The Cool World (1963)

Filmmaker Shirley Clarke ("The Connection") directs this powerful, stark semi-documentary look at the horrors of Harlem ghetto slum life filled with drugs, violence, human misery, and a ... See full summary »

Director:

Shirley Clarke

Writers:

Shirley Clarke, Carl Lee

Stars:

Rony Clanton, Carl Lee, Yolanda Rodríguez

1 win & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Rony Clanton	...	Duke (as Hampton Clanton)
Carl Lee	...	Priest
Yolanda Rodríguez	...	Luanne
Clarence Williams III	...	Blood (as Clarence Williams)
Gary Bolling	...	Littleman
Bostic Felton	...	Rod
Gloria Foster	...	Mrs. Custis
John Marriott	...	Hurst
Georgia Burke	...	Grandma
Marilyn Cox	...	Miss Dewpoint
Jerome Raphael	...	Mr. Shapiro
Mel Stewart	...	Con-man
Joe Dennis	...	Douglas Thurston (as Joseph Dennis)
Ronald Perry	...	Savage
Bruce Edwards	...	Warrior

Storyline

Filmmaker Shirley Clarke ("The Connection") directs this powerful, stark semi-documentary look at the horrors of Harlem ghetto slum life filled with drugs, violence, human misery, and a sense of despair due to the racial prejudices of American society. There is no patronizing of the black race in this cinematic cry for justice. A fifteen-year-old boy called Duke is ambitious to buy a "piece" (a gun) from an adult racketeer named Priest, to become president of the gang to which he belongs, and to return them to active "bopping" (gang fighting) which has declined in Harlem. It is a clearly patent allegory of an attempt by Duke to attain manhood and identity in the only way accessible to him - the antisocial one.

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Plot Keywords:

violence | ghetto | harlem manhattan new york city | inner city | black power | 

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Taglines:

HOOKER! FUZZ! JUNK! RUMBLE! These are words that mean big trouble in...

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Genres:

Crime | Drama

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Details

Official Sites:

Zipporah Films

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

2 November 1964 (UK)

Also Known As:

Die lässige Welt

Filming Locations:

Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

The Cool World, Wiseman Film Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

105 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This film was selected to the National Film Registry, Library of Congress, in 1994.

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Connections

References The Secret of the Purple Reef (1960)

User Reviews

It's the hard knock life.

There once was a a movement, mostly active in New York and a period in which movies were shot very raw, in an almost documentary like style. These type of movies try to give you an insight on the daily lives of often poor and struggling ethic groups, living in a certain part of town, as if it's really a documentary you are watching. Perhaps the best and also best known example of this style of film-making was John Cassavetes' 1959 movie "Shadows".

The movie is shot in the fashion of a documentary but that really doesn't mean that it also feels like one though. It's still very obviously an acted out movie, with scripted situations in it. The approach to it all still makes it feel like a very raw and also straight-forward movie, about crime, drugs and racial issues, all set in the Harlem ghetto, in New York City.

It's not necessarily a movie that follows a clear main plot line, which is consistent with this style of film-making but it's not really something that I like. Sure, it works out real fine for 20-30 minutes or so but after a while things just start to get less interesting to follow because there isn't really anything happening within the story and it isn't ever really going anywhere. I did understand the points the movie tried to make, with its raw approach, depicting the hard and desperate life within the ghetto but it just never came across as anything provoking or powerful.

It still could had been fine if only the movie had some more intriguing and likable characters in it. I don't really feel like we ever got to know any of them, which also doesn't really make you care about any of them or what happens within the movie its story. So no, this movie just isn't for me, though I'm still able to appreciate it and admire the way it got made and shot.

So still a movie I appreciated watching, just never one I ever loved.

7/10

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