1963 Directed by Shirley Clarke
This here file is Shirley Clarke's 1963 adaptation of Warren Miller's novel 'The Cool World'. It was ripped from a marginally improved VHS source (DivX), but the image and sound quality are not, to say the least, the best one could hope for. The Cool World (1963) En by i New York “The Cool World” is a movie about gangs in Harlem, but about as far removed from “West Side Story” as it is possible to get. Instead of glamour, color and dancing, we get grit, misery and despair, but also the coolest soundtrack imaginable. Film, Video THE COOL WORLD (1963) About this Item. Title THE COOL WORLD (1963) Contributor Names Shirley Clarke (director). The Library of Congress may or may not own a copy of a particular film or video. To request additional information Ask a Librarian.
Synopsis
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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105 mins More details at
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An interesting offering for 1963, but I found it really challenging to pay attention. The concept is intriguing–showing the other side of New York in the early 1960s, the ignored world of black teens struggling to find meaning. In a world of misery and anger, they're shown gravitating towards gangs for structure instead of God. What really struck me is just how young all of these boys are, jockeying for guns and status. Not to mention how naive they are about the trap of the 'cool world' they're fighting to dominate is.
Clarke's documentary style shots of the streets are great, but its the only glimpse into a world that isn't pure misery that we get. In that way, it's…
A single shot of a marquee shows 'Paul Newman in Adventures of a Young Man' playing at a Harlem movie theater. I don't know if it's deliberate or not, but it's the perfect counterpoint to the 'adventures' and the 'young man' that The Cool World is about, and an example of how disconnected the world of Harlem in the early 1960s was from mainstream America.
Like The Wire, there's an attention to detail in language and locations. Also like The Wire, it portrays the culture of crime in impoverished urban areas as arising out of an alienation from the mainstream economy. At one point the main kid sells a joint to another kid at knife point. Capitalism, 'm I right?…
Great cinema verite segments of 1960s Harlem and a few haunting shots can't overcome a script that punches heavily in the nose. Several flat performances don't help either. I probably would have liked this more with a higher quality copy (it was apparently recorded off French TV, complete with bright yellow subtitles), which isn't fair to the movie, but I was very distracted throughout.
I said I wished The Connection was more naturalistic, and this is my wish being granted. Much closer to Cassavetes or Morris Engel than The Connection is, so it felt a lot closer to my aesthetic wavelength. I also didn't feel like it was stretching so hard for 'meaning,' which is another problem I had with the other Clarke movie I'd seen. As always, it's thrilling to see such a blatantly non-artificial and naturalistic view of society's underbelly presented so candidly in a movie from this period.
Those montages shot at night are some real real good shit.
In 35MM at the NW Film Center.
A starkly beautiful portrait of a specific time and place (Harlem in the 60s) that captures so much using so little. I’m glad this got a restoration and I encourage people to seek it out.
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MoreAn interesting offering for 1963, but I found it really challenging to pay attention. The concept is intriguing–showing the other side of New York in the early 1960s, the ignored world of black teens struggling to find meaning. In a world of misery and anger, they're shown gravitating towards gangs for structure instead of God. What really struck me is just how young all of these boys are, jockeying for guns and status. Not to mention how naive they are about the trap of the 'cool world' they're fighting to dominate is.
Clarke's documentary style shots of the streets are great, but its the only glimpse into a world that isn't pure misery that we get. In that way, it's…
A lot of of the reviews I read seemed to focus mostly on Clarke's camera and how her documentary approach to this loosely plotted coming-of-age tale gives it an edge and immediacy compared to more melodramatic films of similar nature (such as Michael Roemer's Nothing But a Man). But what I found most interesting was the use of voiceover to eavesdrop into our protagonist thoughts and how it acted as a partial escape from his impoverished world. I was also struck by the way the film examined class within the black community, something that's rarely discussed when watching films about race. Duke bullies a well-dressed black kid out of jealousy, an activist tries to enlighten a depressed junkie. Upward mobility…
AFI FILM SERIES: Library of Congress Film Preservation Showcase - Film #16. 35mm print preserved by the LoC.
The influence of the French New Wave movement and cinema verité documentaries is very pronounced here. And the story is very good, even powerful, but the narrative is not as propulsive or urgent as the situations would seem to call for. In fact the FNW influence tends to make the story meander as though the script was being made up on the fly. The primary cast of mostly unknown actors (with the exception of a pre-Mod Squad Clarence Williams III) give fine performances for the most part and generate plenty of empathy for characters who should not be sympathetic. When Duke, for…Film # 311 of the 13% challenge
Directed by Shirley Clarkebeautiful cinematography and captivating story but so little room for women which is disappointed for a woman director
In 35MM at the NW Film Center.
A starkly beautiful portrait of a specific time and place (Harlem in the 60s) that captures so much using so little. I’m glad this got a restoration and I encourage people to seek it out.
[Isabelle Huppert voice]
Shirley ClarkeMMKAY
Pretty strong noir looking at the struggles of a teenage black boy growing up in the ghetto. The persistent jazz layers well with Clarke's volatile and loose camera style.
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The Cool World is a shocking portrait of street life in 1960's America.By no means is this film a glorification of street life that is so common today in American pop culture. The viewer will see in this film how ugly crime is especially these characters who are driven to commit crimes because of the desperate, depressed situations of the ghetto. The character of Duke searches throughout this movie for a gun to own as almost a way to arm himself against the failures that surround him daily such as rat infested tenements, garbage filled streets, drugs, pimps, prostitutes, gangs, and over zealous cops.
If John Cassevetes is considered the new phase of film making that occurred in the late 1950's with his superb film 'Shadows' then Shirley Clarke is his female counterpart. Shirley Clarke masterfully merges documentary footage and Jazz music to the actual film that creates somewhat of a frightening, haunting, realistic portrait of urban America that I feel has not been seen very much in cinema since 'The Cool World'. It is interesting to note that actors Clarence Williams III, Antonio Fargas, Gloria Foster, and Peter De Anda who appeared in this film went on to make great strides of achievement in both film and television in the 1970's.
'The Cool World' is shown in many film festivals across the country. Unfortunately it is not on video, but someday I hope it will be for the world to see. I rate this movie **** excellent.
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The Cool World is a very much not a Hollywood looking film with fast moving, up close, scenes. Dark yellow hued interior scenes capture the true feeling of the dwellings of the gang members. Shirley Clarke has taken us into The Cool World.
Little known trivia, is that Wally Cox's wife acted in this film. Another little known piece of trivia is that, since she lived in the Chelsea Hotel during the time that Sid Vicious also lived there, Shirley Clarke was a consultant on the film Sid and Nancy.
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In New York at this time Cassavetes and many other filmmakers were doing films outside of the Hollywood system and tried to tell a different kind of film.
Shirley Clarke was definitely a part of this filmmovement using and deploying the same kind of style, tone and content.
This socialrealistic, gritty, dramadocumentary about street life in Harlem in 60's seen from a very young African American male by the name of Duke who joins a gang called the Pythons and starts waging a war against a rival gang called the Wolfs, is interesting albeit very flawed film experience.
At times this film is reminiscent of Cassavetes but being a very flawed film, the use of stock footage, voice-over, improvisational acting, etc means that Clarke sometimes ends up being a protegé to b-moviemaker Doris Wishman.
It may seem odd that I'm comparing the two but at times these two filmmakers seem to have a lot in common.
At best this film comes across as very dark, realistic portrayal of inner city youth crime in 60's. The film doesn't shy away from drugabuse, prostitution, interracial relationships etc.
Strangely, this film hasn't been released on DVD nor have Criterion, Masters of cinema etc released her films in a DVD box.
Shirley Clarke should get that treatment, she deserves it. And this film should be seen by more people interested in early American independent cinema.
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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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'When I got to Hollywood, all the movie moguls claimed to be astounded by the reality of my films. How did I do it? And I'd say, 'Well, it wasn't hard to make Harlem look like Harlem'. So responded writer and director Shirley Clarke (Portrait of Jason) in response of mainstream Hollywood filmmakers, recognized as one of the leading independent filmmakers of the early 60's American cinema through this 'fictional documentary'. We watch the youth yearning to aspire in possessing a weapon, but money hinders this as he is willing to face any crucial means to get one in the cold, heartless streets of the slums made up of pimps, guns and juvenile crime. He sees the piece as a means of escape and dreams of becoming respected once he has one in his hands. The film can also be seen as an antagonizing semi-documentary as well, exploring the harsh life in the ghetto for what it really is with drugs, blood and violence therein to show the audience that this indeed a real existence for these people every day. Rarely shown and screened, due to the home DVD-challenged producer Frederick Wiseman, it still remains a reverberating lament of the angst and frustrations of youth rebellion caged within the tortured souls of the individuals making up the only world they know bent on implosion; the inner devastation of crying for a way out only to fall upon deaf ears as the hearts of everyone else burns for the same reason. With brilliant editing, an electric score by Mal Waldron, a memorable trip to Coney Island and a powerhouse ending with gunfire and abusive cops, 'The Cool World' is indeed a shock of reality regarding American segregation. One will not be entertained but feel as if they have earned something more, after seeing the human spirit arise within the being of our main character. Devastating but nowhere further from the truth, 'The Cool World' delivers a vivid picture of inner city life unabashedly with day-to-day desperation, gang wars, and not always guaranteeing nor promising a tangible way out of the metropolitan jungle of crime and fear, leading film critic Judith Christ to described it as a 'loud and powerful outcry of outrage at the world society has created for the Harlem youngsters, and at the human condition of the slum ghetto.' If you can find a copy, and don't scare easily, I implore you not to miss out on this must-see hallmark of 60's independent cinema that truly emanates a relentless Harlem but even more so the willingness and hope to survive.
The Cool World 1963 Download Movie
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