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10
= Highest Rating |
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Guest
Review by Rod
Barnett |
With
a career stretching over 30 years Pam Grier has
proven herself one of the most durable of movie
actors. Starting in jungle/prison and blaxploitation
films in the 1970s, her beauty and talent were
obvious but she was unfortunately never able to
parley her success in low-budget action flicks
into the next level of Hollywood stardom. Part
of the reason for this is that roles for black
women in film have always been scarce —
but I've often wondered if another reason for
her career's stagnation might be the type
of woman she played. Strong, powerful, intelligent
women who can handle any situation were her forte
and be it bedroom or battleground, Grier's characters
showed the same ability to come out on top every
time. Certainly, playing the same kind of role
repeatedly has typecast many actors but it must've
been tough for a black woman seen only as an action
star to maintain a career. Luckily for us she
did, proving her staying power and talent with
the title role in 1997's Jackie
Brown. In a better world this is the kind
of role she would be offered every day of her
life. I must confess that as a young boy I fell
in love with Pam Grier long before I was ever
able to see one of her films. As a lad of 8 or
9 I saw a trailer for one of her films on television
and was simply captivated. I only saw the trailer
once or twice (it may have been for Friday
Foster) but it lingered in my memory and
fantasies for a long time. So when I was finally
able to see her in Coffy
years later I realized that my imagination had
built her into something that no person could
ever hope to equal. But it slowly dawned on me
that what was there on screen was even better.
She was a real flesh and blood firebrand. And
as Antonio Fargas says in Foxy
Brown, "She’s a whole lotta woman!"
Grier
plays the title role of Foxy
Brown and as the picture begins, she's
waiting for her boyfriend Dalton Ford (Terry Carter)
to get out of the hospital. He's a retired federal
agent undergoing facial plastic surgery after
a failed two-year long undercover assignment.
On his release he and Foxy plan to move away and
start a new life together. Unfortunately, when
Foxy's drug dealing brother Link (Antonio Fargas)
is introduced to Ford under the new name of Michael
Anderson, the new face doesn't fool him. Link
is in deep trouble with the local drug lord for
losing several thousand dollars of smack and he
uses his information about Ford/Anderson to erase
the debt. Faster than you can say lead sandwich,
the beloved boyfriend is shot dead and Foxy is
beating names out of little brother so she can
exact a giant sized measure of vengeance. From
Link she learns that the head of the criminal
organization is a woman (!) named Katherine Wall
(Kathryn Loder), who uses a modeling agency as
a cover for both a high priced call-girl service
and drug running. Ms. Brown infiltrates the call-girl
ring but after helping one of the unwilling prostitutes
escape to be with her family, Foxy is captured.
Raped, tortured and injected with heroin Foxy
still manages to brutally fight her way clear
only to learn of her brother's sorry fate. Realizing
she must take down the entire gang, she enlists
a group of black vigilantes to join her crusade,
setting up the violent and bloody endgame.
Originally
conceived as a sequel to Coffy,
this film's success cemented Grier's stardom and
put director Jack Hill in a position to get more
of his ideas on screen without interference. The
film has many charms but I have to agree with
Hill that it isn't nearly as good as Coffy.
In the great commentary track for this DVD Hill
laments the fact that the studio was not willing
to increase the budget even though they had to
pay Grier and himself a higher salary than before.
The budget was set at $500,000 and that meant
less money was available for sets, effects and
other actors. Still, Hill and his crew were able
to pull together a solid crime movie that holds
up very well nearly 30 years later. The director
admits that he had very little time to write the
script but feels the pressure brought out some
good things. Calling filmmaking foremost a collaborative
effort, he is very clear in assigning credit for
elements of the film that came from others; he
seems to take pride in heaping praise on his cast.
He also explains why he's never taken the credit
'A Jack Hill Film' for any of his work. I admire
his modesty and generosity when speaking of his
coworkers. The commentary track is packed with
abundant information and almost never lags. He's
forthright about the film's flaws and I found
myself agreeing with many of his criticisms, none
more so than the ridiculous number of different
outfits that Pam wears throughout the picture.
It often seems that she changes clothes each time
she enters a new room! One of the joys of this
type of film is seeing how the creators construct
their story to get you on the protagonist's side.
In Foxy Brown Hill
creates some wonderfully nasty villains in the
cold blooded but codependent Walls and her lover/crime
partner Steve Elias (Peter Brown). Elias is cruel
and vicious throughout the film but, in a touch
I've always found realistic, his hands shake almost
uncontrollably on his shotgun when he confronts
Link. Hill was always good about including these
kinds of little individual moments that make the
stories just a bit more believable. Of course,
Elias' punishment is suitably harsh and goes a
long way toward illustrating my observation that
in a Jack Hill film, the bad guys always
have the maximum amount of pain inflicted on them
while the hero coolly looks on in satisfaction.
|
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| MGM's
DVD of Foxy Brown is
a strong improvement over the old VHS in my collection.
The film looks and sounds very good with little
or no visual or audio problems and seems very well
preserved for such a low-budget film. (Thank goodness!)
The movie is letterboxed at approximately 1.85:1
and appears well framed; only a couple of moments
seem a little tight. Besides the commentary track
from Hill the only other extra is the theatrical
trailer. But don't feel cheated. The commentary
is very good and serves as a better extra than some
more 'loaded' discs can boast. Foxy
Brown isn't the best film Hill or Grier ever
made but it's a damned fun movie and well worth
seeing for yourself.
3/26/03 |
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