Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

Cooley High Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 28, 2015

It’s probably too facile to call Cooley High (African) American Graffiti, but that probably gives a general idea of the flavor of this anecdotal enterprise which follows the exploits of a bunch of black teenagers in Chicago circa 1964 who (supposedly) attend what once one of the Windy City’s biggest vocational schools, Edwin G. Cooley High School. The fact that these kids are actually more adept at playing hooky than attending class might indicate the title of the film is at least partially misleading, and seen now from the vantage point of several decades, Cooley High often seems to indulge in at least some of the very stereotypes that the post-sixties generation of black actors and film technicians sought to dispel. The fact that Cooley High was an American International picture made under the aegis of Samuel Z. Arkoff might indicate that the bulk of the black talent on this picture was indeed in front of the camera, though in actual fact screenwriter Eric Monte (né Kenneth Williams) evidently grew up in Cabrini- Green and attended Cooley High, and director Michael Schultz was just beginning what would be a long run of black oriented fare, two things that on their face probably should have given this film an unabashed authenticity. While there’s certainly grittiness to spare in this film, a lot of it is patently artificial seeming, and some of its elements haven’t aged particularly well.

Cooley High is set in 1964 in a fairly downtrodden neighborhood in Chicago (while Cabrini-Green isn’t overly referenced, and evidently wasn’t used for the location shots, it’s the obvious referent for much of the action). This is a region that seems untouched by the then recent assassination of John F. Kennedy or nascent cultural phenomena like Beatlemania, and is instead a microcosm of an underserved lower class that struggles mightily to make its way in a seemingly cruel world. The two main characters are buddies Cochise Morris (Lawrence-Hilton Jacobs), a popular jock who has a basketball scholarship to college already on the docket, and Preach Jackson (Glynn Turman), a smaller, feistier sort who’s coming off a spell of truancy which may jeopardize his high school career.

One of the interesting things about Cooley High’s portrayal of its youthful characters is how (not to put too fine a point on it) they’re not just “black and white,” i.e., the morality on display is frequently in shades of gray. In fact one of the film’s most notable achievements is its subtext that these kids are kind of trapped in a situation from which there is no easy escape, and so both their academic and home lives are dysfunctional at best. Preach may have dreams of trading his writing prowess for a job in Hollywood, and Cochise may already be counting the millions he’ll make in the NBA (if he gets that far), but Cooley High doesn’t shirk from the fact that neither of these guys, nor in fact any of their friends who later join the fray, are overly motivated to really do anything about their predicaments other than dream.

The film actually plays out in a series of interrelated but not especially organically woven together vignettes, beginning with a gaggle of boys managing to finesse their way out of school (courtesy of a bottle of red fingernail polish which one of them utilizes to fake a bloody nose). They hop on the back of a city bus bumper and hightail it to the zoo, where the first of several questionable escapades unfold. Here, an interchange with a gorilla offers up the opportunity for some decidedly un-PC banter between the guys, something that may raise an eyebrow or two in more contemporary viewers.

A number of other incidents follow, including a gambling situation which gets slightly out of hand, a party where the guys attempt to put the make on some pretty neighborhood girls and, finally, an adventure in a stolen Cadillac that ultimately leads to the biggest plot arc of the second half of the film, when a well meaning teacher (Garrett Morris) attempts to intervene when the cops come a-callin’ for Cochise and Preach. What initially seems to be a “get out of jail free” card handed to the boys turns out to have some unexpected consequences, leading to a decidedly tragic and depressive denouement for one of the characters.

It’s probably that very tragic aspect which both gives Cooley High some real dramatic heft while also grating a little uneasily against the film’s sometimes otherwise raucous sensibilities. It’s obvious that Schultz and Monte don’t want to ignore these kids’ peccadilloes while also making them sympathetic enough that there’s an interest in their outcomes. At the same time, there’s a feeling that a mainstream audience is also being catered to, resulting in an at time uneasy hybrid of social realism and crass, lowest common denominator, comedy.

Cooley High Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Cooley High is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.84:1. With an understanding that the film probably didn't look outrageously spectacular back in its theatrical exhibition, this is a solid if at times problematic transfer that shows signs of general wear and tear, though an at times nicely robust and well saturated palette. Contrast is slightly uneven at times, and a lot of the (sometimes long) nighttime sequences don't offer much if anything in the way of shadow detail. Grain is quite heavy throughout the presentation, spiking in some of those same dark scenes. Sharpness is modest though appealing, and close-ups can reveal at least decent amounts of fine detail in things like some of the wild seventies attire. There's a lot of location footage which is somewhat more raggedy looking at times (keep your eyes peeled for some decidedly post-sixties vehicles on various roads, despite this film's setting in 1964).

Cooley High Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Cooley High's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track provides good support for the film's dialogue, glut of urban sound effects and score (including occasional source tunes from the likes of The Supremes). There are some brief prioritization problems when the kids are out on the street, which I attribute to recording conditions and perhaps a budget limitation which precluded fineries like ADR.

Cooley High Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

There are no supplements on this Blu-ray disc.

Cooley High Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Cooley High is a really interesting relic, but it's a relic nonetheless. Made at a time when a nascent black sensibility was finally creeping into films without an overt exploitation angle, the film kind of wants to have its cake and it, too, in terms of providing a realistic recreation of urban black youth while also attempting to draw in a wider audience. Too tonally disparate to ever fully resonate, the film is still often compelling if ultimately pretty traditional, something that's at least slightly at odds with some of the film's more anarchic elements. Recommended.