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Cooley High



Chicago, 1964: it's the last weeks of high school for aspiring poet Preach (Glynn Turman) and his best friend, Cochise (Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs), and they have a full slate of extracurricular activities: swinging dance parties, late-night joyrides, and the stumbling pursuit of romance. Of course, when you're a young Black man in America, your coming-of-age story is far from complication-free. With Cooley High, director Michael Schultz and screenwriter Eric Monte—who drew on his own experiences growing up in Chicago's Cabrini-Green housing project—arrived at something truly unique in 1970s cinema: an endearingly funny, tender, and authentic portrait of Black teens striving toward a brighter tomorrow, brought to life by a dynamic ensemble cast and set to a heavenly hit parade of Motown classics.

DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

• New, restored 4K digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Michael Schultz, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
• New conversation between Schultz and film scholar Racquel J. Gates
• Program on the making of the film
• Panel discussion from the 2019 tribute to Cooley High at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, featuring Schultz, actor and filmmaker Robert Townsend, casting director Gloria Schultz, and actors Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs and Garrett Morris
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

This is an entertaining film, though the narrative doesn't really transcend the usual coming-of-age clichés. IIRC it was conceived as an American Graffiti for Black audiences -- or as seem to recall Schultz once explaining, "American Graffiti without cars."

pistolwink wrote: Tue Sep 20, 2022 6:38 pm This is an entertaining film, though the narrative doesn't really transcend the usual coming-of-age clichés. IIRC it was conceived as an American Graffiti for Black audiences -- or as seem to recall Schultz once explaining, "American Graffiti without cars."

Schultz subsequently turned down Grease, as I think he felt, in part at least, that he didn’t want to explore the same era again. But then Robert Stigwood called him up again for Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

I wasn't all that impressed with the movie, although I can appreciate its cultural impact. However, after seeing Racquel Gates' interview with Michael Schultz I am now demanding a dramatization of the making of the film starring Keegan Michael Key as Schultz with Jordan Peele as Eric Monte. Just don't let those Dolemite/Ed Wood guys write the script.

It took me watching the film to realize that the other guy on the cover is Glynn Turman from Gremlins, The Wire, etc. Great actor!