The Cool World

In director Shirley Clarke's stark semi-documentary look at life in the Harlem ghetto, The Cool World, a 15-year-old gang member comes of age amidst drugs, violence and daunting racial prejudice. Eager to buy a gun (a "piece"), the teen struggles to establish his manhood in the only way he believes he can.

Based on the novel by Warren Miller and the play by Robert Rossen, Clarke infuses her exposé with jazz music by such greats as Dizzy Gillespie, while minimizing any narrative form. New York Times reviewer Bosley Crowther noted, "The players, most with little or no previous experience in films, move with the random impulsiveness of characters caught on the run... the pounding vitality blisters the eyes and claws the senses with its vicious and hideous visual truths."

The Cool World was added to the National Film Registry in 1994.

Not to be confused with Ralph Bakshi's 1992 movie - that one doesn't have a "The" in the name.


 * Blaxploitation: The Ur Example.