Cooley High
(1975)

Director: Michael Schultz

Key Cast : Glynn Turman, Lawrence-Hilton Jacobs, Garrett Morris, Cynthia Davis, Corin Rogers, Maurice Leon Havis, Joseph Carter Wilson, Sherman Smith, Steven Williams

Rating: PG

Genre(s): Comedy, Drama

Often called the black American Graffiti – but with “far more vitality and variety” (The New York Times), Cooley High takes a nostalgic, poignant – and hilariously funny – look at black teen life in 1960’s Chicago.

It’s 1964.  JFK has just been assassinated.  Martha & the Vandellas, Little Stevie Wonder and the Four Tops rule the airwaves.  And two high school students discover themselves – and the taste of freedom – for the first time.  Preach (Glynn Turman), a serous-minded writer, and his best friend Cochise (Lawrence-Hilton Jacobs), a basketball hero headed for college, are best friends at Cooley High. 

Together they cut classes to the zoo, crash parties, put the hustle on some hustlers and dream about getting out of their impoverished, rough neighborhood.  But when an innocent joy ride makes them the targets to two vengeful hoods, their already uncertain futures seem even further out of reach. 

Featuring a “well handled mix of comedy and drama with a soundtrack of Motown gold” (Blockbuster Entertainment Guide) and a “universal appeal” (Los Angeles Times), Cooley High is a great movie.

• The writer of this movie, Eric Monte, based it on his own experiences growing up in the Cabrini-green projects in Chicago.  He attended the real Cooley High school in Chicago.

•  Motown produced the soundtrack for Cooley High and it features some of the greatest hits and singers of the 1960s including Diana Ross & the Supremes, Stevie Wonder, The Temptations, and Smokey Robinson.

•  Motown group Boys II Men named their first album, Cooleyhighharmony, in honor of this movie.  They perform the movie’s theme song, “It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday” on their album, too.

•  The television show, What’s Happening!!, which ran from 1976 – 1979 is loosely based on the movie Cooley High.

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"Cooley High" is a classic 1970s African-American
movie starring Glynn Turman, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs
and Garrett Morris.

It features many Motown great songs in its soundtrack.

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The Best of Soul Cinema Movie DVD Collection
Cooley High is also available in The Best of Soul Cinema DVD Collection.
This set contains the following movies:

Cooley High
Coffy, Another Top 100 BlackClassicMovies.com Film
Foxy Brown
Hell Up in Harlem
I’m Gonna Get You Sucka

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Cooley High Movie Soundtrack
The Cooley High movie soundtracks features songs by Diana Ross and the Supremes, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson and more great Motown stars. The CD was digitally remastered for even better sound.

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