Coffy - Die Raubkatze

if you've always wondered what was so great about Pam Grier, and haven't seen any of her movies from the seventies, look no further than Coffy. Coffy has it all, violence, pimps, drugs, nudity, sex, and it's served up with some severe camp and crazy dialogue. what sets this movie apart from other blaxploitaion movies is the excellent story and powerful performance of Miss Grier. I don't think anyone else could have pulled it off, and despite the low budget ambiance and feeling the movie took about a couple of weeks to make, Grier gives a performance worthy of her cult reverence.

the movie is a typical revenge story, with a not so typical hero-a black woman. Coffy's sister is hooked on smack and Coffy vows to herself to destroy the people responsible. Coffy works as a nurse by day, and prowls the clubs by night looking for the pusher who destroyed her sister's mind with drugs. Her search leads her to a pimp, a mobster, the cops, and a politician. In the end, she takes care of them all using her brains as well as her body, and damn do she have a body! Pam Grier makes this movie believable despite the obvious flaws of the low budget production. Her character never shows the weak side of femininity and fall into the ethos that women are at some point weaker than men. Coffy never breaks down to cry for help, waiting for a man or anyone else to help her-she does it all on her own. she kicks ass all over, and no other movie has done that with a female character, at least not anything credible. Coffy makes Thelma and Louise look like Laverne and Shirley.

Pam went on to make more movies of this ilk, but none were as popular nor as good as Coffy. what about Foxy Brown you ask? despite a better title, it doesn't compare to Coffy in either performance or content. Coffy served to bring Pam Grier into the main stream, as much as any black actress could be, and make her a star. all i can say is, thank you Quentin Tarentino for making Jackie Brown and proving her power and presence as an actress. See this movie, then see Jackie Brown, you'll see why Tarentino made it.

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.

What a great film! After seeing "Friday Foster" last week which was a quite disappointment Pam found back to old qualities with this movie! The nerve-straining and tame political correctness of "Friday Foster" is fortunately totally missing, because "Coffy" follows straight up to some unwritten genre laws: the white are the bad guys, black ones the good - that´s how the rules of blaxploitation normally function! The story is simple: nurse Coffy takes revenge for her little sister, who was maltreated by the drug syndicate. Sometimes the film reminded me on Michael Winner´s "Death Wish", however Charles Bronson is a little milk boy in comparison to the tough and sexy Coffy: Pam shows her breasts every five minutes and when she doesn´t she kills a dozens of people instead. The scene when she blows away the head of an evil pimp is next to William Lustig´s "Maniac" the greatest headshot ever featured in a film! Loved also the hilarious girl brawl at the buffet! A great fun flick!!

The first half of this film is interesting enough, with a strong and smart African-American woman in the lead role (Pam Grier of course), using her brains and body to seek vengeance on drug dealers who messed up her sister. It has a heavy 70's B-movie vibe to it, and there were times when it felt like the feminist aspects of Grier's character were undercut by things like women's tops flying open at what seems like every possible moment. However, the film really picks up steam is in the second half, which has interesting moments in the plot, action scenes that hold together well, and a few social messages delivered as well. Seriously, if the film hadn't gotten carried away in places early on, I think it would be much better regarded, and even as it is, it feels underrated to me.

It's an action movie first and foremost, and an entertaining one at that, but I loved how it talked about the overall system of drugs, starting with poverty being a factor in the chain stretching from users to pushers to all the way back to poor farmers in faraway places, many of whom are people of color. At the top in this system are the affluent, and a chain of mostly white businessmen, corrupt police, and corrupt politicians. The film doesn't hit us over the head with this, and there are good and bad African-American characters, as well as good and bad cops. With that said, images like the rope being put around a black man's neck and then him being dragged from a car, as well as a rich white guy getting off on using slurs and denigrating "exotic" women are pretty meaningful in addition to powerful.

It's really Pam Grier who makes this film though. She simply radiates beauty and strength, and the look in her eyes at times is every bit as mesmerizing as her often talked about body. Her acting may be a little uneven in places but it didn't bother me in the slightest, and I loved her overall performance, which had high entertainment value.

My favorite quote is from the politician (Booker Bradshaw), who is an interesting character in his own right: "You know, you've been listening to my political speeches. I thought you'd be more intelligent than to listen to crap like that."

Pam Grier made many movies in the 1970s, but 'Coffy' as much as anything, is the one role on which her reputation as the Queen of blaxploitation rests. After a bit part in a Russ Meyer movie (his classic 'Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls'), Jack Hill, former Roger Corman protege and director of the creepy cult favourite 'Spider Baby', "discovered" her and gave her two strong roles in his popular chicks-in-chains movies 'The Big Doll House' and 'The Big Bird Cage'. Then Hill wrote and directed 'Coffy', a hugely entertaining revenge thriller that really showcases Pam Grier's talent and charisma to the max. The movie was hugely successful and made Grier an exploitation superstar. Instead of a female James Bond character like Cleopatra Jones, Hill made Coffy a regular working class black woman (a nurse as a matter of fact), who must use her brains and looks to achieve her goal - revenge for the drug addiction of her kid sister. The movie crosses elements seen in the male blaxploitation classics of the period like 'Superfly' and 'Shaft' with the vigilante genre which would really kick off with the success of 'Death Wish' the following year (yup, 'Coffy' PREDATES 'Death Wish', so let's get that straight). Grier is sensational in this movie. She can act, she's tough, she pulls off the action scenes with credibility, and of course she looks great, and there is a fair bit of nudity. Grier went on to movies like 'The Arena', 'Sheba, Baby' and 'Drum' before the blaxploitation boom burst, but it's a pity that she only made one more movie with Jack Hill ('Foxy Brown') because they were a dynamite team bringing out the best in each other. 'Coffy' has some interesting supporting cast members including Allan Arbus (best know to fans of TV's 'M.A.S.H.') as Mob boss Vitroni, future 'Robocop' actor Robert DoQui as flamboyant pimp King George, and the brilliant Sid Haig as the sleazy Omar. Haig was a regular Grier co-star throughout the 1970s and Jack Hill's favourite actor ever since his breakthrough role in 'Spider Baby'. If you really want to understand why so many movie buffs from Quentin Tarantino on down worship Pam Grier then 'Coffy' is THE movie to watch. Arguably her best movie, it's a blaxploitation classic and still great viewing thirty years later! Highly recommended to anyone with an interest in 1970s exploitation or crime movies.