Customer Reviews

Cooley High [VHS]

5 star:		(51)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Never has a movie made me laugh so hard, as well as providing me with feelings of nostalgia and heartwarming sentiment. COOLEY HIGH (1975) features laugh-out-loud moments by the dozen, as well as containing many moments of reflective, poignant beauty.

The story here takes place in Chicago, 1964, and revolves around a poet named Preach (played by Glynn Turman), basketball player Cochise (played by Lawrence-Hilton Jacobs), their other buddies, and what goes on in the day-to-day lives of these teens in urban life. We witness the boys frequently cutting class, stealing food, hopping buses and trains, chasing after girls, shooting dice, getting into fights, and all other sorts of typical teen shenanigans. The aforementioned outline may sound a bit redundant for a film (or maybe it could be due to the poor description I've given), but the aforementioned aspects are integrated into a unified whole, and in a compelling way. So, in the end, things work very nicely. If there's one fault I can think of (though it doesn't bother me, but may bother others), is that the storyline moves a bit fast, and many may wish that some of the scenes (or certain aspects of the film) would have been fleshed out more.

Amidst all of the wildness, Preach meets a lovely girl named Brenda (played by Cynthia Davis), and develops a relationship with her. This is one of the few aspects of the film to soften up what otherwise may have been just a brash comedy.

While Preach, Cochise and the boys all took lighthearted pleasure in lying, cheating and stealing -- it all seemed to catch up with them in the end, as a result of one wild ride in a stolen car. And later, a simple misunderstanding leads up to the tragic finale.

Before I close this review, I'm going to list a few of my favorite funny scenes:

(1). Preach and gang visit the zoo after cutting class. One of the guys decides to defend - and get friendly with - a Gorilla, after the rest of the gang were teasing it. What happens next is pretty foul, so I won't mention it here, but let's just say it had me laughing like a maniac.

(2). Broke and unable to afford money for the boys to see a movie, Preach and Cochise decide to pretend to be undercover policemen, and hassle two female prostitutes - making them believe they're going to be arrested. The ladies beg to be let off the hook, but Cochise decides to take a bribe - for money, of course.

COOLEY HIGH is a fantastic film. It could provide many with dozens of belly-laughs, as well as a tear or two. It's a beautiful portrait of life (the ups and downs of it), love and friendship. Viewers in their middle ages will find this film to bring back fond memories of their youth. It can also make some viewers come to the realization that certain qualities in this film are sorely lacking in the vast majority of today's cinema. Features actor Garret Morris, and excellent backing music by classic R&B artists like The Temptations, Stevie Wonder, The Four Tops, Diana Ross & The Supremes and countless others.

this movie is one of the greatest to ever come out of the 70's i like the way this movie shows black people in a positive way and not as pimp thugs or muders this movie is a must have if you love old nostlagia that brings back child hood mememories i recommend this to every body from black people to white people who enjoy classi cinema this is one the greatest black movies of all time pick it up

AIP produced so many exploitation films that captured the trend of the times (or call it "rip-off"), so it is inevitable that all black-cast of "American Graffiti" came out from there. But it is the result of the product that we should care, and though sometimes branded as a clone of that much more famous film, "Cooley High" is in fact as good as George Lucas's. If you claim it is even better, I won't disagree with you.

"Cooley High" gives lots of fun with multi-layered, loosely connected characters living in inner-city Chicago in 1964. Their life at school and impoverished environment is not easy, but the film never depicts them in the negative light as is often shown in other blaxploitation films, and among them the two uproarious, riotous leads played by Glynn Turman and Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs are excellent. Turman is a bespectaled boy with a dream of becoming a writer, and with his friend Jacobs enjoy his life -- chasing a girl, cutting classes to go to a zoo hanging behind a bus, and having a midnight joy ride. But the last innocent fun turns a tragedy unexpectedly, which adds a very poignant touch to the ending of the film.

Though some claim, probably rightly, that the film's characters seem a bit stereotyped, the humor and fun are never to be dismissed, and those charming moments -- such as Turman and Jacobs (poorly) disguised as cops to get some money from prostitutes, whispering "We take bribes." -- are very funny and will be fixed in your memory. After all, the film has enoumous charms that still appeal universally, and that makes "Cooley High" an all-time classic. And listen to the great Motown soundtrack with the songs like "Fingertips Part 2" or "Dancing in the Street." Highly recommended.

It is a Japanese-made monster film "Godzilla vs the Thing" (aka. "Godzilla vs Mothra") that they are watching in the theater. It was released in USA in 1964.

A sad ending for a great film. This was not some cheap, run of the mill Black 70's movie. It was well acted with a solid plot with very good direction, a definite classic.

I watched this movie as a kid and didn't really understand it. Now as an adult, I watched this movie and fully understand why this movie was so cool to my mother's generation. This movie showed how life was for African-American teenagers, growing up in this era. Most kids didn't really have dreams while a very few of them did. This movie taught me not to listen to my peers and to follow my dreams to wherever they lead me.

While I was growing up in Chicago - I loved watching the movie for references to things familiar. Every time I watched it though I couldn't stop the tears from falling at the end. I just had to sit and watch the movie whenever it came on tv - but of course there were too many commercial interruptions. Over the years I was able to capture it on tape with the commercials and then later a friend got the non-edited version.

Now that I'm all grown up I have the DVD version - even better!! With the wonderful acting and music in the movie, it's hard not to love it. Although I didn't grow up in the 60s, I heard enough of my moms music to recognize the words to the songs and was able to sing along. The comedy is there, the drama is there, the music is definitely there! This movie is a classic and belongs in the collectors library!

Good to see where Freddie Boom-Boom Washington (Welcome Back Carter) and Colonel Taylor (A Different World) have evolved as actors!

Cooley High is a wonderful movie. It is funny and sad at the same time. I am happy that it is on DVD, because I have a VHS copy and I can forward to my favorite scenes. You must own this.

I recall watching this movie at my 7th. grade English teacher's home when it debuted because she was one of the very few people who had cable TV at this time. This movie along with Cornbread Earl and Me hold a deep connection with me as I can still recall the music and general style of the late 60's and early 70's. The main characters were/are so easy for me to relate to that I always have the same touching reaction whenever I think about their story. I almost feel like I knew Preach and Cochise because their characters are so authentic. I played this DVD for a group of my contemporary friends and I saw tears in the eyes of the men as well as the women. Although the audio on the DVD is very poor, Cooley High is at the top of my DVD collection. The ending alone makes this movie a pure classic.

this film is one of my all-time faves.the story is so touching but yet very true.and unlike today you don't have to spend 100 million to make a classic film.if you have the right script and feeling it will come back ten fold.this movie means the world to me.and it's influence is still strong.it's a shame lawrence hillton jacobs never got the love he deserved.everybody in this film did it justice and a half.

You'll go back to a time when school violence was a fist fight and have great fondness for your best friends in school. The closeness and brotherhood of Preach and Cochise is astounding and Glynn Turman and Laurence Hilton Jacobs are amazing in their roles. It depicts the exact experiences of that time period. It is also funny and of course extremely sad at the end. I know it is a true story but I don't know of whose life.

At the surface this 32 year old film is a snappy ensemble comedy masquerading as a period piece (set in the early 60's, complete with a flawless Motown soundtrack). But there's so much more to this film. The cast of unknowns (at the time) is excellent, and it is notable as an all-black-cast film that doesn't fall into any Blaxploitation clichés - at times `Cooley High' almost feels like an updated, urban neo-realist film, with lots of edgy humor added in. The tight budget of this film does show, but the constraints actually serve the film pretty well - there's a grit and honesty of emotion here that lends the film an immediacy lacking in most similar-minded films like Schultz' later `Car Wash', which was more popular, but largely senseless. This film also marked the screen debut of Robert Townsend who only had two lines through out the entire story.

`Cooly High' is a feel good movie with an edge of angst and pain and realism--misconceptions, losing friends, and the decision in what to do in life. This might be one of the sleepers of the 70s - celebrated at the time, not many film lovers know about this one. If you do choose to watch "Cooley High", you will see that many films have duplicated various elements from it in order to strengthen their own. The biggest example of this is of course "Boyz N The Hood".