I watched the film “Coffy” over a weekend at Anthology Film Archives. The 35mm film was written and directed by Jack Hill in 1973. Pam Grier was cast as the female protagonist, Coffy. The genre of this film is blaxploitation, which is an ethnic subgenre of film in the '70s targeted for an urban black audience. Pam Grier played Coffy, who was a nurse seeking revenge on drug dealers who got her young sister addicted. In the beginning of the scene, she lured a drug dealer to his house using her sexuality and killed him.
After returning to her job as a nurse in the operation room at the hospital, she had to leave the job because her hands were shaky. What also triggered her to go on a hunt and kill drug dealers were the two men who broke into her friend Carter’s house while he and Coffy were catching up. He was an off-duty police officer.
She then targeted King George, who was a pimp at a prostitution business. Coffy wanted to work as a prostitute. She was at a party with other prostitutes who were jealous that she got George's attention and they spilled food on her purposely. Coffy secretly stuck sharp pins in her hair and when she went back to where the other prostitutes were gathered, she started fighting all of them alone. One of the prostitutes actually pulled Coffy’s hair and her hands bled everywhere.
The leader of a mob, Vitroni wanted Coffy to stay with him for a night. He was a racist white man who spits on her and called her names. She came prepared with a hidden gun in her teddy bear but it was knocked away by Vitroni’s associates. Coffy told the associates that King George sent her to kill Vitroni. The mob kidnapped Coffy and locked her in a room. They then killed King George by dragging him on a rope that was tied to their car. They drove around until he was dead.
Coffy again used her charm, sexuality, and vigilance to escape. She killed Vitroni and his associates, then her boyfriend Brunswick, who she saw at Vitroni’s mob meeting and found out he was a part of it. She went to Brunswick’s place and when he begged for a second chance, a woman yelled from upstairs for him to come back to bed. She fired her gun at him.
This film had a couple of interesting experimental shots although it was not completely an experimental film. Some shots were filmed through a fish tank for an unusual and different perspective.
