Product Details

• Actors: Laurence Fishburne, Giancarlo Esposito, Tisha Campbell-Martin, Kyme, Joe Seneca
• Directors: Spike Lee
• Writers: Spike Lee
• Producers: Spike Lee, Grace Blake, Loretha C. Jones, Monty Ross
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Sony Pictures
• VHS Release Date: January 7, 1997
• Run Time: 121 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (56 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302272602
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #246,843 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Spike Lee's follow-up to his unlikely hit She's Gotta Have It was this ambitious--some would say too ambitious--attempt at a musical about college life. But Lee, ever the provocateur, doesn't settle for a simple college comedy. Rather, he wants to make a point about the social divisions within all-black colleges: between the socializers and the socially conscious, and between light and dark-skinned blacks. Laurence Fishburne plays a politically aware student trying to bring his fellow students together; Giancarlo Esposito plays the fraternity boss who constantly seeks to insert a wedge between the haves and have-nots. Lee himself plays a pawn in the middle, a would-be frat boy undergoing a wicked Hell Week as a pledge. The story doesn't pull together and the musical numbers--more spoof than anything else--only serve to fragment it. While it offers interesting points, it never does so in a particularly cohesive way. --Marshall Fine

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

54 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One of Lee's Best, January 25, 2001

By 

Catharsise (Washington, D.C., District of Columbia United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: School Daze (DVD)

I once heard on a TV talk show that you don't have to be a parent to know about kids. This was uttered by a single female with tons of doctorate credentials. As I listened, having kids of my own, I found her comments clinical and devoid of those fundamentals any parent experiences during daily contact with their offspring. I subsequently disregarded most of her observations with the exception of the obvious. Some things do have to be experienced. With that said, Spike Lee's School Daze had to be experienced to really appreciate the social comments being made. Being a graduate of Howard University (an Afro-American college since federal inception) in Washington, D.C., I could readily identify with the life and social levels depicted. This movie is FUBU (For Us By Us). The distinction between light skinned and dark skinned, "good hair" and "kinks", "Greeked" (Fraternity/Sorority) and outsiders, upper-class, middle-class and no-class, may be lost in an already segmented society. However, it hits home to anyone (irregardless of ethnic background) who has attended historically rooted colleges and universiies. The voluntary (and involuntary!) sub-segmentation on campus is real and extant. Spike Lee's direction, musical scenes and comedic comment, gives us a laugh at these really stupid concepts. Laurence Fishburne as usual gives an excellent performance as a politically aware student, trying to change a system that cannot be changed, and personally changing because of it. Spike Lee plays his usual "Baby, baby, pleaseee baby, baby" self-depreciating character caught-up in fraternity life but willing to play for the perceived rewards of acceptance. Giancarlo Esposito is the fraternity leader and movie antagonist bent maintaining class/segment separation. Tisha Campbell (Martin - TV show co-star) plays Esposito's "girlfriend" and gives an excellent performance as a "have" who is victimized by her own would-be ascension and maintenance of same. This movie demonstrates our society's nature for congregation by segregation as we matriculate through a "Black" college and the surrounding urban community. View this movie with an inquisitive mind and you'll find it a very entertaining movie. View it with a similar background and it will haunt you. On a lighter note, of all the musical numbers one of my favorite scenes is the talent show when Tisha Campbell belts out a soul-stirring song so strong I want to "play" (read blast) it every summer when the weather is hot, the windows are rolled-down and the world is out.

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Tough Pill to Swallow, April 10, 2001

By 

"dred_steel" (Bolingbrook, IL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: School Daze (DVD)

As an African American, fraternity member I found this movie not only entertaining, but also convicting. Being a man of Omega (those familiar with the Black Greek system know what I mean) I was a little offended by Gamma Phi Gamma's dipiction of the "dogs." More often than once I felt he was referring to the "dogs of Purple and Gold." Yet, once I got beyond my petty sensitivities, Lee's underlying critique of the social ills plaguing the African American community revolving around issues of social consciousness, skin color, hair texture, education, etc., made this movie provocative and challenging. Also, it's depiction of homecoming, pledging, parties and general "college life" made for an entertaining walk down memory lane. I found his attempt at making this a musical production to be somewhat forced, although the lyrics of the songs were pointedly appropriate.

I may not completely agree with Lee's conclusion concerning the advantages (or disadvantages) of participating in the Black Greek System. However, I appreciate his candid attempt to "tell it like it is." My mother used to say, "Don't air the dirty laundry in public." This is exactly what Lee has done, and unfortunately it is about time.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars College Life From The Black Perspective, September 30, 2000

By 

G. J Wiener (Westchester, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: School Daze [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I have seen this film a few times. Although parts of it are a bit overdone, it basically shows that African Americans each have varying views on their own identity. The scene in the fast food restaurant where the locals and the the college kids clash shows that even African Americans have issues amongst each other. African Americans just like any other race or religious group need to accept each others differences and get along. Spike Lee and Lawrence Fishbourne give excellent portrayals of two conflicting characters in this movie and send a very powerful message especially in the final scene.