MovieChat Forums > Cooley High (1978) Discussion > Cooley High needs a Criterion release...

Cooley High needs a Criterion release...

posted 11 years ago by amaizinblue
11 replies | jump to latest

IMO, Cooley High is the perfect film for a Criterion release. This movie for African Americans is like a peek into a world most whites have never seen. My father grew up on Chicago's south side and told me this movie is exactly what it was like at that time. I have seen this movie close to 70 times in my 40 years, and im curious to see an update of the actors who played in Cooley, how the locations have changed due to gentrification, Eric Monte, etc. There could be an additional hour of information on this movie.

[–] YouToober 11 years ago

Yes!

That's a good idea. I would like to see that myself. But while i believe this film has fans from all ethnic backgrounds, i believe the main fan base of this film are African-Americans. And with that, it's not going to make "big money", like the "suits" would like.

But if the powers that be decide to do it, they'd better hurry up.

Those actors, actresses and Eric Monte aren't getting any younger.

[–] nsavage3-1 11 years ago

I second that emotion!

[–] solex10 8 years ago

Excuse me sir/madame, but that's bullcaca. Criterion is a small company that does what it wants to do in terms of releasing DVD's. For the most part, Cooley High was released on DVD and Blu-Ray (2014) so it's not as if it needs a Criterion release (and FYI, Criterion DVD/Blu-Ray discs cost a lot of money, which a lot of black folks might not want to shell out to get.)

[–] jaynekranc 11 years ago

I grew up in Chicago, am NOT black, and I loved this film. The soundtrack is so good. I just got it on CD. I still have the album, too. I think it's especially meaningful considering the code of silence that's going on in the city now. Someone getting killed for a supposed slight is relevant.

[–] jay_guevara-1 11 years ago

Agreed. I'd love to see a Criterion release to do this film justice. The current DVD isn't even in widescreen but yet apparently it is shown in widescreen during TV broadcasts!

[–] Joey_Action 10 years ago

I agree with you completely. This is not only a great movie but also a important one. Criterion I hope your listening!

[–] robtadrian 10 years ago

I think Kino may put it out...they are releasing blu-rays of Cotton Comes to Harlem and Across 110th Street

[–] jimpiscitelli 9 years ago

Olive Films (a company in Chicago) is releasing "Cooley High" on Blu-ray on April 21, 2015. Hopefully they will do a great transfer of the film as well as its great Motown soundtrack.

[–] YouToober 9 years ago

Oh that would be especially great if they were to release the Cooley High soundtrack again (to my knowledge it's still out of print).

All of the songs were great, but my fave song would be "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday".

[–] Mudflap 9 years ago

I purchased a copy of the Oliver Release on Blu Ray. It's a good transfer in widescreen. Totally void of any extras whatsoever, and for some reason they divided the movie into only 5 or 6 chapters in the chapters section. However the print itself is certainly good enough to recommend bying it for anyone who's a fan of this great film.

One of my favourite unsung "extras" for Coolie High (not shown on the Oliver Release obviously) was Evander Hollifield as a guest host on TCM talking about how the film impacted him, growing up. I bet you could go up to any black person from his era (even an important star) and mention Coolie High and they would just beam with all kinds of great memories!

A Criterion Release with extensive interviews (even from unrelated sources) would be a dream come true, but hey, atleast we have a good print of the film in widescreen now; some of us have been waiting forever for that much.

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

You'll be happy to know that it's been released on blu-ray by Olive Films, quite possibly the next best thing to Criterion, in terms of video quality, but no extra features on the disc.