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I saw 'Ghosts of Mars' a few weeks ago and the first 30 minutes of the film
were dominated by actress Pam Grier. By my calculations she must be nearing 50 (if she
isn't already) but she still lights up the screeen in whichever film she is cast. She
started acting in the 1970's and one of her early films was 'Coffy' where she played an
avenging angel determined to wipe out the criminals who had supplied drugs to her dead
sister.
Following the success of 'Coffy' and other more mainstream films featuring a predominately black cast (Shaft etc.) the genre now known as Blaxploitation was born. The undoubted queen of this genre was Pam Grier who appeared in many of these films often as a gun toting avenger or tough private eye. In 'Foxy Brown' Pam once again played a gun wielding cookie tracking down a drugs ring led by a white woman and her lover - a theme not uncommon in the genre, see 'Cleopatra Jones' as a comparison. Here are a few images of Pam in action, confronting small time crooks and taking out the head honchess using a pistol hidden in her hair!
Both of the aforementioned films were written and directed by Jack Hill who
was in fact a white director. He also made the pulp/cult classic 'Switchblade Sisters'
which Quinten Tarantino cites as one of his major influences though most other people
don't rate it. Another Pam Grier film was 'Sheba, Baby' and guess what? - Pam Grier played
a tough PI who is out to stop the white honkys who are ultimately responsible for
extorting money from her father's loan business. Not a Jack Hill effort.
Pam Grier appeared in other genre films in the seventies but the ones mentioned above are probably the cream of the crop. When the Blaxploitation craze had blown itself out it was a while before Ms Grier was cast in major motion pictures again. When she did however she often portrayed no-nonsense women such as her role in 'Strip Search'. The film 'Orignial Gangstas' was an effort to re-create the heyday of the Blaxploitation genre starring as it did Richard Roundtree and Pam Grier but it didn't really make full use of her.
Pam Grier's real return to the big time happened when she was cast in the title role of 'Jackie Brown'. Big things were expected from this Tarantino film and some said it didn't really deliver. However the film was a departure from Tarantino's usual style and worked well within the framework it occupied. Pam Grier was particularly good as the air stewardess mixed up in a scheme to catch some bigger time criminals.
