School Daze (1988)

I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

This movie is a mess. Hardly anything works. There are too many story lines going on with no clear direction or focus to it. It is a crude mishmash of story lines, all of which are equally uninteresting. School Daze is Spike Lee's second feature film. It is set at the fictional black college Mission University where there are two opposing groups of students who can't accept the differences between each other. Laurence Fishburne plays an unpopular student who opposes pledging to fraternities in a school where that kind of thing is the social norm. The most prestigious of these fraternities is the Gamma Phi Gamma fraternity which Spike Lee's character, Half Pint, is trying to become a part of. There are many other story lines about other underdeveloped characters, but in the end I got no entertainment out of a single one so they are hardly worth noting or remembering.School Daze is a poorly stirred mixture of genres that confuses more than entertains. It is dominated by aspects of drama with some unfunny comedy mixed in. The jokes for the most part aren't even amusing and the drama is useless and uninteresting. Oh yeah and it's also a musical. I knew almost nothing about this film going into other than the fact that it was a Spike Lee film, so I engaged in some hefty head scratching when the first musical number kicked in about 25 minutes into the film, which should be a big no no in the musical genre. School Daze is the only musical I can think of that doesn't open with a big production number. However, what songs there are in this film are sparse and unmemorable. All the dance numbers seem awkward and every song feels out of place. I think this film could have done slightly better if the musical aspect had been dropped completely. The songs appear at the most random and scattered moments of the film and contribute nothing to the film, story wise or artistically.Honestly, School Daze is a pretty boring film. Nothing much happens and scene after scene makes the film as a whole feel more pointless and misguided. I felt like I was accomplishing nothing by watching this film, which can be OK as long as the film has some entertainment value, which School Daze has none of. The film supposedly has a deep seated and heartfelt message about African American relations, but I didn't feel this at all until the cheesy and abrupt ending of the film where I once again proceeded to scratch my head in confusion. Maybe I missed some of the more important aspects of the film amidst my boredom, but it was hard to stay mildly interested in these mediocre characters and dull story lines.Overall I can respect Spike Lee for trying to make an important and relevant film, but the execution of his idea went horribly wrong. I couldn't get into this movie at all. There was nothing interesting about School Daze. It was a jumbled mess of story lines and characters that had little motivation or development. There were times when a certain character that we hadn't spent any time previously developing would all of the sudden pop up and be important. But really everything towards the end of this film didn't resonate with me in any way because I was already fed up with the movie and wanted nothing more than for it to end. I truly wanted to enjoy this film, but it was just impossible. School Daze was a major disappointment.

School Daze is billed as a musical comedy but is better described as a comedy-drama with musical numbers as commentary--the only non-diegetic number is "Good and Bad Hair," Lee's all-girl fantasy homage to West Side Story that addresses colorism between the "paper bag-light" sorority Gamma Rays and the darker activist girls. Ebert wrote that this was the first movie he'd seen in a while where the black characters relate to each other instead of a hypothetical white audience--it is this that gives the movie its engrossing authenticity. (If it matters, I'm white.) As funny as the movie can be, it's also incredibly hard-hitting--there's a sequence in the last 20 minutes where Julian, "Big Brother Al-migh-tee," insists his girlfriend "prove" her love, that's almost unwatchable and yet brutally honest. Lee has been called sexist for his underwritten female characters--there may be some truth to that but School Daze is far more critical of the men than the women. Rachel, Dap's girlfriend, is perhaps the most levelheaded, likable character in the movie, and is strong and supportive of Dap while still maintaining her independence. Even the Gamma Rays, who come off as shallow and colorist in the beginning, are sympathetic as they stand up for and try to aid the pledges during hazing. The characters who come off the worst are the GPG brothers who are, almost to a man, brutish, sadistic and crude. Julian in particular is unredeemable--clever, manipulative and almost sociopathic in his treatment of Jane. Lee supposedly based the movie on his observations at Morehouse and the movie stands as a scathing indictment against the black fraternity system and its abuse of the women's auxiliaries (aka "Little Sisters").The movie has structural weaknesses (the ending is problematic and seems to come out of nowhere although it fits thematically) but its biggest problem is Lee's flat performance as Half-Pint (and, frankly, he looks a little too old for it). I love Lee's movies but his early tendency to cast himself in major roles was a real weakness--he's just not a good enough actor and his performance always jerks me out of the story. The rest of the cast is fantastic, though, especially Tisha Campbell as Jane and Giancarlo Esposito as Julian. Notice must also be given to Bill Lee's wonderful score. Ultimately it's a movie whose heart and imagination overcome its flaws.

When this movie first came out I was six years old. From then on I would see it from time to time, but wasn't aware of what School Daze was about. Until I decided to go to an HBCU,then I knew exactly what the meaning of this movie was all about. If you have never attended an HBCU, you can't get the full effect of what this movie is saying. This movie gives you just enough of an HBCU. School Daze is special to me because it was filmed in the AUC, where I attended Dear ol Morris Brown College. This is one out of two of my favorite black college movies, Drumline is my other favorite black college movie which was also filmed in the AUC and which I was apart of.

This was the best black college movie of all time! This movie went places that know other college movie to this date have yet to explore. I was eight when I first saw this movie and the message that Spike was making was over my head at the time I viewed this movie, but his message is still a point for our people today. I every once in awhile will set down to look at this great movie and come up with things to talk about with others. This movie made me want to attend a HBCU and I did Delaware State University and I even joined a frat. This movie comes with my highest recommendation. If you missed the message in the movie, its over your head and you need to watch it again.