Main Cast: Glynn E. Turman, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, Garrett Morris, Cynthia Davis, Corin Rogers
Release Year: 1975
Country: US
Run Time: 107 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
Michael Schultz directed this deeply felt recollection of adolescent life on Chicago's near North Side in 1964. Like American Graffiti, Cooley High deals with girl, school, and police troubles as a group of high-school seniors prepare for post-high-school life. The chums are Glynn Turman as "Preach," who loves to read poetry and history and wants to become a Hollywood screenwriter, but who has the worst grades in the school; and Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs as Cochise, the high-school basketball star and suave lady-killer. Preach has to contend with love problems in the form of Brenda (Cynthia Davis), school problems with emphatic teacher Mr. Mason (Garrett Morris), and law problems with street toughs Stone (Shermann Smith) and Robert (Norman Gibson). ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
Review
Despite being poorly acted, poorly scripted, and just plain scattershot, Cooley High developed a fond following as one of the earliest "guys hanging out and getting in trouble" films for the urban community. Michael Schultz' film is also remembered for its signature song, Freddie Perren's "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday," which the group Boyz II Men re-popularized in the 1990s on their album Cooleyhighharmony, indicating the enduring popularity of this film. The adventures of Preach (Glynn Turman) and Cochise (Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs) feel authentic -- good, rambunctious fun on the streets of lower-middle-class 1960s Chicago. These bits earn the film the good will that defies its faults. However, even though scripter Eric Monte wisely resists casting the characters strictly as saints or sinners, their frequently ignoble behavior ends up making them unsympathetic. Cochise is a handsome and generally affable jock, but he's such a seducer that he finds women utterly disposable, to the point that it's hard to root for him. And the bespectacled Preach fritters away his obvious intelligence (he reads and writes poetry for fun) by always acting the fool, undercutting the few strides he makes with outrageous blunders. The film's episodic nature cripples its fluidity, and when a concerned teacher played by Garrett Morris is introduced far too late in the narrative, it becomes clear that Cooley High isn't enough about high school to warrant being named after one. Viewers might also find the tonal shift at the end rather abrupt, given the loosey-goosey nature of the events leading up to it. The kind of film that's fun despite a litany of reasonable complaints, Cooley High remains a benchmark in early black cinema, and Schultz would follow it with a blaxploitation classic, Car Wash (1976). ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
Maurice Leon Havis - Willie; Joseph Carter Wilson - Tyrone; Shermann Smith - Stone; Norman Gibson - Robert; Maurice Marshall - Damon; Steven Williams - Jimmy Lee; Jackie Taylor - Johnny Mae; Christine Jones - Sandra; Lynn Caridine - Dorothy; Robert Townsend - Uncredited
Credit
William Fosser - Art Director, Frank Beetson - First Assistant Director, Michael Schultz - Director, Christopher Holmes - Editor, Samuel Z. Arkoff - Executive Producer, Freddie Perren - Composer (Music Score), Paul Von Brack - Cinematographer, Steve Krantz - Producer, Eric Monte - Screenwriter
Motown's reissue of the Cooley High and Mahogany soundtracks collects some of the label's finest singles. Cooley High features '60s hits such as Diana Ross & the Supremes' "Baby Love," the Temptations' "My Girl," and Mary Wells' "You Beat Me To The Punch," along with Freddie Paren's score and G.C. Cameron's "It's So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday," which later became a smash for Boyz II Men. Mahogany includes Michael Maiser's score, Jermaine Jackson's "Erucu," and "She's the Ideal Girl," and of course Diana Ross' #1 hit "Do You Know Where You're Going To?" A welcome reminder of Motown's impact in the '60s and '70s. ~ Heather Phares, All Music Guide
Cooley High is frequently compared favorably to the 1973 George Lucas film American Graffiti and the The Big Chill. ABC had planned a television adaptation of Cooley High, but the pilot was poorly received, and ABC had Monte retool the show. As a result, Monte created the TV show What's Happening!!, which was loosely based on Cooley High and ran from 1976 to 1979.
Monte based the film on his experiences from attending the real-life Cooley Vocational High School (which is no longer standing) that served students from the Cabrini-Greenpublic housing projects in Chicago. While the film was set in and around Cabrini-Green, it was primarily filmed at another Chicago-area housing project. Monte has said that he wrote the film to dispel myths about growing up in the projects: "I grew up in the Cabrini-Green housing project and I had one of the best times of my life, the most fun you can have while inhaling and exhaling"[1].
The story explores the adventures and relationships of Leroy "Preach" Jackson and Richard "Cochise" Morris, two black high schoolstudents at Edwin J. Cooley High School whose carefree lives take a turn for the worse through several twists of fate.
