Coffy (1973)
Directed by Jack Hill
After her younger sister gets involved in drugs and is severely injured by contaminated heroin, a nurse sets out on a mission of vengeance and vigilante justice, killing drug dealers, pimps, and mobsters who cross her path.
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What critics compared Coffy to
Pair that with the inspiration of Pam Grier in Coffy , plus the encouragement of truck driver and one-time activist Frank (Common) – who nearly ran her down as she escaped to the highway – and Alice is ready to return for her family and some tasty revenge.
The events that the movie says it is inspired by reportedly date back to the 1960s, but Ver Linden pushes the clock forward to the Blaxploitation era so that she can achieve her fait accompli: After reading a stack of encyclopedias provided by her savior and sidekick, Frank (Common), and taking marching orders from Pam Grier in “Coffy,” Alice morphs into an Afro-sporting Black Power heroine ready to free her kin back on the plantation and exact revenge on her white captors.
Next, a screening of the film Coffy (plus an eye rolling television montage of pertinent images through Common’s god-like channel changing) suggest Alice aims for an entirely different energy, but Linden drops the ball on subtext.
Grier’s inimitable Coffy, which Frank takes her to see, provides Alice — both film and character —with a hefty dose of vengeful inspiration.
Nevertheless, it’s less than 24 before she’s discovered Pam Grier, dosed herself with Coffy at the cinema and given herself a full makeover in the mould of her new heroine.
She even watches “Coffy” for motivation, staring up at Pam Grier with the awe of seeing her inner goddess strut the earth, and somehow, within two days of her escape, finds a pair of perfectly fitting leather pants just in time for the climax.
It houses its smarts in a vehicle that borrows scenes and style from movies as diverse as Billy Dee's own Hit, Jack Hill's Coffy and Foxy Brown, Shaft (of course), Bare Knuckles, and Jim Kelly's kung fu sagas--especially Black Belt Jones and Enter the Dragon, from which a Kelly sequence appears on a television set at one point in Undercover Brother.
Omari Hardwick’s costuming recalls Shaft (1971) and Coffy (1973), a kind of literal pun on blaxploitation movie history and black exploitation in the workplace.
The Motown dominated soundtrack includes the theme songs to Across 110th St. and The Big Doll House (“Long Time Woman” sung by Pam Grier herself!) and highlights from the score to Jack Hill’s Coffy.