Spike Lee's second film is an ambitious misfire. Promoted as "a comedy with music," SCHOOL DAZE is set during homecoming week at Atlanta's all-black Mission College (a thinly diguised version of Morehouse, Spike's alma mater). Student militant Larry Fishburne tries to rally his
classmates to protest Mission's refusal to divest from South Africa. Opposing Fishburne is Giancarlo Esposito, head of the campus fraternity, Gamma Phi Gamma. These characters represent two hostile factions at the school: Fishburne's "Jigaboos"--darker-skinned, lower-class kids who are concerned,
sometimes self-righteously, with the plight of their race--and Esposito's "Wannabees" (as in "wa...
Released:
1988
Rated:
R
Length:
120 mins