School Daze
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School Daze is a 1988 musical-drama film, written and directed by Spike Lee. This movie stars Laurence Fishburne, Giancarlo Esposito, and Tisha Campbell. Based in part on Spike Lee's experiences at Atlanta's Morehouse College, it is a story about fraternity and sorority members clashing with other students at a historically black college during homecoming weekend. School Daze was the second feature film directed by Spike Lee.
Plot summary
Dap Dunlap (portrayed by Laurence Fishburne) is a politically conscious African American student who leads anti-apartheid demonstrations encouraging students and school administrators to completely divest from South Africa. He also eschews the buffoonery and social climbing of the Greek fraternal system. Dap's craven younger cousin, Half-Pint (portrayed by Spike Lee), is pledging Gamma Phi Gamma (also known as G-Phi-G or simply G-Phi) fraternity and is willing to endure any humiliation to join the fraternity. While Half-Pint tries unsuccessfully to impress the Gammas with his inept womanizing, Dap engages in philosophical debates with Rachel (Kyme), his girlfriend, as well as other Mission students.
Half-Pint eventually survives the pledge initiation and joins G-Phi. Shortly afterwards, his house president Julian (portrayed by Giancarlo Esposito) manipulated his girlfriend Jane (portrayed by Tisha Campbell) to prove her love to him. He brings Jane to Half-Pint (whom he discovered was a virgin during pledge) and tells him, in order to become an official Gamma man, he must lose his virginity by having sex with Jane. After Half-Pint's last test, Julian ruthlessly breaks up with Jane, claiming she loved Gamma Phi Gamma and not him. After Half-Pint brags to Dap about his episode with Jane, Dap loses all respect for him and shoves him away, declaring "You're not my cousin!" The movie ends the following morning, with Dap running through the campus and to the middle of the school courtyard, yelling "Wake up!"
Throughout the film, the light-skinned, straight-haired African American women of Gamma Ray (a women's auxiliary to the Gamma Phi Gamma fraternity) battle it out with their darker-skinned, Afro-headed fellow co-eds. The students at Mission College also battle with the local unemployed and uneducated people living around the campus, who resent the Mission student for taking all of the good jobs.
Musical performances are throughout, including the production "Straight and Nappy", "Be Alone Tonight" performed by Campbell (as Jane Toussaint and her Royal Court), and a dis-fest between the Wannabes and Jigaboos on campus. The go-go anthem "Da Butt" is performed by the group E.U. during the after-party for the Gammites.
Cast
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Trivia
- Supporting cast members Kadeem Hardison, Jasmine Guy, and Darryl M. Bell also co-starred on the television sitcom A Different World, which presents another look at college life on a predominantly African-American campus. Dominic Hoffman and Roger Guenveur Smith, who portray Gamma pledges, had recurring roles on the series.
- The fight scene at the end of the fraternity step show was not scripted.
- Vanessa Williams was originally considered for the role of "Jane Toussaint." However, Spike Lee was so impressed by Tisha Campbell's singing performance in Little Shop of Horrors (1986) that she got the part.
- Spike Lee had the actors stay in separate hotels during filming. The actors playing the "wannabes" had better accommodations than the ones playing the "jigaboos", which contributed to the on-camera animosity between the two camps.
- In the surreal final scene of School Daze, Dap Dunlap pleads with the other characters (and the audience) to "Wake Up!" This exhortation is repeated by Mister Señor Love Daddy (Samuel L. Jackson) at the beginning of Do the Right Thing.
- Branford Marsalis, who plays "Jordam", performed many of the saxophone solos in the film's score.
- Spike Lee was kicked off the campuses of Morehouse, Spelman, and Clark Atlanta University during filming because the colleges' Boards of Directors had concerns on how Historically Black Colleges were being portrayed in the film. Lee had to finish filming at the neighboring Morris Brown College.
- The matching kneepads that Kyme and Tisha Campbell are wearing in the Straight and Nappy scene were not part of the wardrobe. Kyme had a knee injury throughout the shoot and the stylist gave Campbell a kneepad to match.
- Both Laurence Fishburne and Samuel L. Jackson (who has a minor role in this film) would later become science fiction film icons: Fishburne as Morpheus in the Matrix trilogy, and Jackson as Mace Windu in the Star Wars prequels.
- Spike Lee, Fishburne, and Jackson have all received Academy Award nominations:
- *Lee - 1989 - Best Original Screenplay - Do the Right Thing
- *Fishburne - 1993 - Best Actor - What's Love Got to Do with It?
- *Jackson - 1994 - Best Supporting Actor - Pulp Fiction
See also
- School Daze (soundtrack) — Original soundtrack to this film.
- Historically Black colleges and universities
- Colorism
External links
- [}}}] at Rotten Tomatoes
| Films directed by Spike Lee |
| [[Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads]] • She's Gotta Have It • School Daze • Do the Right Thing • Mo' Better Blues • Jungle Fever • Malcolm X • Crooklyn • Clockers • Girl 6 • Get on the Bus • 4 Little Girls • He Got Game • Freak • Summer of Sam • The Original Kings of Comedy • Bamboozled • A Huey P. Newton Story • [[Jim Brown: All-American]] • Sucker Free City • 25th Hour • She Hate Me • Inside Man • When the Levees Broke |
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