Review of Foxy Brown (1974) by Spencer S — 23 Nov 2012

One of the seminal Blaxploitation films of the seventies, and one of the highest rated, Foxy Brown is still fresh, interesting, and historically stimulating. This, the second collaboration between director and writer Jack Hill and actress Pam Grier since Coffy, this send up to the first film holds much more acclaim for its racy outfits, sexual innuendo, and constant gritty appeal.

Starring Pam Grier in the femme role of Foxy Brown, a woman without any training or position of power, who goes after a large drug and prostitution organization for the murder of her boyfriend, who died at their hands.

Usually Blaxploitation paints these criminals as the protagonists, running from the crooked police forces, trying to make themselves a living in the despondent ghettos. Here the cartels are all white men and women, sadistic and cruel, so evil that they intentionally corrupt the black community with racial slurs and punishments befitting the very fabric of our nightmares.

Foxy herself goes undercover in the organization that her brother snitches on her to, so she can find the big boss, ruin his business, and kill every jive turkey she can get her flamethrower on. Posing as a prostitute and infiltrating the den of the head Madame, Foxy saves another black woman from the exploitative service, and then goes through her own battles with the drug syndicate, sex slavery ring, and other insidious peoples.

It's a very straightforward and lewd film, which includes arson, rape, castration, and a number of human indignities you can only imagine. These acts aren't quite as vivid and in your face as in some of today's films, and are all veiled in Motown songs blaring in the background and dissolves to the next scene before any seedy business can be unearthed.

Pam Grier is stealthy, while being sexy, straddling the line between laughably lame with her clumsy king fu moves and succubus level seduction. Even today it's a simple story of revenge and reconciliation, and I highly recommend seeing this for the pleasure of it, as well as becoming acquainted with the genre.