It is always interesting to see how a filmmaker got his start, or at the very least, to chart his or her artistic development, even if that charting unearths some disappointments along the way. A few weeks ago, I looked at one of Spike Lee’s earliest productions, School Daze. This was the film that came out about a year or so before Lee’s explosive masterpiece, Do the Right Thing, and all I can say is, it’s clear that Spike really improved a lot during that last year.

School Daze takes place in a predominately black-populated college, where tension exists between an activist (Lawrence Fishburne) and a leader of a fraternity (Giancarlo Esposito). At the beginning of the film, the two clash over the college’s investments in South Africa. During the time of this movie, apartheid still existed in that country, and the activist attempts to cause disruptions, in hopes that the college will cease supporting a country that routinely and systematic oppresses its black citizens. The frat leader, on the other hand, is more concerned about the here and now, and figures that it’s useless to get involved in something one has no control over. He also suggests that other than the fact that the people in South Africa are black like he, there isn’t any real connection between the blacks of South Africa and the blacks of the USA.

Other issues and storylines weave about the film, but the most prominent one seems to be the initiations of new people into the fraternity of Gamma Phi Gamma. For me, strangely enough, I found this material more compelling than anything else in the film, because it showed me exactly how stupid these fraternities really are. The newbies (including a character played by Lee himself) find themselves in some pretty harrowing situations, the least of which is to behave like chained dogs in public. In truth, there really isn’t anything particularly new about this material -- of course, anyone who has seen an expose or has had knowledge of these groups know how humiliating they are, but there is still an ugly power to such material, since it shows us how low people are willing to sink in order to fit in, and to feel important.

There are many subplots of greater and lesser impact throughout the film, such as the football team that rarely wins, the silly conflicts between the women of the sorority and the more progressive women of the school, and the relationship between the activist and his girlfriend, who questions his real reason for dating her when she suggests that he did so only because she’s one of the most “blackest” of all the women on the campus.

I must say that there really isn’t anything in this film that is worthless or unnecessary. The film gets off to a good start just because it will make you hope for some real tension, just as with Do the Right Thing. But what ends up happening is that there are too many things going on, so we don’t really feel deeply. There are many moments in this movie that are interesting, but as a whole, the movie goes nowhere. Well, I suppose the trite final shot was intended to wrap everything up with a message about all that preceded it, but I still wasn’t convinced......

I’ve read reviews and the like suggesting that this movie was a musical, which it is not. However, there is one genuine scene that works as in a traditional musical. and that is when the sorority and another group of women get into a war of words about what constitutes “real” blackness... which for these people, seem to revolve around hair. Suddenly, the scene turns into a musical number presented in a gaudy set of a hair salon, as the two groups trade insults and dancing. I remember Ebert writing that he thought this scene was brilliant, in that it defused a potentially awkward and uncomfortable scene. Well, I don’t see what is wrong with “awkward” and “uncomfortable” -- the result would have involved me a lot more than an amusing but overlong and repetitive dance number. The whole point of the scene is to show two groups of women fighting over what constitutes an acceptable appearance of a black woman (although, as an outsider, I don’t see why it ought to matter how anyone makes up their hair!!) -- so shouldn’t the scene actually be raw and meaningful, instead of a bit of a cop-out, when they all start singing?

There are also a few regular music bits, in which people sing at certain gatherings and the like. Such scenes stop the movie cold, because there is no point to them, other than to showcase the singer. Songs can really only work if they are part of the plot, or if the piece is just so damn good that it doesn’t matter -- neither of which apply in these cases.

I think that if Spike Lee just stuck to one or two things, this movie could have been very intriguing. A movie could have been made about the funding by the college of South Africa, with the activist and frat leader as point-counterpoint. A separate movie could have been made about the fraternity, and why people would join such degrading organizations. Even some of the other issues raised could have been spun off into individual works. I think the only real problem with this movie is the fact that Spike put too many eggs into one basket, tried to cook them all, but made a really big mess.......

At the end of the day, School Daze is worthwhile as a preview to much better things, but, as an individual work, the film is far from perfect.








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