Coffy: Difference between revisions
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==Plot== |
==Plot== |
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A nurse, known only as "Coffy" throughout the entirety of the film, seeks revenge for her younger sister's drug addiction and the chain of drug-related violence that exists in her city. Under the guise of an attractive prostitute willing to do anything for a drug fix, she lures a drug pusher and a mob boss to their residence, killing them. After the killings, Coffy returns to her job at a local hospital operating room. |
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⚫ | After her shift, Coffy’s police friend Carter offers to drive her home. Carter is a straight-shooting officer who is not willing to bend the law for the mob or thugs who have been bribing many officers at his precinct. Coffy doesn't believe his strong moral resolve until two hooded men break into Carter's house while she's beat Carter severely, temporarily crippling him. This enrages Coffy, giving her further provocation to continue her work as a vigilante, killing those responsible for harming Carter and her sister. |
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She lures the men to their residence, which gives her the privacy to kill both. After the killings, Coffy returns to her job at a local hospital operating room, but is asked to leave when she is too jumpy when handing tools to the surgeon. |
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⚫ | |||
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⚫ | Coffy's boyfriend Howard Brunswick |
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⚫ | |||
Coffy questions and abuses a former patient of hers who was a known drug user to gain insight into the type of woman King George likes and where he keeps his stash of drugs. This is the first scene where Coffy brutalizes another woman and shows no remorse because the former patient is using drugs again and thus a societal deviant. Coffy quickly goes to a resort posing as a Jamaican woman looking to work for King George. |
Coffy questions and abuses a former patient of hers who was a known drug user to gain insight into the type of woman King George likes and where he keeps his stash of drugs. This is the first scene where Coffy brutalizes another woman and shows no remorse because the former patient is using drugs again and thus a societal deviant. Coffy quickly goes to a resort posing as a Jamaican woman looking to work for King George. |
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George is quickly interested in her exotic nature and |
George is quickly interested in her exotic nature and hires her. One of the prostitutes returns from a far away job and gets disgruntled and jealous when seeing George taking such a liking to Coffy. Later that day, Coffy and the other prostitutes get into a massive brawl, from which Coffy reigns victorious, which entices mob boss Vittroni and he demands that he have her tonight. |
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Coffy prepares herself to murder |
Coffy prepares herself to murder Vitrtoni and just when she is about to shoot, is overtaken by his men. She lies and tells Vittroni that King George ordered her to kill him, which makes Vitroni order George to be murdered. Vittroni's men kill George by tying him by the neck from their car, which they drive through an open field. |
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Coffy then discovers her clean-cut boyfriend is actually corrupt when she's shown to him at a meeting of the mob and several police officials. He denies knowing her other than as a prostitute and Coffy is sent to her death. |
Coffy then discovers her clean-cut boyfriend is actually corrupt when she's shown to him at a meeting of the mob and several police officials. He denies knowing her other than as a prostitute and Coffy is sent to her death. Coffy uses her sexuality to seduce her would-be killers. They try injecting her with drugs to sedate her, but she had switched these out for sugar earlier. Faking a high, she kills her unsuspecting hitmen with a pointed metal wire she fashioned herself and hid in her hair. |
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Running to avoid capture, Coffy [[carjacking|carjacks]] a vehicle to escape. Coffy drives to |
Running to avoid capture, Coffy [[carjacking|carjacks]] a vehicle to escape. Coffy drives to Vittroni's house, murders him, and then goes to Brunswick's to do the same. He pleads for forgiveness and just as she is about to accept, a naked white woman comes out of the bedroom. At this, Coffy shoots Brunswick in the groin. The film then closes with Coffy walking along the beach satisfied with having avenged her sister and Carter. It's speculated Coffy then goes to jail, after killing several police officers and shooting a politician. |
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==Production== |
==Production== |
Revision as of 23:06, 18 November 2017
This article needs additional citations for verification. (February 2017) |
Coffy | |
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Directed by | Jack Hill |
Written by | Jack Hill |
Produced by | Robert Papazian |
Starring | Pam Grier Booker Bradshaw Robert DoQui William Elliott Allan Arbus Sid Haig |
Music by | Roy Ayers |
Distributed by | American International Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 91 min. |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $500,000[1] |
Box office | $2 million (rentals)[2][3] |
Coffy is a 1973 American blaxploitation film written and directed by American filmmaker Jack Hill. The story is about a black female vigilante played by Pam Grier.[4]
The film's tagline in advertising was "They call her 'Coffy' and she'll cream you!"[5]
Plot
A nurse, known only as "Coffy" throughout the entirety of the film, seeks revenge for her younger sister's drug addiction and the chain of drug-related violence that exists in her city. Under the guise of an attractive prostitute willing to do anything for a drug fix, she lures a drug pusher and a mob boss to their residence, killing them. After the killings, Coffy returns to her job at a local hospital operating room.
After her shift, Coffy’s police friend Carter offers to drive her home. Carter is a straight-shooting officer who is not willing to bend the law for the mob or thugs who have been bribing many officers at his precinct. Coffy doesn't believe his strong moral resolve until two hooded men break into Carter's house while she's beat Carter severely, temporarily crippling him. This enrages Coffy, giving her further provocation to continue her work as a vigilante, killing those responsible for harming Carter and her sister.
Coffy's boyfriend, Howard Brunswick, is a city councilman. Coffy admires Brunswick for his contributions to her society. She is very happy when he announces his plan to run for Congress, and his purchase of a night club.
Coffy's next targets are a pimp named King George, who is supposedly one of the largest providers of prostitutes and illegal substances in the city, and Mafia boss Arturo Vittroni, a close partner of George's.
Coffy questions and abuses a former patient of hers who was a known drug user to gain insight into the type of woman King George likes and where he keeps his stash of drugs. This is the first scene where Coffy brutalizes another woman and shows no remorse because the former patient is using drugs again and thus a societal deviant. Coffy quickly goes to a resort posing as a Jamaican woman looking to work for King George.
George is quickly interested in her exotic nature and hires her. One of the prostitutes returns from a far away job and gets disgruntled and jealous when seeing George taking such a liking to Coffy. Later that day, Coffy and the other prostitutes get into a massive brawl, from which Coffy reigns victorious, which entices mob boss Vittroni and he demands that he have her tonight.
Coffy prepares herself to murder Vitrtoni and just when she is about to shoot, is overtaken by his men. She lies and tells Vittroni that King George ordered her to kill him, which makes Vitroni order George to be murdered. Vittroni's men kill George by tying him by the neck from their car, which they drive through an open field.
Coffy then discovers her clean-cut boyfriend is actually corrupt when she's shown to him at a meeting of the mob and several police officials. He denies knowing her other than as a prostitute and Coffy is sent to her death. Coffy uses her sexuality to seduce her would-be killers. They try injecting her with drugs to sedate her, but she had switched these out for sugar earlier. Faking a high, she kills her unsuspecting hitmen with a pointed metal wire she fashioned herself and hid in her hair.
Running to avoid capture, Coffy carjacks a vehicle to escape. Coffy drives to Vittroni's house, murders him, and then goes to Brunswick's to do the same. He pleads for forgiveness and just as she is about to accept, a naked white woman comes out of the bedroom. At this, Coffy shoots Brunswick in the groin. The film then closes with Coffy walking along the beach satisfied with having avenged her sister and Carter. It's speculated Coffy then goes to jail, after killing several police officers and shooting a politician.
Production
According to writer/director Hill, the project began when American International Pictures' head of production, Larry Gordon, lost the rights to the film Cleopatra Jones after making a handshake deal with the producers. Gordon subsequently approached Hill to quickly make a movie about an African American woman's revenge and beat Cleopatra Jones to market. Hill wanted to work with Pam Grier, whom he had worked with on The Big Doll House (1971). The film ended up earning more money than Cleopatra Jones and established Grier as an icon of the genre.[citation needed]
Coffy is notable in its depiction of a strong female lead (a capable nurse), something rare in the genre at the time, and also in its then-unfashionable anti-drug message. It was remade with an all-white cast as Lovely But Deadly (1981).[citation needed]
Cast and roles
- Pam Grier - Coffy
- Booker Bradshaw - Howard Brunswick
- Robert DoQui - King George
- William Elliott - Carter, a police officer
- Allan Arbus - Arturo Vitroni
- Sid Haig - Omar, a henchman of Vitroni
- Barry Cahill - McHenry, a police officer
- Lee de Broux - Nick, a police officer
- Ruben Moreno - Ramos
- Lisa Farringer - Jeri, one of King George's girls
- Carol Locatell - Priscilla (credited as Carol Lawson)
- Linda Haynes - Meg, one of King George's girls
- John Perak - Aleva
- Mwako Cumbuka - Grover, Sugarman's henchman
- Morris Buchanan - Sugarman
- Bob Minor - Studs
Soundtrack
Reception
The movie received a mixed reception.[6] Karen Ross wrote that it "let black audiences enjoy the sight of heroes kicking the white system and winning even while condemning the violence and recognized the implausibility. It allowed blacks the ultimate escape to cheer on the heroine that fought corruption and crime and then leave the theatre to be blighted by the racism in society."[7] In contrast, critic Roger Ebert praised the film for its believable female lead and noted that Grier was an actress of "beautiful face and astonishing form" and that she possessed a kind of "physical life" missing from many other attractive actresses.[8] Grier subsequently played similar characters in the AIP films Foxy Brown (1974), Friday Foster, and Sheba, Baby (both 1975).
The film is a favourite of Quentin Tarantino, and he ranks it high among his top 20 best films.[9] He later hired Grier for Jackie Brown in 1997, a film with clear inspiration from films like Coffy and Foxy Brown. Tarantino said of the film poster: "Not only is it a great image of Pam Grier, it's got great type — it's the epitome of a great exploitation poster...and every version of it in foreign countries rocked".[9]
By 1976 Variety estimated the film had earned $4 million in rentals.[10]
The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:
- 2001: AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills – Nominated[11]
Canceled Sequel
Due to sequels performing poorly at the box-office, the sequel to Coffy (known as Burn Coffy Burn) was scrapped and replaced with Foxy Brown.[5]
Release on DVD & HD
- In 2003 it was released on DVD,[12] and rereleased on DVD on December 6, 2005 as part of the Vibe Fox In A Box collection. Both DVD editions contained an audio commentary by director Jack Hill.
- In 2010 it was digitized in High Definition (1080i) and broadcast on MGM HD.
- In June 2015, a bare-bones Blu-Ray with no extras was issued from Olive Films in the United States (Region 1/A only).
- In April 2015, an extras-filled Blu-Ray was issued from Arrow Video in the UK (Region 2/B only). Arrow's edition contained the following extras:
- Restored High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
- Original uncompressed mono PCM audio
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Audio commentary by writer-director Jack Hill
- "A Taste of Coffy" A brand new interview with Jack Hill
- "The Baddest Chick in Town!" A brand new interview with Pam Grier on Coffy and its follow up, Foxy Brown
- "Blaxploitation!" A video essay by author Mikel J. Koven (Blaxploitation Film) on the history and development of the genre
- Original theatrical trailer
- Image Gallery
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Gilles Vranckx
- Booklet featuring new writing on the film by critic Cullen Gallagher and a profile of Pam Grier by Yvonne D. Sims, author of Women in Blaxploitation,[13] illustrated with archive stills and posters.
See also
References
- ^ Calum Waddell, Jack Hill: The Exploitation and Blaxploitation Master, Film by Film, McFarland, 2009 p122
- ^ "Big Rental Films of 1973", Variety, 9 January 1974, pg 19.
- ^ Samuel Z Arkoff & Richard Turbo, Flying Through Hollywood By the Seat of My Pants, Birch Lane Press, 1992 p 202
- ^ Gary A. Smith, The American International Pictures Video Guide, McFarland 2009 p 40
- ^ a b "Coffy". The Baltimore Afro-American. Baltimore, Maryland. May 26, 1973. p. 18.
- ^ "Coffy". Chicago Sun Times. Retrieved 2011-01-30.
- ^ Black and White Media: Black Images in Popular Film and Television. Ross, Karen. Polity Press. Cambridge, MA. 1996
- ^ "RogerEbert.com". Coffy. Retrieved May 11, 2006.
- ^ a b "Coffy". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 4 November 2014.
{{cite web}}
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(help) - ^ "All-time Film Rental Champs", Variety, 7 January 1976 p 50
- ^ "AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills Nominees" (PDF). Retrieved 20 August 2016.
- ^ "Coffy". DVD Talk. Retrieved 2011-01-30.
- ^ Sims, Yvonne D. (2006), "Here comes the queen", in Sims, Yvonne D. (ed.), Women of blaxploitation: how the black action film heroine changed American popular culture, Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc. Publishers, pp. 71–92, ISBN 9780786427444.
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Further reading
- Heldman, Caroline; Frankel, Laura Lazarus; Holmes, Jennifer (April–June 2016). ""Hot, black leather, whip" The (de)evolution of female protagonists in action cinema, 1960–2014". Sexualization, Media, and Society. 2 (2). Sage. doi:10.1177/2374623815627789.
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External links
- 1973 films
- Films directed by Jack Hill
- 1970s action films
- 1970s crime thriller films
- American films
- American International Pictures films
- Blaxploitation films
- American crime thriller films
- Films about drugs
- English-language films
- Girls with guns films
- Vigilante films
- Fictional African-American people
- Female characters in film