HIGHER LEARNING
A film review by Raymond Johnston
Copyright 1995 Raymond Johnston
Written and directed by John Singleton Starring: Jennifer Connelly, Ice Cube, Omar Epps, Kristy Swanson, Laurence Fishburne Title sequence by Elaine and Saul Bass
Everyone in HIGHER LEARNING has the same first name. It's "The." There's The Athlete, The Black Activist, The Stern Professor, The Lesbian Feminist, The Skinhead and The Clueless Blonde. Except the professor, everybody belongs to organized campus groups. The advertisement for the film points to the main problem with the film. There is a totem pole like object with the actor's faces superimposed onto icons- a swastika, a black power fist, a double-female lesbian symbol plus others.. This is topped by a gun. The actors are not people but walking sets of values. The gun alerts us that the values will be in conflict.
One of the best things about the film is Saul (PSYCHO) Bass's pulsating title sequence set to Shaft-like music. The energy rapidly dissipates when the film cuts to a too obviously staged pep rally. You can imagine an assistant director off screen yelling,"OK now, everybody chant in unison." An obviously set-up quality plagues much of the film, both visually and narratively. The prop statue of Columbus at the fictitious Columbus University oddly kept reminding me of the "Knowledge is Good" sign in ANIMAL HOUSE.
HIGHER LEARNING does get going eventually. A protracted series of small conflicts over music and roommate manners leads to more substantive issues. Once the characters are established, several of them do become interesting, if not entirely credible.John Singleton did give an amount of depth to his iconic characters. They do more than just espouse their party lines. Even one of the neo-Nazi skinheads shows some evidence of having thought through the things he believes in. When characters discuss similar topics among their own groups, the lack of common ground among these ideologies becomes clear.
Kristy Swanson (BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER) is in a group called something like Students for a Non-Sexist Society. Men are not allowed to join. When a man asks if that isn't sexist, he is treated as if he is dense to suggest that. Obviously it is a women's issue and a women's group. Singleton has his actors underplay the scene. It becomes a casual boy-meets-girl scene, more sweet than pointed. Groups that state their purpose as unity but only let a narrow group join do abound on college campuses.
Best among the ensemble cast is Laurence (DEEP COVER) Fishburne. The character of the highly educated and Jamaican accented political science teacher is a big departure from his typical cop and hoodlum roles. Through many years of teaching, he has seen it all and heard it all. I suspect that billing for the film was alphabetical since top billed Jennifer Connelly (CREEPERS) was only a few scenes. The film stereotype for feminists is often an angry bitter woman with a bad haircut. Connelly gives us something quite different. She is a gentle and supportive character, relaxed with her friends and at peace with the world. Of all the students, she is the one that comes off most as real person. In a larger role, Ice Cube (BOYZ N THE HOOD) shows a talent for both comedy and drama. Unfortunately he is surrounded by a less interesting collection of followers, and has one too many confrontations with the racist University Police.
Much of the story development is too obvious. When a character gets a leaflet warning about a crime problem on campus, that person becomes a victim of that crime the very next day. The Black activists and the neo-Nazis are on an obvious collision course. Singleton tries to create a SHORT CUTS like world where people's offhand actions affect others in unforeseen and unknown ways, but the world is too tightly connected. Out of 33.000 students, the core group of a dozen characters has way too much effect on eachother. HIGHER LEARNING should have been another DO THE RIGHT THING, but it winds up as a warmed over SCHOOL DAZE. Still, with more and more Hollywood films about absolutely nothing, credit should be given to John Singleton for making a film about relevant ideas in our society. Several excellent performances and some thought provoking writing make the film worth seeing.
I would like to recommend a somewhat better and quite overlooked film that examines the forces in society by juggling a microcosm of people, John Sayles' CITY OF HOPE.
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