School Daze (1988)

I was very young and naive when I first saw this movie. I was a young innocent kid who never even thought about going to college. But I bought this movie on DVD, 17 years after it originally came out. After I completed 5 1/2 years of college at a non HBCU, I understand it better. Once again, Laurence Fishburne was type-casted in this movie. He always plays the guy that knows it all. Spike Lee once again put himself in one of his movies. Most of the Different World cast was in this movie. Tisha Campbell was a very old 18 year old girl in this movie. Tisha's character was a gullible fool in this movie. She licked the guy's head! She also cried over that fool after she was dumped for sleeping with Spike Lee! Jasmine Guy looked as good then as she does today! This movie proves how ignorant men who pledge to fraternities really are. Take the blinders off your eyes! Hazing really occurs in college like the hazing these guys experienced in this movie! It is just not reported. I was amazed to see Tyra Ferrell as a jigaboo instead of a wannabe. If you want to see a great Spike Lee movie, keep looking. But if you want to see a good Spike Lee movie, watch School Daze.

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.

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.