7.1 | / 10 |
Users | 3.5 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Pam Grier is Coffy, nurse by day and avenging angel by night. When she discovers that her little sister has been doped up — and freaked out — by a greedy drug pusher, she not only puts an end to his miserable days, but she vows to follow his trail of corruption up to the top — the very top. But what Coffy doesn't realize is that all is not as it seems — and that the leafy green behind the pusher's scene just may come from someone she knows!
Starring: Pam Grier, Sid Haig, Booker Bradshaw, Robert DoQui, William Elliott (II)Thriller | Insignificant |
Crime | Insignificant |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
None
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Some historians have credited Shaft with having started the so-called Blaxploitation craze. But a mere comparison of Shaft’s cost to benefit ratio with another 1971 film may indicate otherwise. According to some online sources, Shaft was budgeted at about a half a million dollars, and went on to bring in around $13 million, certainly a good return on investment and enough to keep the creditors away from Metro Goldwyn Mayer for at least a little while longer. However, contrast that with this pair of figures: a cost of around $150,000, and a return well north of $15 million. Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, Melvin Van Peebles’ 1971 tale of a black man on the run from the police, managed to achieve that feat, despite a precipitous filming situation and an even dicier distribution model that was hampered by Van Peebles’ provocative use of sex in the film. Shaft may have been the “mainstream” hit, meaning that white folks actually knew about it (and went to see it), but it’s probably Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song which is more properly seen as the progenitor of Blaxploitation, at least from a tonal perspective. Van Peebles’ formulations were definitely of the “in your face” variety, and a kind of weird combination of insouciance combined with just a hint (and sometimes more than merely a hint) of rage tends to color many Blaxploitation outings. That’s certainly the case with Coffy, a 1973 film which couldn’t match the box office gusto of either Shaft or Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, but which did well enough as a “genre” film, and which also helped to establish Pam Grier as the “go to girl” for that decade’s gynocentric Blaxploitation fare.
Coffy is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. While I could find no data to indicate whether this was sourced off the same master as the recent Arrow release reviewed by my colleague Dr. Svet Atanasov, a cursory comparison of screenshots from the two releases shows that they are virtually identical (I've tried to come close to matching at least a few of Svet's screencaptures for easy toggling and comparison). Furthermore, though it occurs a bit later on the timecode on this version (easily attributable to elements like the Olive logo at the head of this presentation), there's the same image instability that Svet noted in his review (on this version, it occurs more around 45:25 or so). All of this said, I'm just a little less pleased with the overall look of this transfer than Svet evidently was. Colors look slightly faded to me, tipped toward the brown end of the spectrum so that reds assume a slightly orange ambience. Grain is quite heavy throughout this presentation and struggles to resolve organically in several of the darkest sequences. The elements used for this transfer have fairly recurrent issues with scratches and both negative and positive dirt (black and white flecks). The good news is that this is the typical Olive "hands off" release, one that presents the source elements in a "warts and all" fashion, but without any intrusive digital tweaking of the image.
Coffy features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono mix which offers surprisingly robust support for Roy Ayers' funky score. Dialogue and sound effects like crunching bones or gunfire are also well rendered and well prioritized. Fidelity is fine on this problem free track, and dynamic range is very wide.
Unlike the Arrow release reviewed by my colleague Dr. Svet Atanasov, this domestic edition of Coffy contains no supplementary material of any kind.
Coffy is a little smarmy and it never totally rises above pure genre conventions, but it's a lot of fun to watch and Grier is of course an eyeful (maybe an eyeful and a half). Hill keeps things moving along briskly, and the film has several knockout (literal and otherwise) sequences. Roy Ayers' funktastic score only adds to the allure of this lo-fi but enjoyable outing. There are some niggling issues with the video, but audio is outstanding. That said, those with region free players should probably consider the Arrow Blu-ray release since it has such good supplements (and since it seems to have virtually identical video and audio). For those without region free players, Coffy comes Recommended.
1974
Limited Edition to 3000
1973
1982
1979
2010
2017
1974
Collector's Edition
2011
1975
1985
Collector's Edition
1976
1975
Unrated Director`s Cut
1980
Rome Armed to the Teeth / Roma a Mano Armata
1976
1976
Gekitotsu! Satsujin ken / 激突!殺人拳
1974
Il cittadino si ribella
1974
Standard Edition
1985
Bloody Mary Killer / Cui hua kuang mo / 摧花狂魔 / Retailer Slipcover Limited to 6,000 Units
1993
1984