Coffy

I first saw Pam Grier in Tarantino's JACKIE BROWN, back when I was in high school. The movie blew my mind and I was immediately impressed with her but didn't see any of her classics until later, when I was in college, trying to write a short screenplay dealing with Blaxploitation. I researched the genre and this obviously led me to Grier classics like COFFY, FOXY BROWN and SHEBA BABY.

Years later, the Hollywood theater showed a 35mm print of COFFY as part of the Grindhouse Film Festival, so I got to see the film on the big screen for the first time. COFFY is my favorite of Grier's classics. It's not as ugly as FOXY BROWN and not as boring and mainstream than SHEBA BABY, so it was great to see it on the big screen, finally.

Just when I thought I'd reached the apex of my COFFY filmgoing experiences, the Hollywood went ahead and invited Pam Grier to a screening for Black History Month. Of course I had to attend and this time Jessica came with me, so I got to share the glories of big screen COFFY with a first-time viewer. Dan Halstead introduced the movie and said it was so difficult to find a 35mm print that he finally had to appeal to a special source -- Quentin Tarantino himself. So, we got to see Tarantino's own print of COFFY, which Halstead noted was not in great condition, being an original print, but according to Grier, that's the way to see the movie: on a scratchy, abused, old print. She's right.

COFFY is the vengeance tale of nurse-by-day and vigilante-by-night Coffy (Pam Grier) who is killing and fighting her way through the ranks of the Los Angeles crime world in an attempt to rectify first the loss of her now-bed-ridden little sister (Karen Williams) to drugs and then the brutal beating of her cop ex-boyfriend (William Elliot). All of this is set to a funky Roy Ayers soundtrack, and I made sure to bring my copy of the LP in the hopes that Grier would sign it. She did!

The movie is gritty and low budget but politically minded with a huge "fuck you" attitude to the man, up to and including smooth-talking black politicians exemplified by Coffy's boyfriend (Booker Bradshaw) who would exploit their own people to gain power. But, it's never boring -- this flick is action packed and efficient, unlike many similar B-movies that get bogged down with inept filmmakers turning would-be action flicks into paceless bores. Not so, here: even if Grier's unique presence wasn't lighting up the screen, director Jack Hill would be there to expertly move things along. The movie is a little more brutal and edgy than I remembered it being, but that's okay: it's a brutal subject matter.

Grier spoke at length after the film about the entirety of her career, referring to herself as a Forrest Gump-like figure who stumbled into and out of situations with all kinds of famous names throughout the years, including Kareem Abdul Jabar, Federico Fellini, Richard Pryor and Freddie Prinze. My favorite story involved Grier being invited to sing backup for Sly and the Family Stone, and ending up seeing a jam session between Sly and Jimi Hendrix.

It was a great night -- Tarantino's JACKIE BROWN introduced me to Pam Grier, so it's only fitting we got to see his print of COFFY before meeting the legend herself in person.