Capsule Reviews: <i>Coffy</i>

Capsule Reviews: Coffy

Quick-hit movie reviews for the masses.

"She's the Godmother of them all ... the baddest one-chick hit squad that ever hit town!"

"They call her Coffy and she'll cream you!"

Starring in Jack Hill's exploitation classic Coffy (1973) effectively established Pam Grier as the most badass woman of 1970s cinema. She'd already staked her claim in previous films, but with Coffy Grier cemented her eternal star status. The story of a nurse by day, vigilante justice seeker by night, Coffy allowed Grier ample opportunities to show off her ample assets - and I don't just mean that bodacious body, although that is certainly on full display throughout the film.

Quentin Tarantino famously loves Grier so much—often listing Coffy as one of his favorite film—that he built the love letter Jackie Brown around her talents. He even cast her Coffy costar Sid Haig* in a knowing nod to their past genre glories. It's no surprise why; Grier is absurdly charismatic as the titular Coffy. Seeking revenge on the heroin dealers who hooked her sister on smack, Coffy is just what the tagline says: a one-chick hit squad, creaming one misogynist slimeball after another.

The power of the film's anti-drug message lies in just how pervasive the problem was (and is) in inner city America (and of course outside our cities as well). It's not just pushers and pimps that Coffy has to contend with, but also politicians taking a hard stance on the heroin scourge in public, while secretly lining their pockets with a cut from from drug sales. Coffy is relentless, using sex to seduce these men and then exacting brutal revenge, usually via shotgun blasts to the head, chest, or for one unlucky chap, the groin.

Hill ends the film with a moment of pure melancholy which perfectly captures the human toll Coffy's mission takes on her: she's killed everyone she set out to kill (and a few more for good measure); now what? The final shot of a solemn Grier walking along the beach at dusk, as the credits roll, underscores just how empty this mission of revenge has left her.

Coffy stands as the purest distillation of the reasons why Grier is revered as the badass woman of 1970s cinema—and beyond, really. Whether playing a drugged out whore to infiltrate the inner sanctum of one pusher after another, or going full-on kamikaze action star, Grier is electrifying. Even the requisite girl-on-girl catfight, while hilariously cliche, is a stunning showcase for Grier's power as a woman of action. It's not just a fight, but a several-minutes long, knock-down, drag-out brawl, with Grier taking on one rampaging prostitute after another, as party onlookers (mostly salivating creepozoid men) look on with awe. Over the course of her career, and especially with Jackie Brown, Grier extended and refined her acting range, but with Coffy she crafted a defining performance that remains as thrilling and invigorating to watch today as it must have been for grindhouse audiences back in 1973.

*Cult film legend Sid Haig passed away this week. He starred in a handful of films with Grier, including Coffy, and had a prosperous late career in horror films, including several directed by Rob Zombie. May he rest in peace.

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