School Daze

This film dealt with a lot of inner conflicts that African-Americans where unwilling to deal with at the time. Class struggles, light skinned vs. dark skinned and greeks vs. non-greeks. I just purchased it on DVD, but I remember seeing this film when it first came out in February of 1988 and it is just as powerful and entertaining now as it was then. It's amazing to look at this film now and see all of the actors who went on to successful careers afterwards, like Laurence(then Larry) Fishburne, Tisha Campbell, Giancarlo Esposito, Roger Guenveur Smith, Kadeem Hardison, Jasmine Guy, Darryl Bell, Rusty Cundieff(director of "Tales From The Hood"), Bill Nunn, Branford Marsalis, and of course I can't forget Samuel L. Jackson. Three years after this film came out a cousin from Seattle came to visit, I showed him this film and he was surprised to discover that there were actually historically black colleges and universities(HBCU's) in this country. He later attended Southern University here in Baton Rouge. That was the effect this film had and continues to have on young African-Americans and their views of HBCU's.

I pray that racism isn't the reason this film has such a low rating on here.

I'm a black college student who used to be in a white fraternity and this film is actually fairly accurate to the ideas those organizations promote.

The acting is stellar, Laurence Fishburne, Giancarlo Esposito, Tisha Champbell, and Spike Lee steal the show but as much effort is put into almost every supporting role.

The cinematography is done pretty well, not flawless but as a film buff I appreciated it. The music is awesome and keeps you engaged, it really serves as a nice break for the more dramatic scenes.

The storyline is overall about finding yourself in college which is a very difficult task and even more difficult now in the age of social media.

The only complaint I had about this film is that the actors don't really look like college students, but it's minuscule in comparison to the film's themes.

I would recommend this film, but the primary audience is adults and I would keep high school students away from this film unless they're exceptionally mature for their age.

Go into School Daze with an open mind and be prepared for a powerful film that sticks in your mind well after your initial viewing.

So what if you went to Harvard and not Hampton, this film is still well-shot, well-acted and damn funny. If you can't understand the light vs. dark, town vs. gown, Greeks vs. GDI conflicts, maybe you don't... under... stand... English... well. I never saw the movie in its entirety until I was about 20 (and pledging at an HBCU, but that's another story) but it just got better as I got older. This movie is like many of Spike's: it's for a group of people (Black ones) that rarely get to tell their own stories. If other people get it, super. On a sidenote, what's so "universal" about Dirty Dancing? I've never had to drop out of a contest because of my botched abortion that Lenny from Law & Order had to come help me out with. I've also never been a small, Jewish man in New York City, but people seem to find Woody Allen's movies "universal" enough. Why don't these issues come up with movies made by whi... (ahem) other filmmakers?

Spike Lee's School Daze is an interesting film, one that reveals the struggle of black society in the 1980's. This was the time period when they were struggling to keep their head afloat in this world despite the civil rights movement some decades before. This film has many flaws, but it's not a letdown thanks to the clear message Spike Lee was able to bring across. The opening of this film is powerful as Lee is showing the history of his people and the end.....well it came out of nowhere but I think it's rightly justified.

Spike Lee's film takes place at a historically black college during homecoming weekend and it's about how the sororities and the fraternities clash against each other.

The acting is decent: nothing to rave home about, but nothing to be ashamed of either. Laurence Fishburne may have had the best role as the revolutionary leader who wants to change how his school is ran.

Overall, School Daze is very interesting and it sends the message to America and more specifically to black people, to wake up and be proud of their heritage. These morals are a strong presence throughout the film and quite frankly, they elevate the movie. For the music itself, it's quite enjoyable though some songs are a tad too long. Kudos to Spike Lee for going somewhere that directors rarely go. I rate this film 8/10.

There are things I liked about "School Daze." In particular, there was the scene near the end of the film between Giancarlo Esposito's Julian and his girlfriend. It's when he breaks up with her for sleeping with another student, all the while completely aware that he made her do it. I've actually seen guys do this -- trick their girlfriends into doing something that, later on, they can use as cause to dump them -- and the reality of the scene carried such a raw, emotional weight that it nearly derailed the rest of the film.

"School Daze" is, first and foremost, a period piece of 1980s pop culture. Many of the sequences, especially the ones requiring dancing and choreography, are hopelessly dated, like early break-dancing videos.

Dated is okay, as long as there are other elements to counterbalance its datedness. Example: "All That Jazz" is a relic of Bob Fosse's toxic, overindulgent mind, a '70s time capsule item. However, the untouchable authority and supreme confidence he brought to it, along with the visual beauty, and the letter-perfect performances, made up for any drawbacks, and then some. "...Jazz" went from silly to sublime inside of sixty seconds.

Lee's direction is alarmingly hesitant and amateurish, giving no hint of the originality, vitality, and sheer genius he would display in his later films. It's certainly difficult to believe he made this film between "She's Gotta Have It" and "Do the Right Thing." His editing is sloppy, his staging is slapdash, and the performances from his actors and actresses range from sleepy to histrionic. The stories lose their punch through careless juggling, and the illogical "Wake Up!" scene at the end is unearned and unwarranted. Most disappointing of all, the thing I value his films for most -- his constant pushing of the cinematic envelope in all sorts of unexpected ways -- is all but totally absent.

I love most of Lee's films. I'll go so far as to say that he's one of the last risk-takers left in the business (Stanley Kubrick is dead, Quentin Tarantino is MIA, and anything done by Spielberg, God love him, automatically becomes non-risk). His "Do the Right Thing" is as good as any other film released in the '80s. The best thing I can say about this one is: I'm glad he got it out of his system.