blaxploitation? Simply because that genre advanced black characters in cinema and gave black actors the opportunity to be the heroes while exposing the powerful white men in charge of these mob like organizations. Black and white characters with the same goals and ethics are not segregated in these films either so that gives them a much more realistic view of society which showed a more well-rounded side of these friendships. It's just that characters like Coffy, Cleopatra Jones, Shaft and others get to show that they are just as formidable, ethical and loyal, and when they go up against the bad guy, it doesn't matter what color they are. You may go into this looking forward to see Grier bare her breasts, but you will come out of this seeing her as a real woman who is commanding and thus worthy of knowing and deserving of respect.
After years of small roles in exploitation flicks, Pam Grier finally hit it big with the blaxploitation classic Coffy (1973). Written and directed by Jack Hill, who had directed Grier in low-budget flicks before, Coffy to modern eyes looks far less empowering than it does exploitative. Grier spends a significant amount of time in the film nude, as do almost all the actresses; they lose their shirts in fistfights faster than Bruce Lee ever did. But the film, dealing so directly as it does with corrupt politics, urban drug problems and the exploitation of women, was very much ahead of its time, so much so that, as Hill said in a DGA interview in 2011, it was a struggle to make simply because of the constant battle against racism; Grier notes in a separate interview that there were so few African-American stunt people at that time that several men and women had to be trained specifically for the film.
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