Coffy

(written 8/23, 10:40pm)

My first blaxploitation!!! Things I assume are par for the course: the theme songs for the Coffy and King George (which were incredible), overall the wonderful soundtrack, the gratuitous display of female breasts, the empty nods to black empowerment.

There were some very charming things about this movie, beyond just all the breasts. That main thing, obviously, was Pam Grier's presence. The only movie I'd seen with her in it before was Jackie Brown, in which I've always thought she's really good. Maybe I've seen her in other things, but this was, at least, the first movie of the type that gave her her fame. She actually wasn't an especially good actor in this, delivering none of her lines in a way that was convincing from a character standpoint, but she definitely had some incredible charisma going on. I just couldn't take my eyes off of her when she was on screen, even when her breasts weren't exposed.

The movie does not try in any way to remove the viewer's complicity with any of the brutes who tear off the women's shirts. They are obviously bastards for doing that, but it's also obviously done for the viewer to get to see the breasts. Same thing with the almost sex scene between King George and Coffy. King George is a creep for making her take off her clothes and getting her to humiliate herself on the ground, but the character is also doing it so that the audience gets to see it and get off on it. Not that any of that is in any way unique to this movie or even this type of movie, but it happens so often throughout the movie. Maybe even a majority of the scenes function in this way.

King George's yellow leotard, complete with male camel toe, is simply amazing.