Disc Reviews

Coffy Blu-ray Review

• 6th May 2015

Pam Grier kicks ass. Any film she has appeared in she is most indefatigably the hero. Quentin Tarantino picked up on this in his tribute to the 1970s exploitation crime films in Jackie Brown (1997) (said films tagline had the same one as Coffy: “She’s the godmother of them all”). This was the film that made Grier a star of the Blaxploitation picture, even though it was not her first. Made on an estimated budget of a half a million dollars it raked in many more times that at the box-office and proved to be a big hit, not just for black audiences but for white audiences too. And no one looked more comfortable with a gun in her hand than Grier, making her the perfect action hero.

Coffy opens with her pretending to be taken to a flat to be jacked up on heroin by a couple of dope peddlers. She unceremoniously takes them out – “This is the end of your rotten life, you motherfuckin’ dope pusher!” Haunted by her murderous intent Coffy returns to her job as a nurse. We soon learn that she is avenging the death of her sister at the hands of junkies. Coffy is also dating a black politician who she believes is on her side in seeing justice be brought to dealers. One of her closest friends is a male police officer who is then beaten senseless with baseball bats and hospitalised by a pair of balaclava wearing thugs. She then goes after the top boys: a drug lord called King George (who is super fly and pimped up) and a mafia boss. She then goes undercover as an escort hooker and comes to blows with another woman who she cuts up with a razor blade she had secreted in her afro. She uses her tough bitch profile to take on the mafia boss as her client who likes to abuse the women for his sexual kicks. King George gets wind that Coffy is after them both and is uncovered. She is taken by King George’s henchmen (including Pam Grier/director Jack Hill regular and friend, Sid Haig) to be shot in an underpass. Grier uses her wiles to escape and eventually makes her way to the top boss who turns out to be her boyfriend, the politician.

Coffy is by no means the first Blaxploitation action picture but it was a game changer. Many have criticised the term Blaxploitation. For me though this is not the exploitation of black actors but instead of the more conventional take on white Hollywood scenarios and plots. Take such subversive films as Blacula (1972), Blackenstein (1975) and Abby (1974), a black Exorcist as examples of this. Like many of the films on the Arrow label this package is not short of extras including interviews with Pam Grier who talks about the making of the film, her relationship with it as well as its follow-up, Foxy Brown released the following year and previously released by Arrow in 2013. Other documentaries include a talk by director Jack Hill who had discovered Grier and certainly gives his homage to her, as well as how the Roger Cormon stable of cheap exploitation films moved into Blaxploitation. Also worth viewing is ‘Blaxploitation!’, a video essay by author Mikel J. Koven, author of the snappy book, ‘Blaxploitation Film’ in which he traces the history and development of the genre.

The picture, while still quite grainy as would be expected is never the les good and is nicely colourised and makes a great and enjoyable companion to Foxy Brown. It has a good mix of B movie acting, some sharp dialogue and is never dull. The soundtrack is also outstanding featuring the music of Roy Ayers (“Coffy is the colour”). It is most definitely a must see.

Chris Hick