Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.0

Cooley High Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov December 17, 2022

Michael Schultz's "Cooley High" (1975) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The supplemental features on the release include new program with director Michael Schultz; archival program on the making of the film; and filmed panel discussion. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

It is undeniable that a lot of what Michael Schultz’s camera reveals in Cooley High is a collection of authentic visual slices of reality from urban Chicago during the 1970s. Yes, some of these visual slices are sweetened a bit, but they do not feel manipulated. You can instantly tell that they are from some of Chicago’s once notoriously unsafe areas.

One of them is Cabrini-Green, an area of the city that in the past a lot of Chicagoans would not enter even if they were paid good money to do it. Living in the old Cabrini-Green? I would say that it was a lot like playing Russian Roulette. I am sorry, but it is true. You would have been risking too much if you settled down there, like your life, and of course the lives of your loved ones. I have been to Cabrini-Green twice, both times during the late 1990s. These were very short trips and I was accompanied by a person that knew the area well. We entered around noon, stayed approximately twenty minutes, and then left. I never got out of the car. Some of the tall apartment buildings there reminded me of the notorious panel buildings that the communist authorities in the various Eastern European states were happy to promote during the Cold War era. They were very gray, poorly managed, and seriously depressing, from afar looking like they might have been abandoned a long time ago.

I assume that a lot of the African-American kids that lived in Cabrini-Green when I visited the area were not as optimistic about life as the two protagonists of Cooley High, Cochise (Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs) and Preach (Glynn Turman). There must have been good athletes like Cochise and some probably dreamed of following the steps of Michael Jordan, who was the city’s brightest star at the time, but how many truly believed that there was a legit way out of Cabrini-Green? Probably not that many, if any at all. Cabrini-Green had had a tough reputation for a very long time, so staying alive must have been a much more realistic goal for these kids. The other dreamers, like Preach, would have been instantly recognizable loners or geeks that were likely bullied daily.

The Cabrini-Green that emerges in Cooley High is a place with more hope than the one I visited in the late 1990s. Cochise, Preach, and a few of their closest friends regularly go out to have fun and do silly things without being seriously hurt. They chase girls that are careful but want to have fun, too. Also, these teenagers frequently leave Cabrini-Green and visit other areas of Chicago where life looks entirely normal. One of the funniest sequences in Cooley High comes after a trip to the Lincoln Park Zoo, truly a place from a different universe. All of these activities and more, plus the hope I mentioned, are what some viewers and critics believe transform Cooley High into a “black American Graffiti”.

But this is not how I see Cooley High. I am sorry, but even the carefully put-together soundtrack does not make much of a difference. The visual contrasts that emerge while the camera moves between Cabrini-Green and the other safer areas of Chicago that Cochise, Preach, and their friends visit are just too unique. Excluding Preach who secretly dreams of making it in Hollywood, these boys and girls are never in a California state of mind. (They used to say that Hollywood is not California, so this is an important distinction to consider as well).

Unfortunately, the acting is a mixed bag. For example, a lot of the comedy material is so badly overdone that entire sequences look like extracts from a very low-budget parody. The random switches to serious drama also look unnatural because the leading actors struggle to appear authentic.

Cooley High Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Cooley High arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion.

The following text appears inside the leaflet that is provided with this Blu-ray release:

"This new digital transfer was created in 4K resolution on a Lasergraphics Director film scanner from the 35mm original camera negative. The original monaural soundtrack was remastered from the 35mm dialogue, music, and effects magnetic track.

Transfer supervisors: Michael Schultz, Lee Kline.
Colorist: Gregg Garvin/Roundabout Entertainment, Burbank, CA."

I found the 4K makeover of Cooley High rather frustrating. Unsurprisingly, the entire film looks very healthy now and the bulk of its visuals could look rather striking. However, the color grade is often quite aggressive, forcing entire ranges of blues into cyan and emphasizing steely grays that give the film a very, very distinct contemporary cold appearance. Some of the nuances that emerge, like the ones that are seen in screencaptures #4 and 23, are just not right. A lot of the shots that feature Chicago's skies look pretty distracting, too. While I would not say that the shift in color temperature is as dramatic as the one observed in the makeover of The Girl Can't Help It, it is significant enough to affect the film's native identity. Image stability is excellent. I did not seen any traces of digital tinkering. My score is 3.25/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

Cooley High Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English LPCM 1.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

The audio is very clear, clean, and appropriately sharp. The music, which has a very important part, sounds great, too. My impression is that in terms of dynamic intensity and dynamic contrasts the lossless track performs as best as possible. In the upper register, I did not detect any traces of age-related imperfections.

Cooley High Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Remembering "Cooley High" - in this new interview, Michael Schultz recalls how Cooley High came to exist and some of the key themes that are reflected in it. There are some particularly interesting comments about AIP's publicity campaign for the film. The interview was conducted by critic Racquel J, Gates for Criterion in 2022. In English, not subtitled. (36 min).

• The "Cooley High" Story - presented here is a short program about the making of Cooley High produced for Turner Classic Movies in 2017. It features commentary by Michael Schultz, casting director Gloria Schultz, and actor Glynn Turman, amongst others, as well as clips from an interview with screenwriter Eric Monte. In English, not subtitled. (10 min).

• Academy Tribute - presented here is a panel discussion featuring Michael Schultz, Gloria Schultz, actors Lawrence-Hilton Jacobs Garrett Morris, Jackie Taylor, and other cast members. The discussion was held and filmed at the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences' Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Los Angeles on July 8, 2019. It is hosted by Robert Townsend. In English, not subtitled. (67 min).

• Leaflet - an illustrated leaflet featuring Craigh Barboza's essay "Young, Gifted, and Black" as well as technical credits.

Cooley High Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

It is true that at the time when Michael Schultz directed Cooley High the only mainstream black films in America were blaxploitation films. Cooley High was a very different film, but it was not the "black American Graffiti", which is how it has been described over the years by some of its biggest fans and certain critics. I am sorry, but this description implies that Cooley High imitated a familiar blueprint and it is pretty easy to tell that it did not. For me, the value of Cooley High is in its desire to choose a different direction and courage to visit areas of Chicago that had a pretty rough reputation. I think that its blending of comedy and drama is not convincing, but considering what Schultz was trying to accomplish in a sea of black macho films in the 1970s, it may very well have been an unavoidable flaw. Criterion's Blu-ray release is sourced from an exclusive new 4K master that makes Cooley High look very healthy, but if you want to have it in your library, I suggest finding a way to rent and test it first. I thought that the 4K master should have been graded better.