it may surprise you to learn that i'm a little ambivalent about COFFY, which isn't to say i don't think it's iconic and entertaining. it's routinely talked about both in a feminist context and as a cornerstone of blaxploitation, and that's not entirely inappropriate, because it's a blast and Pammy is fucking terrific in it, delivering one surprisingly violent ass-kicking after another. she sexually manipulates and cruelly dispatches all manner of bad guys. but, crucially, also other women, and not just white ones.
then, a few minutes before he's revealed as the villain, Coffy's boyfriend, a councilman running for higher office, makes a big speech about how the white man uses drugs to socioeconomically control minorities, who he claims are…