Coffy (1973) Drama

Coffy (1973) - This is a "blaxploitation" vengeance film starring Pam Grier as a nurse, Coffy who pays back the Mother F$%^ers who hurt her little sister by selling her drugs. Coffy tries to balance her life as a nurse with her night time activities posing as a prostitute in order to get close enough to the drug traffickers to kill them. The story is pretty straight forward and Coffy has little trouble infiltrating the crime organization. Being an exploitation movie the script written by director Jack Hill does not try very hard to have more than one level. There are some common blaxpoitation lines about how society won't defend minorities so they have to do it themselves. It has the standard black man drug lord, King George (Robert DoQui) but naturally the guy really in charge is white. This is common for this brand of movie. The higher up is a mobster named Arturo Vitroni played by Allen Arbus, a great character actor who was in some of my favorite M.A.S.H. episodes as Major Sidney Freedman, an army psychiatrist. Also playing a thug is legendary horror actor Sid Haig. The film is straightforward and there is enough street justice to make it enjoyable, but as a film it leaves a lot to be desired.

Rating (5.4)