New 4K-restored Blu-ray offers a big improvement on Olive’s earlier edition
This article contains several comparisons which contrast the older Olive Films Blu-ray transfer with the new Criterion restoration. The frames aren’t necessarily exact matches (except those noted as such), but should give a solid indication of the visual differences.
Director Michael Schultz and writer Eric Monte’s beloved coming-of-age film Cooley High is back on Blu-ray, courtesy of The Criterion Collection. Lately Criterion has been putting forth a notably concerted effort to put forth more classic black American cinema as apart of their offerings, and this deserving film is yet another very exciting addition to the collection.
Cooley High is a slice-of-life story set in 1960s Chicago that follows the exploits of a group of black teenagers as they navigate through high school, social circles, and living in and around the infamous Cabrini-Green housing project. The nostalgic film, based on Monte’s own life experiences, was both unique and seminal in showing life in the projects in a way that humanized its characters, and showed not only the struggle of that life, but also the warm memories of youth set against those gritty environs. It also served as a prototype of sorts for the equally significant Cabrini-set television show Good Times, also co-created by Monte.
Olive Films released Cooley High to Blu-ray in 2015 as a no-frills edition (along with several other AIP titles previously released under MGM’s old “Soul Cinema” VHS/DVD lineup), which I reviewed at that time. It was a welcome release for the movie, but not an impressive one.
In comparing Criterion’s new restoration to the older transfer, there’s no need to consider nuance, keep score, or even offer much commentary – it’s simply a huge improvement across the board with noticeably better picture quality, in terms of clarity and especially color. I didn’t know it could look this good.
From the start, the title card and other on-screen text emphatically state the case for the restoration: perfectly crisp, noise-free, and restored to a bright yellow.
Already in the frames above we can see a good representation of what will be pretty consistent across the transfers. The older version had a drab, dark, green tinted appearance. Criterion’s brighter, more naturally colored image is a marked improvement.
For any other faults it may have had, Olive’s print was quite clean, relatively free of dust, scratches and the like. Still, in my screen grabs I spotted a few stray bits that were either cleaned up or not introduced in the new release. These are totally minor — literally just random specks here and there. But Criterion does demonstrate an improvement upon an already clean image. Same-frame comparisons:
Another similarly very minor difference is an almost imperceptible shift in framing where Criterion’s scan is slightly more open but also sits a tad bit lower on the frame. It’s so minor that it’ almost not worth mentioning, but for comparison’s sake here are a couple same-frame examples that highlight the subtle differences (with attention to the top and bottom edges of the frames).
Some additional parting shots to give a more well-rounded look at both transfers:
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