School Daze

I personally thought School Daze was an amazing movie for quite a few reasons. The first reason being that I love Spike Lee’s afro-centric style. Lee had a talent for displaying the black culture in the most interesting, yet appropriate manner. From the bright images of color, to the musical/dance aspects to the dialect that is true to the time—Spike Lee has a way of drawing in the audience and School Daze was no exception. From an analytical perception, it’s nice to see a movie that is about black culture and shows the interactions between different members of the black culture. Usually in t.v. and film, the black person is a “token character” and they are shown with interacting with mainly Caucasian people. And any time you saw them interact with other black people, it probably wasn’t the most positive way. I think School Daze did an amazing job of showcasing different types of people that are in the black culture—not just the thugs and angry black women the public was used to seeing on the television. Lastly, I loved the way School Daze shined light on a lot of issues that we experience in the black community. There was an overwhelming theme of complexion and hair, especially when it came to the female characters of the movie. There was the classic lightskin vs. darkskin and nappy happy vs. good hair displayed right there in the movie. Not only that, but Spike Lee even explored the sexist remarks and tones that black women experience a lot in everyday life. There were quite a few scenes in the movie where the women were seen as objects and you can tell it made the audience uncomfortable…perhaps even enough to explore some of the things they may have said. Overall, I loved the movie and I would definitely watch it again.

#David