Action/Adventure

Blaxploitation Trailers and Movies on Fancast

“COFFY: BLACK. STACKED. AND PACKED WITH FURY.” So begins the funky baritone voiceover in the trailer for Coffy, a blaxploitation classic starring Pam Grier as a sexy anti-drug vigilante. The 1973 film is one of the true greats of the genre, written and directed by Jack Hill. Foxy Brown (1974) also a Hill creation, and also starring Grier, was another important work from this period. You can watch trailers for both on Fancast.

Foxy and Coffy were two of the first “soul cinema” flicks to feature a female protagonist. Previous works of the genre generally presented women as accessories of male success, whose purpose was to support their man, whether for good or evil intent. Grier was unstoppably hot, but also vengeful, righteous, and well-armed. She spent about as much time on screen seducing men as she did shooting them.

These two films are also are notable because they presented drug dealers and men who managed prostitution rings as bad guys. Previous films of the genre presented pushers and pimps as noble characters making the best of the hard lot they’re dealt the ghetto. In “Foxy” and “Coffy,” however, they are not outcasts who deserve empathy, but villains who exploit the vulnerable — and must therefore be killed by Grier.

There would be no Austin Powers without either of these films; nor would there be a Pulp Fiction , or any Tarantino film that followed.

Also available on Fancast, in entirety — the reactionary revenge classic Bucktown , a 1975 blaxploitation feature in which Grier plays a supporting role, with football-hero-turned-actor Fred Williamson as the brother of a slain bar owner in a racist Southern town.

FURTHER READING: “JACK HILL: The Exploitation and Blaxploitation Master, Film by Film” offers an extensive filmography of Hill’s works. And if you’d like to watch the films in entirety, I recommend picking up “Fox in a Box,” a DVD collection that also includes Grier in “Sheba, Baby.”