Intro
While pouring back through all the Tarantino films recently I realized a couple things:
1) There's not that many of them. I mean he's only one guy and he pretty much only works off of his own material that he wrote... which takes time, and thus this is very understandable.
2) His films make reference other movies constantly. Now call it what you want homage, reference or just plain theft but I'm thinking that a lot of people don't catch the majority of these references to other films because frankly, we don't have the film same exposure as a young Tarantino did going to the grindhouse theater constantly in his youth or working in a video rental store. However, hypothetically with the vastness of the internet and Amazon, Netflix etc. these films should be easier to get a hold of today, if you know what you're looking for that is.
So I figured there's probably more people out there, like me, who crave more Tarantino constantly and I could showcase some films that I'd consider essential viewing for Tarantino fans. And thus the 10 must-see films for Tarantino fans was born. Now let me warn you this is in no way a comprehensive list. There's probably hundreds of films that Tarantino references in his own films, and I found enough films I could write about to probably do this series again but that will have to wait until next time there's another big Tarantino release.
DAY 1: Coffy (1973)
Coffy is just one of probably a handful of blaxploitation films I could have chose for this list, so why did I choose this one? First off this film stars Pam Grier who Tarantino would much later cast in his film Jackie Brown (1997), reintroduce her to new audiences and essentially restart her career! He would also lift about half of the soundtrack from this film for Jackie Brown. This film is also an early and yet well defined example of, what is blaxploitation. Jack Hill, the director of this film, today is considered one of the greatest exploitation directors and Tarantino himself said that Hill was “The Howard Hawks of exploitation filmmaking." Working with the genres horror, monster movies, sexploitaton and blaxploitation this guy seemed to do it all. And storywise this is a very Tarantino-esque stylishly violent revenge film and much like Django Unchained (2012), this film states that the ultimate evil might not actually be the evil white dudes, but the black dudes who are traitors to their own race.
"Shiiit, come on now!"
Coffy (1973) is a revenge flick written and directed by Jack Hill who is now considered the king of the exploitation genre. Coffy revolves around a black woman who is personally wronged, and sees her friends and loved ones around her constantly wronged by society (and white folks) and one day snaps and goes on a killing revenge trip.
The Music is pretty good in this film, I found it overall pretty hit or miss. But the hits are very good, there's a reason Tarantino used a bunch of it in Jackie Brown! (1997).
Also, (SPOILERS) I enjoyed how her boyfriend ends up being one of Coffy's biggest betrayers.
The acting in this film across the board, is just plain horrible. I wasn’t at all surprised to look up the film afterwards and find that it was a white writer, and with better acting this might've seemed less obvious but, as it is, it sticks out like a sore thumb. The dialogue seems just plain wrong in this film. This is how a white man imitates black people.
Also I'm very disappointed to say that I think Pam Grier was among those bad actors in this film. This is disappointing because I found her acting to be one of the highlights in Jackie Brown and even though that was 20+ years later I hoped to see at least some hint of her great acting in this film. I must admit, she was likable but she has some down-right horrible acting in this film and probably the worse Jamaican accent I've heard in a long time. I also don't think her character was as successful as it could have been. The “it's like I'm dreaming” part of the role hardly even comes across. And I wouldn’t have thought I missed anything because it works as it is, except for the fact that she keeps repeating that she doesn’t really remember doing these acts of violence. This is something I that could have been played WAY up, because it's actually a pretty interesting twist for a character... if it was done right.
This film is basically sexploitation. I think every female actress in this film has her breasts exposed at one time or another, and in the most humorous ways too! There's this fight between a bunch of whores, about halfway into the movie, where boobs are flying, tearing, and popping out left and right! It's actually quite distracting and I found this actually detracts from Coffy, our strong female lead character!
This film is very, very dated, hell it was probably very dated by the 80s! It's downright humorous, which actually pretty much ruins a lot of the moral themes and messages of this film.
The best part of this film is that it follows a strong black female in the lead role. This is something that even today is unfortunately very rare, so I can imagine that back in 1973 this was pretty well unheard of. I also appreciate the fact that she acts (for the most part) like a real person, because it would have been very tempting to make her this macho revenge killer like many other exploitation or even action films.
Coffy (1973) is a stylish (and pretty dated) action film that really wasn’t my cup of tea, but of course I’m not really the target audience at all so I’m not sure if my opinion really has any weight at all on this type of thing. However I would recommend this film if you're looking for an introduction to the blaxploitation genre. 2.5/5 Stars.
Happy watching!
This film is part of my month-long Tribute to Tarantino in honor of his latest film Django Unchained (2012) and his 20-year career. If you've missed any of my reviews so far, be sure to check out his filmography and click on any film you've missed.
The 10 must-see films for Tarantino fans countdown continues tomorrow, so be sure to check back!
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