User Reviews

Now, I am not prone to much emotion, but I cried seeing this movie. It certainly has more appeal among blacks than other ethnic groups, but there is something here for everyone. The classic song "It's so Hard to Say Goodbye" really makes this one worth watching at least once.

...instead, watch it as a great coming of age tale about African American males in the mid 1960's in the ghettos of Chicago. For all of you out there under the age of 50, "What's Happening" was a light-hearted rather quirky sitcom with very few serious moments that lasted four years (1975-1979) concerning a group of young African American high school kids living in a working class neighborhood. I liked it a great deal - it just has no real connection to this film. "Cooley High" started out as being the basis for "What's Happening", but its serious nature did not register well with test audiences, so it was redone as a comedy, even though the credits on "What's Happening" still read that it was based on this movie.

This film starts out light, but touches many aspects of life unique to the turbulent 1960's and also some other aspects of growing up that are timeless. The guys deal with sex, betrayal, joblessness, hopelessness, and even early death. The ending is quite powerful and serious, and the film has a great Motown soundtrack. Highly recommended. Unfortunately, this film is not new enough to be played on premium cable channels and not considered old enough to be considered a classic movie and played in the few venues for those films either.

This is one of those films that you don't really know what to expect going in, think the film is going one way, and then it takes you a completely different route. But I really appreciate what this film did for not only the black community, as a part of the black exploitation film era, but also what it did for Chicago as a city. Every now and then there would be a film centered in and filmed in Chicago, but Cooley High did a lot for the city in terms of revamping their stake in the movie business.

Cooley High isn't really told in a typical 3 act structure. In fact, it's very episodic in that there's mini arcs within a bigger arc. For the most part, I enjoyed watching the film. We saw it in 70mm film for my cinema class and so I don't think I would have been aware of it otherwise, and I'm glad I got a chance to see it. Obviously being a white male, I'm not necessarily the target audience, but I think there's a lot of fun to be had with this group of kids from Cooley High. Not only is there a ton of great physical comedy (that holds up) but the writing makes you care about all of it's lead characters.

I don't believe any of the actors became famous, but they worked really well together on screen. Which makes it even more heart- breaking when you see the entire film. It's pretty much my only main complaint with the film. 95 percent of the film is comedic and then all of a sudden the end of the film hits you like a shot in the dark. To me, that's almost manipulative and too jarring for an audience. It's a film you walk out in pure silence because you don't really know what you just saw.

Having a pretty low budget, I'm sure they were constrained from filming in every location, but I do believe they could have used the Chicago landscape even more than they did. So overall, this film is pretty fun with great characters to watch and grow as high schoolers. The second half becomes a little uneven and the ending is very jarring, but it's definitely worth a watch for it's historical impact and it's comedic timing.

+Really funny

+Chemistry between the guys

+Important in history

-Jarring ending

7.1/10

While this seems to be a black equivalent to "American Graffitti", I would hardly call this "Blaxploitation". Really not in the same boat as "Sweet Sweetbacks Badass Song", all those Pam Grier movies by Jack Hill, and the usual sort. Interesting to see Lawrence Hilton Jacobs in something other than "Welcome Back Kotter", or his low-rent action films. Interesting to note that "Kotter" comes up in a few posts, but I didn't see anyone mention that the TV show "What's Happening" (and the later, "What's Happening Now" I suppose), was based on, and inspired by this film, which is why I wanted to see it in the first place. This film is vastly superior to "What's Happening" (for many reasons, most obviously, the lack of the "Rerun" character), and has real heart. Also, it features some excellent use of Godzilla footage in the theatre scenes, something I always appreciate. If you haven't seen it, you really should.

This film set the standard for African-American film excellence when it was made. I heard on various stories on the film through time, that there was a push for an Academy Award nomination when it was released. This film plays on various emotions, and you definitely feel for all of the characters. Sure, some of the acting is a little wooden, but fortunately, those parts aren't pivotal. The music is sensational, and if you don't think the ending is a tear-jerker, you have no heart in your chest. If you watch "Cooley High", you will see that many, many films have copied various elements from it in order to strengthen their own films. The biggest example of this is "Boyz N The Hood".

This movie seems to always be compared to "American Graffiti" and, given that both end in a similar "Where are they now?" montage, feature a high level of period pop music and are generally show teenagers running around, having fun and encountering mishaps, it's fair to say that to some extent the film was intended as a black "American Graffiti". "American Graffiti" was an iconic and hugely popular phenomenon, and given that the title has 'American' in it but it essentially a story of only the white American experience, once can see how blacks might have desired a movie that could capture their own experiences during those magic moments as youth comes to an end.

"Cooley High" is also something of an answer to its white counterpart, though: simply by showing a typical black teenager experience in 1962 it is going to have to make some kind of social commentary. In "American Graffiti" the high crimes are drag racing and minors buying booze, while we see decidedly rougher characters in "Cooley High". The only two who stand out as three-dimensional are the leads, Cochise and Preach, but they have more depth than any of the characters in "Graffiti". Unfortunately, the other characters in the movie fall flat and you'll be very lucky if, after your first viewing, you remember the names of even half of them before they flash on the screen in the final sequence.

Cochise is the smart and college-bound student whose best friend Preach, despite being no less intelligent, seems to be destined to fail. Much of the movie is devoted to their high-spirited teenage adventures, in the spirit of "Graffiti", and the movie is entertaining enough as the gang skips school to go the zoo, crashes a party, inadvertently starts a brawl in a movie theater, and so on. Things pick up, though, and the final minutes of the film how the consequences of their fun in the first hour.

This movie is interesting and I'm glad it was made as a black counterpoint to "American Graffiti". However, the characters aren't quite as memorable in "Coolie High", and the stories just aren't as clever and fun either. This isn't to say "Coolie High" fails, it's just that "American Graffiti" had some pretty brilliant stories which it would be hard for any movie to equal. One exception is the romantic scene between Preach and Brenda which, although comic in nature, utterly transcends any racial boundaries and is a wonderfully honest depiction of the inherent awkwardness of the situation, something the audience can relate to far more honestly than the typical confident and lustful love scenes we usually see in movies.

The movie is uneven and, to this reviewer, can't quite reach the highs of the movie it is providing a counterpoint to. Still, I can very much relate to "American Graffiti" but what do I know about growing up in Cabrini Green? Some viewers might love this far more than "American Graffiti". This movie seems pretty forgotten, but it shouldn't be.

Watching Cooley High for the first time over 40 years after it came out made me regret not seeing it back in the day. It's nothing short of outstanding with moments of comedy, pathos, drama, and stark tragedy. It's characters are quite real, in fact if you were to say they were stereotypes I would argue that a lot of stereotypes were taken from Cooley High. This film is the original mold.

It's a high school buddy picture based on the memories of Eric Monte who grew up in Chicago and lived in the projects where these kids grew up. Monte's character street name is Preach and is played by Glynn Turman. His best friend is Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs with the street names of Cochise. Hilton-Jacobs is better known for being Freddy 'Boom-Boom' Washington on Welcome Back Kotter.

These two are a mischievous pair who because of the neighborhood can't help but rub elbows with a lot worse both in and out of Cooley High. Both are giving teacher Garrett Morris a lot of premature gray hairs because Morris sees potential in both. But this film demonstrates there are a lot of pitfalls to be avoided.

Ironically Morris through going to bat for these kids as an act of kindness inadvertently sets up the final tragedy.

Both Preach and Cochise are as fully formed characters as you'll find in something like Eugene O'Neill. We see all there hopes and dreams and aspirations. And at least for me there is nothing sadder than dreams unfulfilled, songs not sung, bells not rung.

I am actually amazed that Cooley High did not get a speck of recognition from the Academy. That is an absolute shame and travesty.

The film which came out in 1975 and based on incidents and characters that writer Eric Monte knew from Chicago is as fresh as it was back in the day. What these kids might have done with home computers.

It's 1964 Chicago. Preach and Cochise are best friends in the black high school, Edwin G. Cooley. They with two other friends skip school to go to the zoo. In a different incident, Preach is throwing dice in a local diner. When he shows interest in Brenda, Cochise bets him a dollar to hook up with her. The two joins other guys in a joyride which gets them into trouble. Mr. Mason is a teacher trying to guide Preach.

This is a coming-of-age teen drama in black cinema. The performances are good with some future veteran actors. It's episodic in nature. There are some humorous moments. It needs to get into the joyride earlier in the first act so as to make it the central point in a three act movie. It's more like a series of incidents that forms the highs and lows of the two young men's friendship and a blossoming romance. This has a realism and the sense of place.

Cooley High was actually a drama with moments of comedy. It was a reflection of high school life back in the day. I attended Coolidge High in Washington, D.C. from 1976 to 1979 and much of what was in Cooley High was an every day thing at Coolidge. As a matter of fact after the movie came out everybody started calling Coolidge "Cooley High." Getting high, shooting dice, chasing girls, basement parties, and fights, that sums up high school life for many in D.C. back in the day. I can't forget Motown because Motown music began and ended many a day back in the 70s. The hits just kept coming. However, Cooley High adds a layer of humanity over the craziness because when all was said and done just like in Cooley High my classmates and I had a lot of love for each other. And like the characters in Cooley High there was life after high school, but there was nothing like waking up every morning and experiencing each day to the fullest from homeroom to seventh period. Thirty years later we are getting ready to celebrate those good times. Cooley High is definitely a period piece that just gets better with time because like it or not the only thing left from those days are memories, some good, and some bad.

This this coming of age dramedy set in Chicago in the early 60's, we follow a group of highschool friends as they navigate through the ups and downs of their lives. The two central characters are Leroy "Preach" Jackson (Turman) and his best friend Richard "Cochise" Morris (Hilton-Jacobs.) Both of these boys have promising futures. Preach is a great writer but a lazy student, and Cochise has just received a college scholarship for basketball. When they're not hanging out at the local diner shooting craps with their friends, or hanging out at a friends house or chasing girls, they're skipping school, riding the trains through Chicago or going to quarter parties on the weekends.

Things go wrong when Preach and Cochise make the mistake of getting involved with two hoods and go joyriding in a stolen car. The police pursue them and they are arrested. But thanks to the efforts of a concerned teacher (SNL's Garrett Morris) they are released. But the two hoods are not, and vow to get revenge on Preach and Cochise, thinking they blamed the whole thing on them.

This movie is very episodic, but it still works because thats what life is, a series of episodes. Some funny, some sad, some romantic, some bizarre. The film never gets boring because all the characters are so well played and realistic, and the situations are all believable and relatable. Like Preach romantically pursuing a beautiful girl, or a party turning violent when some asshole decides to start a fight, or dealing with a bratty younger sibling. But even when a situation isn't personally relatable, like the guys pretending to be undercover cops to con a hooker out of some money so they could get all their friends into a movie, the sequence is still hilarious.

'Cooley High' was the basis for the classic 70's sitcom 'What's Happenin!' which aired on ABC from 1976-1979. Even though the show is most famous for the character Rerun, he is not in this film, nor is there any character remotely like him. The humor of that show was very broad, but still funny. The humor of 'Cooley High' is truer to life, and thus more entertaining.

Additionally, the soundtrack is wonderful. Classic songs from that period by Diana Ross & The Supremes, The Temptations, Martha & the Vandellas, and Smokey Robinson play throughout the film, adding to the fun, youthful, exuberant tone of the film.

I wanted to start with something positive, hence the title. Yes, a great soundtrack. I love Motown. I really wanted to and actually thought I would like this movie. I really liked What's Happening, the tv show. I had read that What's Happening was based on this movie. So not alike, so different. To start, everything is a con with these guys. No loyalty regarding boyfriend, girlfriend. They steal from a zoo, while one pretends to want to buy a hot dog. They get into what is obviously a stolen car. Then proceed to evade arrest, running from cops. So many things that I thought were stereotypes, but portrayed in the movie, pot smoking, playing craps, dice. This?! This is a "heartwarming" film? Most, if not every bad thing these guys faced were self inflicted. Seriously, these guys were clowns. Yes, I was a teen, but can't even remotely relate to these guys. The characters aren't likeable. Pooter is the only one the least bit likeable. If this really what their lives were like, they earned it. Losers.

Some have described "Cooley High" as a 'Black American Graffiti', as the style is similar and is set in Chicago in 1964 instead of California in 1962. I could see some similarities, especially the invasive pop soundtrack...something popularized in "American Graffiti". What I do not see, however, is how the film was supposedly reworked into the TV show "What's Happening!!"....they just seemed very, very different....with a different cast, a different style and vibe and more. Plus, this movie is far better than the TV program.

The choice of actors to star in the film is strange but not too unusual for American films. Glynn Turman is a REALLY good actor (aside from his film "JD's Revenge"...a film no actor could make any good) but he was also 28 years-old and playing someone about 17! Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs (later, famous for "Welcome Back, Kotter") was a bit closer to the target age at 22. It really is odd how seldom teenagers are actually played by teenagers in movies!

So is it any good? Well, yes...it seems to try very hard to be realistic, though this means that the characters in the film are pretty much jerks! This is NOT a pretty or overly idealized view of black teens of the era. But the acting is good and the story represents a side of life seldom shown in movies of the day.

On the heels of the well received and beloved coming of age film classic ,concerning the lives of teenagers as they headed into adulthood, George Lucas' American Graffiti, we have Cooley High. An adaptation of sorts by one Eric Monte, co creator of the popular 1970's CBS sitcom Good Times.

Cooley High was, and is, viewed as a black version of American Graffiti.Instead of central California ,as in American Graffiti, we have the black slum of Chicago's Cabrini Green as the backdrop for the story here. Instead of America in 1962 Cooley High is situated in 1964.The movie stars Welcome Back Kotter's ,Lawrence Hilton Jacobs and Glynn Turman as the movie main protagonists and its' main characters. It has Garrett Morris playing the principal who tries to keep Jacobs' and Turman's characters,named Coceise and Preach, out of trouble a great deal of the time.

You know, I would like to say that Cooley High is a worthy comparison piece to American Graffiti or that it is a great film on its' own but I can't. The problem lies with the fact that the producers of the film couldn't or wouldn't hide the sad underside of black life in America.Having the film in the Cabrini Green part of Chicago doesn't help things.

Neither does the crass gross attempts at humor here. When Coceise is looking for a letter of intent from a college he finds his little brother has thrown down a toilet. When the gang visits the Chicago Zoo, one of the gang named Pooter, has manure thrown on him by an ape. When the Turman's character,Preach, is being chased by two hoodlums in the school hangout(A dirty and depressing place to eat food in much less meet people at), he opens the door of the girls' bathroom while a girl is relieving herself as he escapes through the window of the same bathroom! The high school, the homes of the characters, the bathrooms, just about everywhere in the film displays the unfortunate look of urban decay and poverty.

If that wasn't enough there was the rough display of humor in the film. The use of violence and profanity in the film. Cooley High may be an coming of age film ,but it is a hard and rough coming of age film with little or none of the wit and liking of the use of nostalgia that made people like and appreciate American Graffiti so much.

Motown Records had a hand in making the film. The company's music was part of the film's soundtrack. But even here you get a sense of same old same old as one has heard these songs before a million times over. Not that they weren't great songs within themselves but black music,of that time period was more than just Motown.Especially in Chicago. The song nearing the end of the movie, by the Spinners' G.C. Cameron, was not all that impressive. There have been better Motown ballads that have been done, by better Motown artists than Cameron without question.

The last part of the film showing where the characters went to pay homage to the film Cooley High aimed to be ,American Graffiti. It shows that Preach,an intelligent but underachieving student went to Hollywood and became a successful television writer. Eric Monte may have patterned himself as Turman's character. The last shot of film show's Preach running away from Coceise's funeral ,held on a dark rainy afternoon, and all the bleakness that Cooley High came to represent. Eric Monte ,through Preach and that final scene, had one little lesson for all of us when watching Cooley High and for the love of the past. Don't look back.

This film, which was the foundation for "What's Happening?", contains the very things that recent films about teens and high school lack: comedy, and true emotion. The film takes place in Chicago, 1964, and centers on a group of lower-class black kids, including Preach, a smart student, and his close friend, Cochise, a great athlete who's on the verge of getting a scholarship. While it does contain similarities to George Lucas' "American Graffitti", the film has a lot of energy and substance to easily overlook that fact. There are many funny moments, including a scene where the boys joyride with Preach behind the wheel; a scene where the boys cut class and head to the zoo, ending with a hilarious encounter with a gorilla; and a scene where Preach hides from gangbangers in an occupied bathroom. There's also romance in the film, as Preach attempts to woo classy beauty Brenda; the two even lose their virginity together in a truly tasteful scene. The movie ends in tragedy, and since the characters have depth, we feel the loss. I highly recommend this one to all; it's got more going for it than 99.9% of what's playing today (and it's got a great Motown soundtrack to boot!).

First time I've seen it in what feels like twenty years and it's not holding up too well. The first half, especially, feels too cute and cuddly for a realistic, coming of age film set in Chicago's extremely grim Cabrini Green housing projects in the Kennedy 60s. Eric Monte's dialogue and Michael Schultz's direction too often resemble so so sit com, centered as they are around various pranks and comic misadventures Cochise, Preach and his pals engage in, a couple of which are mildly amusing, like the school ditching scheme and the car chase, and others of which range from the sophomoric (gorilla defecation and its aftermath) to the downright offensive (Cochise and Preach harassing and scamming sex workers).

In the second half Monte and Schultz find the proper balance between light and dark and, as a result, the denouement, though telegraphed, is powerful and affecting. Could have done without Preach's bathetic graveside eulogy, though (something that only a very few film makers, like, say, John Ford, can get away with). Come to think of it, I could have done with less of Preach, period. Writer stand in characters in films are usually a bore and Preach is no exception. I also wearied of the too old, nervous, twitchy actor who plays him, Glyn Turman. Conversely, I wish there had been more of Cochise and the more relaxed but compelling performance of Lawrence Hilton Jacobs. And I definitely would have jettisoned the cliche deux ex machina of Garrett Morris' caring, wise high school teacher. Give it a C plus.

This was the very first movie I ever saw in my life back in 1974 or 1975. I was 4 years old at the time and saw it at a drive-in theatre. I did not grasp that this would be a classic at the time (I went to sleep about twenty minutes into the movie). After seeing it on the television-along with two of my other favourite movies Car Wash (my favourite movie) and The Wiz which seemed to come on every year about the same time all together-about 40, 50, 75 times I knew that here was a movie that I would have as one of my favourites. Those three movies were the only live action shows that I could watch as a child.

I would not consider this to be a blaxploitation movie but rather an urban interest movie.Cochise and Preach reminded me of some of my uncles especially the Wild Irish Rose that they drank. My mother also told me about some of the quarter parties that she attended and that some of the things that occurred in the movie were similar in nature to what occurred in real life. If you are one of the two or three black people over thirty who hasn't seen this movie yet then I recommend that you buy the DVD right now. I'm glad that I was around to witness some of the goings on of the era.

This is a very good movie about teenagers coming of age, facing the experiences of growing up. There is enough drama in the realities that we can all identify with and there is humor found in these ordinary scenes. Overall, the film is a genuine paean to being young and facing that point at which you're not so young anymore. A must-see for any serious movie lover.

And for the official line count, I'll point out that there is a car chase, a sex scene and a lot of good-natured scenes of boys being boys. Nothing in the movie is played for the sake of making something out of the past that wasn't really there.

I don't know why I was interested in this movie. Watching it looks like a movie with not very polished technical elements, but that sure doesn't matter. This is a movie with heart. "American Graffiti" was the inspiration, but this is innecity style. Yet the characters are just as loveable, the music is so essential to the atmosphere, the episodes are just as silly and fun and eventually dangerous.

The serious turn it took in the last 15 minutes didn't really work but it was handled with committment.

As much good as one can credit this movie, it is also quite evident that without actors as great as Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs and especially Glynn, Turman, this could have come off as crap.

I don't get this movie at all. I read the reviews - supposed to be a "black" American Graffiti but American Graffiti was funny and well directed. This is the opposite. I'm not even sure there was a script. It's just a few guys skipping school (despite the fact they appear to want to do well) and doing dumb stuff that isn't funny or interesting. There's a lot of laughing going on but nothing funny actually going on.

It's supposed to be taking place in 1964 but there was no attempt at making anything look like 1964 outside the music. Clear cut mid-1970s cars in every scene. If you read the goofs in IMDB there's tons of mid-1970s Chicago featured throughout the movie that didn't exist in 1964. Even the lingo is mid-70s.

Good cast though, some of these folks had solid acting careers. Gynn Truman had a solid career and you may remember him as the Mayor in The Wire. Steven Williams and Robert Townsend had small roles. Even Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs was great and you wonder why he never had the success of his Welcome Back Kotter co-star John Travolta (he's worked a lot over the years but in mostly C-lister stuff if even that).

But this movie - I was bored stiff. I couldn't finish it I was so bored. And I love movies like this and '70's films, I watch as much as I can. Maybe this movie was a "classic" in some people's eyes but I'm not sure why.

The movie was very good when it came out, I attended Cooley High and Cooley upper grade center ,around 1968 i was also home coming queen and grew up and lived in the area of Cabrini Greens, i knew a lots of people in the movie, it was nice to see friends in the movie that lived in the area also, and they had a chance to be a star that may have been a once in a life time experience for them, i had good times growing up on the north side and tough times i can relate to the movie Cooley High is no longer standing but a person like myself and others still remember the fun we had growing up attending Cooley High, there is a lot of history around this north side area to be told .

I don't know if there is something wrong with me or my taste of movies? When I read all those positive reviews or when I see the high ratings Cooley High got I wonder if I watched the same movie as all those people. Because I really didn't like this movie, and I'm not a difficult guy, on the contrary I'm easily entertained. But entertainment is certainly not the word that pops into my mind when I think about Cooley High, quite the opposite. First of all the acting, let's just say it honestly, it's bad. Then you have the storyline or the lack of it as most of the movie is just following some black immature guys doing the dumbest and most uninteresting things ever, in other words really boring to watch. I read somebody had to cry at the end because it was so emotional. I must have missed that part, probably because I dozed off a couple of times, not because I was tired but because of the extreme boredom. The conversations those youngsters have are for people with a very low IQ. The "guys" hitting on girls is so pathetic to watch you wonder who's the dumbest of them all, the girls or the boys?