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Higher Learning (1995)

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119 comments in total

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56 out of 64 people found the following comment useful :-
Am I insane or . . ., 9 November 2003

Author: John

Maybe I'm crazy, but the exact things that everyone seems to find wrong with the movie are the things that I think makes it good. Like everyone was saying that all of the white characters are bad and all of the black characters are good, when that is apparently not the case. Why does Remy become a skinhead? Because the black guys in his dorm rejected, humiliated, and belittled him. In a way they drove him to it. Who's to blame here? In no way does Singleton let the black characters off the hook here. Many of them are portrayed as violent and irrational. Omar Epps's character is good example of where Singleton points out another dangerous attitude that has nothing to do with white people. The character thought the world owed him a break because he was black and underprivileged and the teacher is the one to call him on it. Or as someone in a another post pointed out, sorry to quote you, "Black self-pity," which the film does not excuse, but rather addresses with the same skepticism as it does the more generic issues everyone else seems to be concentrating on (racism, neo-naziism, date rape, lesbian cults.) So ask yourself, did this film genuinely leave you with the impression that it glorifies the behvoir of certain characters based on their race? Or is it maybe just that since the director is black you have a preconceived notion that he will be partial to the black characters?

So where a lot of people seem to think the message is black=good white=evil, I see it as It doesn't matter who's wrong and who's right because we need to put our differences aside and get along (almost equally clichee, I know, but still a different message entirely) Signed, white dude

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29 out of 35 people found the following comment useful :-
Must have seen a different movie, 6 May 2002
Author: Basilisk-6 from Derby, England

I must have been watching a different movie to most of the people adding comments. I didn't see it as a film portraying African Americans as good and whites as bad but as a film in which all the factions were shown to have good and bad sides. Even the guy who becomes the Nazi skinhead was portrayed sympathetically in as much as he is clearly out of his depth in a social situation and becomes a recruit because only the skinheads will accept him when no-one else will. Overall, the African Americans come out as the most sympathetic but not by much.

I agree there are some fairly silly stereotypes, especially Fishburne's character, but they work in the context of the movie. Most refreshing was the fact that an American college is portrayed as a place with real issues like racism and date rape and drunken behaviour. It's refreshing because colleges are usually shown as places where nice middle-class kids never have any problem bigger than being dumped by their boyfriends before everything is resolved in the last reel.

An overly maligned movie. Not perfect but better than a million other college movies. Loved the ending too.

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19 out of 22 people found the following comment useful :-
Well-Rounded View of Extreme Points of View, 11 December 2004

Author: jrfranklin01 from Palm Beach, FL

The film's design seems to be the alpha and omega of some of the major issues in this country (U.S.). We see relationships all over at the university setting for the film. Befittingly, the obvious of student v.s. teacher is present. But what the film adds to its value is its other relationships: male v.s. female, white v.s. black, and the individual v.s. society. But most important of all and in direct relation to all of the other relationships is the individual v.s. himself.

I was amazed at how bilateral a point of view the director gave to showing the race relations on campus. Most films typically show the injustices of one side while showing the suffering of the other. This film showed the injustices and suffering of both sides. It did not attempt to show how either was right, although I would say the skin heads were shown a much crueler and vindictive (quite obvious towards the end). The film also discusses sex and rape. It is ironically this injustice that in some ways brings the two races together, for a time. Lawrence Fishburne does an over-the-top performance as the sagacious Profesor Phipps. He crumbles the idea of race favortism and instead shows the parallelism of the lazy and down-trodden with the industrious and positive. Other stars that make this film are Omar Epps, Ice Cube, and Jennifer Connelly. Michael Rapaport gives an excellent portrayal of a confused youth with misplaced anger who is looking for acceptance. Tyra Banks make her film debut and proves supermodels can act.

Higher Learning gets its name in showing college as more than going to class and getting a piece of paper. In fact, I would say the film is almost a satire in showing students interactions with each other, rather than some dry book, as the real education at a university. It is a life-learning process, not a textual one. I think you'll find "Higher Learning" is apropos to the important issues at many universities and even life in general. 8/10

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26 out of 43 people found the following comment useful :-
A muddled mix of stereotypes and paper thin characters in a filmthat mistakenly thinks it is deep and insightful, 13 July 2003
Author: bob the moo from Birmingham, UK

Columbus University is one of the finest in America. Into this place of higher learning comes a mix of students to join the already multicultural pot. Malik is a black track star who feels he is disadvantaged as he has to run and study, while others only have to run. Remy is a white teenager who is forced out of his dorm by his black roommate and finds friendship in an extreme group. Kristen is a young female who struggles to make friends and is assaulted by a man before falling in with a women's group. Their experiences intertwine in the small campus.

If anyone wonders why director John Singleton (he of Boyz n' the Hood) is now making things like 2Fast2Furious, this is as good a place to start looking as anywhere. After an assured start with Boyz, the director made a couple of films that had potential but just came out muddled or lacking something to make them work. Poetic Justice was one of them and this was another. Higher Learning had potential and you can see that it's heart is in the right place but it doesn't come off at all. The plot tries to be a mix of experiences but, because there are three or so characters up front, there is no time to develop them so their experiences are broad cultural brush strokes - the white kid sucked into extremism, the raped girl taken into lesbianism, the black man who has to work harder for everything.

As a result the plot never really engages and it all just goes where you expect it to go - and is less impacting as a result of it's plodding nature. This spills over into the characters too - they are all pretty much stereotypes that fit into their scenario rather than real characters. Singleton shows is bias in his direction and character selection. My wife said something about me watching a lot of `black' films in the past week and I said Higher Learning was not dominated by any one race - but I think I was wrong. Singleton clearly likes the characters played by Busta Rhymes, Ice Cube and Epps - they are cool and put upon where other characters (races) have fewer kind touches placed on them. Personally I thought every character had huge chips on their shoulders about their identity - but the African American characters are the only ones that are held up for praise in relation to their chips!

Having said that I did think Epps did OK - he made a lifeless character a little more interesting. Banks however is as one dimensional as I have grown to expect from her. Rapaport looks very young indeed but he does well. His character is lazily drawn and developed, but he manages to make him a little human - which took work looking at the film as a finished product. Swanson is too dippy and light - but then all the lesbian characters seem to be painted in a weird sort of light. Ice Cube and Busta Rhymes give extended cameos which require them to deliver their rap personas of thugz - they are laughably clichéd! Fishburne adds gravitas as he always does, but he has little to do and is given not only a poor accent, but also some `deep' dialogue that just sounds pretentious or like a fortune cookie.

Overall I saw what this film was trying to do but it didn't manage it. It was ambitious, but the wide spread meant that none of the plots or characters were allowed to develop and instead were left as hollow, broad stereotypes and scenarios. The film tries to go all deep and the final shot of the word `unlearn' against an American flag just feels like Singleton must have thought that he had been making incredibly profound points the whole time - instead it felt that his original idea had had a deeper point, but it was totally lost in delivery.

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5 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
Good film. shows its all about perspective, 4 February 2007

Author: Killakai from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

First one has to take into account the time period this film was made in. 1995. Rappers were in it, and that added to the flair of it.

Remy was a socially awkward teen trying to find his way and couldn't, until he met and was befriended by Nazis. They took him in. Nazi's aren't all this awkward, but like most gangs, they fill a void that is missing be it economic, social, emotional, whatever. Michael Rappaport played the part perfectly.

Omar Epps was the hot shot track star, with a questionable work ethic and a chip on his shoulder. He kept trying to feel sorry for himself and his plight, and had his girlfriend and professor to straighten him out on it.

Kristen was a young white girl trying to find herself and trying to fit in, until she was date raped. She then found her self experiment with her sexuality, and getting involved politically.

This film deals with racism and like most things that deal with racism, people's own perspectives come into play.

I read so many comments about how there were no 'evil' black characters but there were evil white one (Nazis). So what? Remy wasn't portrayed as evil at all, he was trying to find his way, and kept failing until some skinheads accepted him. He was scared, it was sad to see him devolve how he did. He even says right before he kills himself, I didn't mean it, I wanted to be an engineer.

Ice Cube and Busta Rhymes were angry black men, Ice Cube was somewhat of an intellectual, and Busta Rhymes was just portrayed as a dumb thug. They both showed no consideration at all for their roommates, and generally appear to not like white people very much. They were angry like the Nazis but not on the level of Nazis in terms of overall badness. Sorry if this makes it seem unfair, but are there really black groups like the Nazis? No.

People say it shows white=-bad black=good. Not true, the only bad white characters were the Nazis and the police, which is more or less true in real life. Kristen was a good girl, her boyfriend (omar epps roommate) was a good guy, and even Remy was a good guy, he was just misguided.

Omar Epps, Ice Cube and Busta were seriously flawed characters, angry and inconsiderate. Although their constant harassment by police seemed to justify some of their anger. Remy's inability to fit in seemed to justify his anger as well.

Good movie, well done. Like all movies that deal with racism, its a great piece to get a discussion going.

I don't think Cube and Busta coulda beat those Nazis though.

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13 out of 21 people found the following comment useful :-
Underrated! Finally an intelligent film about racism, 27 June 2003

Author: FlorisV from Netherlands

John Singleton's finest film, before blockbuster wannabees like the Shaft remake, this is a thought-provoking movie with overall great acting and superb balance between the stories 3 main characters, each with identifiable youngster problems.

What I liked about it most is that it also covers the problem of selfpity among young blacks, a problem mostly ignored by the media and other films who mostly focus on social-economical problems and racism by whites. This movie shows that blacks can be equally ignorant and racist.

The masterful thing about this film is that it deals with so many topics without getting shallow. It's not just about racism, but about how hard it can be to adopt to a new world (college), date rape, discovering sexuality and isolation. Omar Epps, Michael Rapaport and Kristy Swanson each deliver fine performances, and the supporting cast is equally interesting with Jennifer Connelly as a lez (yay) and with Ice Cube and Busta Rhymes as college bums causing little riots.

The only negative is the caricature of a professor by Laurence Fishburne ("Peppermint?"). Surely, plenty of professors are nutty. But they're not as flat. The skinheads are also a bit of a caricature, but I guess they are like that too in real life.

Overall a great underrated piece of filmwork, if you liked American History X you'll love this one.

8,5 out of 10

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5 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
John Singleton proves he ain't the colored Kubrick., 10 January 2004
Author: turing77 from United States

I had to watch this film in college as part of a freshman interest group. It is a pretty simplistic morality play, limned, appropriately enough, in black and white. The actions and behaviors of the characters don't conform with reality or even a semblance thereof, and are, instead, walking, talking props for Singleton, here in high didactic mode (which wouldn't be so bad if there was a coherent message). Among the actors, Michael Rapaport, wigger extraordinaire (he and Danny Hoch must alternate roles), delivers a decent performance, though Kristy Swanson is a cipher (no wonder she ended up doing shark movies on TBS). Omar Epps is appealing, but Ice Cube comes off as an obnoxious jackass (perhaps he wasn't acting). One thing that disturbed me about the film was the misogyny, manifested in a "hierarchy of oppressions", whereby a racial epithet is deemed more injurious than a rape. (Singleton, it should be mentioned, was convicted of spousal assault.) A bad movie overall, but if you really want to see the worst of Singleton, I would suggest Rosewood. (I won't count 2Fast2Furious, Singleton's foray into hackwork.)

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5 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
You'd be surprised (that this is a good portrayal). . ., 15 December 2003

Author: MovieBuffMarine from Nova

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Of life in (some) colleges. Of course there were artistic licenses taken, but some of what you saw in this film go on in some colleges.

I went to colleges in Southern California where the races pretty much hang around with their own. It's funny because these are schools that want racial unity, equality etc. and I can honestly say, that it's there. But the thing is when class lets out, or when they're just hanging out waiting for class, they (students) seem to just hang around with people of their own race or ethnicity. Is that bad? Not really. Everyone needs a feeling of belonging. But like the school paper of one of the schools I attended once wrote about that, "we should all try to hang around with students of other ethnicities and try to know them." Otherwise you're creating your own segregation.

Racism certainly existed in one of those schools I attended. One time someone put leaflets around campus talking about the glories of the Aryan Race and had the symbols of some of those racist organizations. Fortunately, nothing happened like the incident in the movie where the young Caucasian man went off and started shooting at a multiculturalism gathering.

I can only hope and pray that nothing like that ever will happen.

So is "Higher Learning" overly dramatic? Exaggerated? Maybe. Is it way "off mark?" It depends on where you went to or go to school. The race thing where the ethnicities just hang around with their own DOES happen. Minus the Hollywood exaggerations, the race thing hit pretty close to home for me.

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3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
exaggerated... or is it?, 13 December 2005

Author: jon144k

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

*** SPOILERS ***

this movie always seems very exaggerated, until i remember that my college campus had a former-student-turned-Nazi-racist-killer-who-then-committed-suicide, too: his name was Benjamin Nathaniel Smith.

look him up in the wikipedia- i added a few photos to their article about him.

it's hard to believe, but this stuff really does happen.

i'm not a big fan of Omar Epps or Ice Cube, but Larry Fishburne, Kristy Swanson, Jennifer Connelly & Mike Rappaport were good.

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9 out of 15 people found the following comment useful :-
This film needs to get some "higher learning"...avoid it, 29 November 2004

Author: 4_ToN_MaNtiS from Manchester, England

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

MINOR SPOILERS!

Well i just sat up late and watched this film, mainly because i enjoyed and rated some of Singleton's earlier work like "Boyz n the hood". However, i have to say this was a major disappointment and is everything i hate about contrived, clichéd, so-called "message" movies.

The acting is mainly poor,(pop stars and models do NOT necessarily make good actors...take note), the situations hard to swallow, (rape victim becomes overnight lesbian?...please!), but worst of all it reinforces every screwed up stereotype you can think of. By the second half of the film it has become cartoon like in its characterisation, making you lose any shred of empathy you may have had for its one-dimensional players.

Not once is any valid point made about the inherent causes of racism and cultural, sexual and political ignorance. As a result it merely ends up sensationalising the results of these problems. It's message is contradictory, resulting in a sense of confusion and a general lack of plot cohesion. As for the films conclusion i found it predictable, embarrassing, exploitative and mildly offensive. For a film called "Higher Learning" i have to say all i learned is to avoid seeing this ever again.

If you want a true comment on some of the themes that this film completely fails to elaborate upon then go hire "American History X"....unless you were just watching it for Tyra Banks then go hire a life.

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