Pam Grier is loved and respected by many, but she deserves so much more love and respect. The films she chose to do often caused her considerable backlash. Violence and sex were never topics that she shied away from. While some would label her a feminist icon, far more people disliked her work and blamed her for everything from the downfall of Black families to corruption of youth with sex. But as she would go on to say, although these films were fiction, the characters were real to her. "My aunt was Foxy Brown, and my mom was Coffy. We were constantly struggling against disrespect." It isn't any surprise that she would be able to portray such strong, determined and well, bad ass characters.
We first meet Flowerchild, who goes by Coffy, as she's begging for a heroin fix from a pimp. He agrees and takes her in on the grounds that she has sex with him. She's really into this guy, until she blows him away with a hidden shotgun. She forces his assistant to take a hot shot, or deadly drug mix. She proclaims this is her revenge, as they were the ones who got her sister hooked on drugs.
Back at the hospital she's shaken up and Coffy, takes a coffee break. Officer Carter, a former boyfriend offers to take her home. She loves him, but doesn't think he has the mental strength to make it work, as he has too much heart. During their drive he discusses how a new group is taking over the drug and prostitution business and has most of the police force on the payroll. As they get a little closer that evening Carter takes a phone rejecting a payoff to look the other way on some crimes. Two men break into his home instantly and attack him with a baseball bat. Coffy attempts to help fight back but is overpowered as well. One man attempts to rape Coffy but she and Carter fight him off before Carter succumbs to injuries.
Coffy meets with her boyfriend, Howard Brunswick, a City Councilman looking to run for Congress, with the help of some criminals. He makes some introductions, and sends her on her way so they can discuss business. Coffy learns it was King George's men who attacked Carter, as well as the mafia boss Arturo Vitroni. She devices a plan to infiltrate their organization and take them down at any and all costs for both her sister, and Carter.
I won't sit here and tell you this is mind blowing and life changing. Honestly, it's just a really fun watch. At the core, this is just a classic action flick to the letter. Intense fight scenes, some comedy, an unrequited love. We actually never find out what happens to Officer Carter after the film is resolved but we know she got revenge even if he never woke up out of the coma. The fight scenes aren't all the greatest, but the ones that are lacking can be comical. I believe they tried to spice up some of the scenes as well because there's a gratuitous amount of breasts in this film. It actually becomes laughable about halfway through. In once scene, a fight takes place between a dozen prostitutes at an office party. Towards the end of the fight, they just start to rip each others clothes off despite taking jabs to the face.
Despite the comedic value of the fights, and the jokes featured in the film, there are some really serious moments. Plenty of Blaxploitation films are anti-drug, but Coffy really goes for it. We watch people shoot up, we tour rehabilitation wards, the concoction of hot shots, the desperation for a fix. It doesn't shy away from just how bad drugs like heroin and cocaine are, more so than many other films. Admittedly, there was one really uncomfortable scene where they lynch the pimp. He's a drug dealing pimp, and a piece of trash. But, the way they murder him while forcing another Black person to watch hurts to see. A noose is tied around his neck and he's forced to run behind a car, when he can't run anymore he's dragged until he dies passing bystanders along the way.
With that being said, this is just a fun film to watch. A lot of reviews say it's a bad film, but a lot of that stuff is played for a laugh on screen. The thing that needs to be remembered is that a studio stole the rights to Cleopatra Jones so the creators approached some friends to make an action movie starring a woman first to hurt the box office. This film was only created to hurt the competition and went on to kick off the trend of women leading action films. That's one of the amazing things about Blaxploitation films, even something small can trigger a huge wave of events.
You can check out some of my short stories at 12 AM Fiction or if you like vampires follow my web serial Exsanguinate and of course hear me on the Powerbomb Jutsu podcast if you enjoy pro wrestling.
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