Underrated subgenre: Pam Grier calling dudes "motherfucker" and then shotgunning them in the dick.I think it’s definitely fair to say that trying to reckon with such harrowing sociopolitical subjects like drug addiction, prostitution, police corruption, race, gender, poverty etc. inside of a cheap grindhouse entertainment product was bound to feel a little conflicted and contradictory. That being said, I also think that anger and cynicism of having such topical, uncomfortable conversations in a revenge-action exploitation context is cathartic fuel for the fire that was the iconic collaboration between the “Howard Hawks of exploitation filmmaking” Jack Hill and his movie star muse Pam Grier that started with The Big Doll House but was arguably perfected here. Him providing a blunt and nasty 70s grindhouse shape/dressing (including a grimy but muscular shooting style around LA, some truly gruesome action setpieces, a groovy funk score), and her populating it with her “assets.” Which even moreso than the gratuitous sexploitation cleavage (which is what the characters, and I assume producers, are referring to when they use that term), is how confident and tough of a screen presence she has, and the complex shading she is capable of lending to her nurse-turned-vigilante-killer in her performance. Alternating between weary and depressed protective sister, to angry politically righteous fighter, to sadistic femme fatale manipulator, to heartbroken sexually liberated modern woman, sometimes all in the same scene. It’s easily one of the more impressive and memorable movie star turns in any 70s action film, let alone a pioneering female-led blaxploitation one made with such meager AIP resources. You’re in complete awe of her from the opening scene where she’s already seducing and turning drug-dealers heads into exploding watermelons (that shot of her eyes spotlit while she holds that shotgun pointed at the blurry dummy head in the foreground!!), and you only fall more in love as she openly enjoys weaponizing her sexuality in a ridiculous number of outfit changes and committing cruel acts of violence: the extended catfight brawl (where she pre-emptively puts razorblades in her hair!!), the stab into Sid Haig’s gushing red paint jugular, the climactic car bursting through the mansion wall stunt + shotgun massacre she commits.Special shoutout to Robocop’s Robert DoQui as the pimp King George as well, who rocks an unbelievable yellow jumpsuit, has one of the best character specific theme songs in movie history, followed by one of the most disturbingly over-the-top car-lynching deaths you’ll see. I think it’s kind of special when a movie designed to entertain like this is still capable of shocking and disturbing. Full discussion on ep 407 of my podcast SLEAZOIDS.
