Today's Black Movie Month feature is that of Cooley High! This movie is definitely on my Top 25 of Black films and holds a place in my DVD collection. Just this past week I have talked about this movie with three different people so I figure this needs to be the first movie I spotlight.
This 1975 film directed by Michael Schultz and based on the Chicago high school with the same name, is the perfect example of what a classic Black film should even in 2011. It's filled with laughter, tears, and life changing experiences. The film would star Glynn Turman and Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs.
In the mid-1960s, a group of high school friends who live on the near North side of Chicago enjoy life to the fullest...parties, meeting new friends, and hanging out. Then life changes for two guys when they meet a pair of career criminals and get falsely arrested in connection with stealing a Cadillac. We get a chance to follow their lives through the end of a school year and the end of their high school lives.
Some even think of this film as the "black American Graffiti" because it takes us down memory lane as we look at a group of black teenagers about to graduate from high school; who are getting ready to embark upon the rest of their lives.
To date Cooley High ranks #23 on Entertainment Weekly's list of "50 Best High School Movies". The movie would even go on to inspire the R&B group Boyz II Men first album Cooleyhighharmony, and remake the tear jeaker song "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye". And to think this film almost got an Academy Award, so deserving.
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