| Coffy (1973) Cast:Pam Grier,Booker Bradshaw, Robert DoQui, Sid Haig Pam Grier stars as a nurse who turns vigilante after the death of her cop friend, and the drug overdose of her sister, she goes undercover as a hooker and then battles corrupt cops and finds a sinister conspiracy that hits close to home. Coffy is a perfect reason why Pam Grier is a genre favorite, although she's not merely as mean as Fred Williamson, we still think we'd rather go up against Van Damme than her on any day of the week. The movie itself is an entertaining exploitation flick which has a meaner edge than most in the genre. One of the things i've noted about the blaxploitation genre is that these movies revel in their cynicism. The Asian kung fu flick is merely a pretext revolving revenge, the regular action movie involves just getting the bad guys and breaking the rules to enforce it. In blaxploitation the gloves are off and anything is fair game. Whether it's shooting a stoolie despite promising not to, the stars of these movies played for keeps and hence a fascination with these movies earns my recommendation as to why one should see a movie like this. In fact I think that after Pam Grier's vengeance in this film, she spent the rest of her days with Sonny Chiba's Street Fighter, as these two would be made for each other. The thing that is most surprising about this flick is simply the finale where Booker Bradshaw goes in a convincing speech about how he plans on turning things around for the black community. Indeed the film is peopled by rather unlikable film and some characters don't deserve their fates but in a movie that pulls no punches, it's surprising to see a woman that could make Gene Hackman's Popeye Doyle seem like a choir boy. D.Jack Hill*** |