Director Jack Hill specialized in exploitation films during the 1960s and ‘70s. COFFY as well his FOXY BROWN starred the beautiful Pam Grier. Like Hill’s SWITCHBLADE SISTERS, COFFY is one of Quentin Tarantino’s favorites. SWITCHBLADE is so bad that it is good. However, that film still shows that Hill had talent, but was unfocused. COFFY suffers from the same problem.
The film opens with Coffy killing the drug pushers that got her little sister hooked. The nurse is plagued with guilt over the incident telling her longtime friend Carter (William Elliott), a good cop, that she’s tired of the drug pushers getting away with it because cops are in on the take. After Carter is beaten nearly to death because he won’t take drug money, Coffy goes back on a killing spree to eliminate the top drug dealers, which includes pimp King George (Robert DoQui, ROBOCOP) and Arturo Vitroni (Allan Arbus, VOLUNTEERS). Describing her rage as like being in a dream, she will go to any extent to get even — becoming a prostitute for King George so that she can get close to Vitroni, who is protected by bald-headed Omar (Sid Haig, THE DEVIL’S REJECTS) and the one-eyed McHenry (Barry Cahill, HANG ‘EM HIGH).
Coffy is a sexy determined woman, who knows how to use her looks to get what she wants, which she clearly displays with her councilman boyfriend Howard Brunswick (Booker Bradshaw). The film starts out as a solid avenging angel tale, but it loses some steam along the way. One of its problems is that it adds too many characters, which dilute Coffy’s motivation. Her motivations are really muddled in the last scene, which gives her doubts that are frustrating. She’s a strong female character throughout the picture and then in the last minute she’s given clichéd girlie emotions that play more sexist than real character development.
As I watched the film I could often see the influences it had on Tarantino’s work. However, Tarantino understands character and story far better than anything present in Hill’s films. Tarantino can see the diamonds in the rough and knows exactly how to mine them for use in his work.
Films that don’t work sometimes can be more inspiring than films that play it safe. COFFY is a perfect example of this idea. The film touches on interesting ideas like "one person can’t do it alone," but never runs with it. Wrong turns pop up from time to time, but Coffy’s strong motivation and Grier’s believable performance allow us to forgive the film’s exploitative moments like its constant desire to have the female characters’ shirts ripped open, exposing their breasts. The film’s breast fetish often creates laughs. However, Coffy’s final doubts unravel the strong character development and make us unable to continue to overlook the film’s seedier intentions. We may remember Coffy has a badass chick, but that’s not exactly the way the film portrays her journey. In Coffy’s last minute weakness, COFFY as a whole stumbles and falls.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
