Coffy (1973)

Director:

Jack Hill

Writer:

Jack Hill (writer)

Release Date:

13 June 1973 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Thriller

Tagline:

No one sleeps when they mess with Coffy!

Plot:

Coffy is a nurse whose younger sister gets involved in drugs and is severely injured by contaminated heroin...

Plot Keywords:

Drugs | Vigilante | Shooting | Vengeance | Killing

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Pam Grier	...	Coffy
Booker Bradshaw	...	Howard Brunswick
Robert DoQui	...	King George
William Elliott	...	Carter
Allan Arbus	...	Arturo Vitroni
Sid Haig	...	Omar
Barry Cahill	...	McHenry
Lee de Broux	...	Nick
Ruben Moreno	...	Ramos
Lisa Farringer	...	Jeri
Carol Locatell	...	Priscilla (as Carol Lawson)
Linda Haynes	...	Meg
John Perak	...	Aleva
Mwako Cumbuka	...	Grover
Morris Buchanan	...	Sugarman

Runtime:

91 min | Germany:84 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Netherlands:16 | France:-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:R | UK:18 | Germany:18

Filming Locations:

Chatsworth, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

American International Pictures (AIP)

Trivia:

The idea to hide various weapons in Coffy's afro came from Pam Grier.

Goofs:

Continuity: Vetroni's death: Coffy shoots Vetroni full in the chest with a shotgun, while he is standing in a swimming pool with his heart at the waterline. Vetroni is facing the camera and we see the blast, but there's no blood.

Quotes:

Howard Brunswick: Black people want dope, and brown people want dope, and as long as there people are deprived of a decent life, they'll settle for anything to just plain feel good with.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Jackie Brown (1997)

Soundtrack:

King George

the best Pam Grier movie!

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.