Higher Learning (1995) User Reviews

Well-Rounded View of Extreme Points of View

[jrfranklin01 · 8/10 · 11 December 2004]

The film's design seems to be the alpha and omega of some of the major issues in this country (U.S.). We see relationships all over at the university setting for the film. Befittingly, the obvious of student v.s. teacher is present. But what the film adds to its value is its other relationships: male v.s. female, white v.s. black, and the individual v.s. society. But most important of all and in direct relation to all of the other relationships is the individual v.s. himself.

I was amazed at how bilateral a point of view the director gave to showing the race relations on campus. Most films typically show the injustices of one side while showing the suffering of the other. This film showed the injustices and suffering of both sides. It did not attempt to show how either was right, although I would say the skin heads were shown a much crueler and vindictive (quite obvious towards the end). The film also discusses sex and rape. It is ironically this injustice that in some ways brings the two races together, for a time. Lawrence Fishburne does an over-the-top performance as the sagacious Profesor Phipps. He crumbles the idea of race favortism and instead shows the parallelism of the lazy and down-trodden with the industrious and positive. Other stars that make this film are Omar Epps, Ice Cube, and Jennifer Connelly. Michael Rapaport gives an excellent portrayal of a confused youth with misplaced anger who is looking for acceptance. Tyra Banks make her film debut and proves supermodels can act.

Higher Learning gets its name in showing college as more than going to class and getting a piece of paper. In fact, I would say the film is almost a satire in showing students interactions with each other, rather than some dry book, as the real education at a university. It is a life-learning process, not a textual one. I think you'll find "Higher Learning" is apropos to the important issues at many universities and even life in general. 8/10

Forces you to form your own opinions

[beeohbeecrow · 8/10 · 21 September 2002]

I have read a lot of reviews for this movie where people accuse the film of promoting stereotypes, and that it portrays whites in a negative light. I really think that those who wrote those reviews missed the point.

1) There ARE stereotypes in this movie. It's intentional. Not every white character in this movie is portrayed as a skinhead, as some reviewers may have lead you to believe. Not every black character in this movie is portrayed as a victim either. In order for people to overcome racial stereotypes, we have to at least take a good look at what other races see when they look at us, and this movie does a good job of that. There are also characters (both black and white) who try to persuade Omar Epps' character to not use his race as an excuse to "play the victim," so I really don't see this movie as "one sided".

2) The rape scene, where some reviewers complain that Kristy Swanson's character gave consent, wasn't supposed to be a clear cut, "awful drunk bad-guy" rape. In order for people to understand the causes and effects of date rape, we need to take a closer look at where the line is between right and wrong, and this movie does a good job of asking the viewer where that line is.

There are other situations where characters choose violence and revenge rather than thinking of a better solution. But - some of these situations seem justified, and others do not. Once again, you as the viewer have to decide if what you're seeing is right or wrong.

I must admit that I was troubled by the portrayal of the campus security as being overly suspicious of blacks, and overly sympathetic towards whites. But this movie is meant to ask questions; not suggest that ALL white security guards are this way. The fact that I am troubled by this portrayal means that I was forced to think about what suspicions are justified, and which are not. This movie is full of things that make you take a stand one way or another. It's not meant to make you feel comfortable, or to decide for you...

If you like movies that overtly tell you what you're supposed to think, you may misinterpret this movie. But if you want to see thought-provoking film that will make you ask yourself a lot of questions on where you stand, I recommend seeing this film. Great performances by Epps, Swanson, and Michael Rappaport. I was even pleasantly surprised by Tyra Banks performance. 8 out of 10 stars.

Well-acted episodic generic slice of big-city college

[billyfish · 6/10 · 24 December 2009]

Hard to believe the extremes of the reviews of this film. It's either genius or crap. I found it somewhere in between, and I have to say I enjoyed it, owing mostly to Omar Epps. I believe he's one of the best actors in America right now, and his performance in this movie really made it watchable as far as I'm concerned. Many of the characters were not developed well, and were two-dimensional at best. Rappaport's character, and in fact all the white supremacists, were mere cut-outs and actually painful to watch. I didn't get the good guy/bad guy (name your race -- I think it depends on who's reviewing) theme at all. I think Epps was the protagonist and naturally he was shown in a better light than most of the other characters, black or white. There was some intelligent dialog and some inane dialog. However, it was overall an interesting film and I'm glad I saw it. Not perfect by any means, and with its share of clichés, but a good film nonetheless.

Must have seen a different movie

[Basilisk-6 · 6 May 2002]

I must have been watching a different movie to most of the people adding comments. I didn't see it as a film portraying African Americans as good and whites as bad but as a film in which all the factions were shown to have good and bad sides. Even the guy who becomes the Nazi skinhead was portrayed sympathetically in as much as he is clearly out of his depth in a social situation and becomes a recruit because only the skinheads will accept him when no-one else will. Overall, the African Americans come out as the most sympathetic but not by much.

I agree there are some fairly silly stereotypes, especially Fishburne's character, but they work in the context of the movie. Most refreshing was the fact that an American college is portrayed as a place with real issues like racism and date rape and drunken behaviour. It's refreshing because colleges are usually shown as places where nice middle-class kids never have any problem bigger than being dumped by their boyfriends before everything is resolved in the last reel.

An overly maligned movie. Not perfect but better than a million other college movies. Loved the ending too.

A different comment

[norajay · 7/10 · 18 January 2003]

I am not going to comment on the racial issues, many people have already done that. I am just going to write a bit about the "date-rape".

Kristy Swanson's character got drunk and went to the guy's room. They were all very hot and it was obvious that they were going to have sex. When the guy, Billy, has almost finished taking off her clothes, she doesn't say "don't", she says "use a condom". But he doesn't listen to her and keeps on doing her business. The girl freaks out not because she doesn't want to have sex, but because she might get pregnant or catch something.

Something makes me think that this is a very common situation. Should it be considered as rape? Well yes, of course, it could have have been avoided if the guy had gotten out of bed, put a condom and returned to the girl. And the girl had all the right to change her mind, after realizing the dangers this particular sex act would cause.

As for Kirstin's role in the feminist group. I don't see her as the "poor weak girl that was raped buy the big strong drunk guy she trusted". I see her as a woman being declined her right to have safe sex buy the horny drunk guy she trusted.

A fantastic performance by ice cube

[aaronsaiz · 7/10 · 4 May 2019]

The movie defentily has its problems but its shows you authentic things That people are to are afraid to address but really the highlight of the film is ice cubes performance he does amazing job with being real understated and to over the top he also made a little funny so props to the brother for giving a great performance

exaggerated... or is it?

[jon144k · 7/10 · 13 December 2005]

*** SPOILERS ***

this movie always seems very exaggerated, until i remember that my college campus had a former-student-turned-Nazi-racist-killer-who-then-committed-suicide, too: his name was Benjamin Nathaniel Smith.

look him up in the wikipedia- i added a few photos to their article about him.

it's hard to believe, but this stuff really does happen.

i'm not a big fan of Omar Epps or Ice Cube, but Larry Fishburne, Kristy Swanson, Jennifer Connelly & Mike Rappaport were good.

The irony

[tomkuszlaba59 · 6/10 · 28 April 2022]

The irony of having rage against the machine playing during rowdy neo nazi scenes for white supremacy characters is hilarious. Do they understand what that band stands for?

Underrated! Finally an intelligent film about racism

[FlorisV · 10/10 · 27 June 2003]

John Singleton's finest film, before blockbuster wannabees like the Shaft remake, this is a thought-provoking movie with overall great acting and superb balance between the stories 3 main characters, each with identifiable youngster problems.

What I liked about it most is that it also covers the problem of selfpity among young blacks, a problem mostly ignored by the media and other films who mostly focus on social-economical problems and racism by whites. This movie shows that blacks can be equally ignorant and racist.

The masterful thing about this film is that it deals with so many topics without getting shallow. It's not just about racism, but about how hard it can be to adopt to a new world (college), date rape, discovering sexuality and isolation. Omar Epps, Michael Rapaport and Kristy Swanson each deliver fine performances, and the supporting cast is equally interesting with Jennifer Connelly as a lez (yay) and with Ice Cube and Busta Rhymes as college bums causing little riots.

The only negative is the caricature of a professor by Laurence Fishburne ("Peppermint?"). Surely, plenty of professors are nutty. But they're not as flat. The skinheads are also a bit of a caricature, but I guess they are like that too in real life.

Overall a great underrated piece of filmwork, if you liked American History X you'll love this one.

8,5 out of 10

This flick makes you wonder if the film makers ever went to college.

[=G= · 6/10 · 27 March 2001]

"Higher Learning" is a predictable and contrived handful of college campus stereotypes all involved in worst case scenarios on the same campus at the same time with little purpose. The film explores such issues as partying and date rape, tuition and academic problems, social problems, gangs, frats, etc. all with the usual Hollywood phony excesses. Not a thinking person's movie, this film will appeal to the couch potatoe's appetite for sensationalism.

Bad like Boston Public and Saved by the Bell are bad

[bu_train · 4/10 · 23 February 2003]

I thought this movie was ridiculous. I really think this is to college what Boston Public and Saved by the Bell are to high school--that is, anyone who sees this before they get to college thinks college is actually like this.

Now, I understand that Singleton wanted to turn this movie into a microcosm of colleges in general, but for all this stuff to happen at one school in one week I find a hard pill to swallow. Some of the stuff does happen on a disturbingly regular basis (ie, drunken rapes), but the rest of it is so rare that putting it in the movie is useless, other than to provide filler.

Sorry to all you high schoolers who see this movie, but college is NOTHING LIKE THIS.

Good film. shows its all about perspective

[Killakai · 8/10 · 4 February 2007]

First one has to take into account the time period this film was made in. 1995. Rappers were in it, and that added to the flair of it.

Remy was a socially awkward teen trying to find his way and couldn't, until he met and was befriended by Nazis. They took him in. Nazi's aren't all this awkward, but like most gangs, they fill a void that is missing be it economic, social, emotional, whatever. Michael Rappaport played the part perfectly.

Omar Epps was the hot shot track star, with a questionable work ethic and a chip on his shoulder. He kept trying to feel sorry for himself and his plight, and had his girlfriend and professor to straighten him out on it.

Kristen was a young white girl trying to find herself and trying to fit in, until she was date raped. She then found her self experiment with her sexuality, and getting involved politically.

This film deals with racism and like most things that deal with racism, people's own perspectives come into play.

I read so many comments about how there were no 'evil' black characters but there were evil white one (Nazis). So what? Remy wasn't portrayed as evil at all, he was trying to find his way, and kept failing until some skinheads accepted him. He was scared, it was sad to see him devolve how he did. He even says right before he kills himself, I didn't mean it, I wanted to be an engineer.

Ice Cube and Busta Rhymes were angry black men, Ice Cube was somewhat of an intellectual, and Busta Rhymes was just portrayed as a dumb thug. They both showed no consideration at all for their roommates, and generally appear to not like white people very much. They were angry like the Nazis but not on the level of Nazis in terms of overall badness. Sorry if this makes it seem unfair, but are there really black groups like the Nazis? No.

People say it shows white=-bad black=good. Not true, the only bad white characters were the Nazis and the police, which is more or less true in real life. Kristen was a good girl, her boyfriend (omar epps roommate) was a good guy, and even Remy was a good guy, he was just misguided.

Omar Epps, Ice Cube and Busta were seriously flawed characters, angry and inconsiderate. Although their constant harassment by police seemed to justify some of their anger. Remy's inability to fit in seemed to justify his anger as well.

Good movie, well done. Like all movies that deal with racism, its a great piece to get a discussion going.

I don't think Cube and Busta coulda beat those Nazis though.

An interesting look into the world of race relations

[nubian_rose89 · 7/10 · 10 January 2012]

This was a good movie. I don't understand the reviews that it was skewed in its portrayals of whites as the villains and the blacks as the downtrodden victims who just won't take anymore. I personally think that it was very balanced in that area. There were stupid white people and stupid black people. What I would think is the most skewed is it's portrayal of the men as the villains and the women as the angelic do gooders. I think it ignored the fact that women can be just as awful, but tend not to be as outwardly violent, but I guess you can't have it all in one movie or else it would have been like 5 hours long. It showed Remmy's decent in a sympathetic light and in Fudge we saw that entitlement thinking in the black mentality is just as harmful as it is in the white mentality. Ultimately the only difference I saw in the white supremacist group and in Fudge's group was their skin color. Black or white, they were ALL red- blooded, self-entitled, American idiots. I thought that point was brilliantly made in the movie.

Unrealistic portrayal of college life

[tex-42 · 2/10 · 13 July 2000]

What shows promise to be a good movie quickly degrades into ridiculous stereotypes that the director claims to be fighting against. Higher Learning takes place at the fictional Columbus University and follows a group of students as they lead their daily lives. However, these people barely seem to have time to go to class. Every possible situation that could happen does, from date rape to racism to experimenting with lesbianism. And of course this all culminates in a neo-Nazi bloodbath. What's wrong? Doesn't sound like your college? Well mine either.

However, Singleton wants us to believe this is what colleges are like, and he does so with an unconvincing script which hops around jumping from plot to plot trying to say everything he wants before the credits roll. This leaves a lot of plot holes and characters coming and going throughout the movie. Overall, not an awful movie, but it could have been a lot better.

A muddled mix of stereotypes and paper thin characters in a filmthat mistakenly thinks it is deep and insightful

[bob the moo · 13 July 2003]

Columbus University is one of the finest in America. Into this place of higher learning comes a mix of students to join the already multicultural pot. Malik is a black track star who feels he is disadvantaged as he has to run and study, while others only have to run. Remy is a white teenager who is forced out of his dorm by his black roommate and finds friendship in an extreme group. Kristen is a young female who struggles to make friends and is assaulted by a man before falling in with a women's group. Their experiences intertwine in the small campus.

If anyone wonders why director John Singleton (he of Boyz n' the Hood) is now making things like 2Fast2Furious, this is as good a place to start looking as anywhere. After an assured start with Boyz, the director made a couple of films that had potential but just came out muddled or lacking something to make them work. Poetic Justice was one of them and this was another. Higher Learning had potential and you can see that it's heart is in the right place but it doesn't come off at all. The plot tries to be a mix of experiences but, because there are three or so characters up front, there is no time to develop them so their experiences are broad cultural brush strokes - the white kid sucked into extremism, the raped girl taken into lesbianism, the black man who has to work harder for everything.

As a result the plot never really engages and it all just goes where you expect it to go - and is less impacting as a result of it's plodding nature. This spills over into the characters too - they are all pretty much stereotypes that fit into their scenario rather than real characters. Singleton shows is bias in his direction and character selection. My wife said something about me watching a lot of `black' films in the past week and I said Higher Learning was not dominated by any one race - but I think I was wrong. Singleton clearly likes the characters played by Busta Rhymes, Ice Cube and Epps - they are cool and put upon where other characters (races) have fewer kind touches placed on them. Personally I thought every character had huge chips on their shoulders about their identity - but the African American characters are the only ones that are held up for praise in relation to their chips!

Having said that I did think Epps did OK - he made a lifeless character a little more interesting. Banks however is as one dimensional as I have grown to expect from her. Rapaport looks very young indeed but he does well. His character is lazily drawn and developed, but he manages to make him a little human - which took work looking at the film as a finished product. Swanson is too dippy and light - but then all the lesbian characters seem to be painted in a weird sort of light. Ice Cube and Busta Rhymes give extended cameos which require them to deliver their rap personas of thugz - they are laughably clichéd! Fishburne adds gravitas as he always does, but he has little to do and is given not only a poor accent, but also some `deep' dialogue that just sounds pretentious or like a fortune cookie.

Overall I saw what this film was trying to do but it didn't manage it. It was ambitious, but the wide spread meant that none of the plots or characters were allowed to develop and instead were left as hollow, broad stereotypes and scenarios. The film tries to go all deep and the final shot of the word `unlearn' against an American flag just feels like Singleton must have thought that he had been making incredibly profound points the whole time - instead it felt that his original idea had had a deeper point, but it was totally lost in delivery.

1995 Visionary movie of 2022...

[sjourand · 7/10 · 15 May 2022]

The movie touched on just about every social issue but one. You have all of the "unfair" elements that people allege are going on today in an hour and thirty minute movie from (almost) thirty years ago.

If in thirty years society hasn't at least learned the one thing that still isn't discussed today - Human decency - then society will continue to drift into separatist camps, hating one another. It's a ridiculous notion that systemic racism, sexism, all the other-isms and -ists be discussed today. Life is what YOU make of it, NOT what a select few holding a megaphone tell you life is supposed to be, pouting about 200+ years ago.

Life is NOT fair. NOBODY is owed a thing in this life! One must WORK for what they want, and the failure to achieve a dream is one's OWN failure and has NOTHING to do with the past!

When Human Beings start acting like Human Beings, eliminating the race card, the colour card, the sex card, the lgbt card, the (whatever) card and just be DECENT people will we see some peace. Until then, this society is doomed, and the last decade is proof that there is absolutely no hope for the future!

What's with all these bad reviews? Once again these Critics here are useless.

[momjessicaandjordan · 7/10 · 27 July 2021]

This film wasn't that bad as people make it to be. I will say I was presently surprised by all the performances especially Busta Rhymes. He's not the best "rapper that turn into an actor" in the world but that was great. Also Ice Cube and Laurence Fishburne were great as well. They even both got nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor. Laurence Fishburne ended up winning though so I guess I can say Ice Cube got nominated for the award and lost so yeah.

Although Im genuinely surprised by all the bad reviews, I won't be biased on this movie myself. There were a lot of problems with this movie. For example, the movie can be a little melodramatic and cliché sometimes. Also the white girls scenes were boring as hell and kinda pointless but I'm pretty sure John Singleton tried his best with that. Writing a character like that can be hard but I commend him for his efforts.

But for the most part, John is basically telling a story about these 3 college kids who has the potential to do what they want and he succeeds. Again although I like the movie, I'm definitely not biased. A 7/10 for me.

Good for what it is

[mozzis · 7/10 · 17 September 2008]

My guess is that Singleton might be generally quite pleased about the amount of discussion this film has provoked, here if nowhere else. Indeed he deals with issues that are both divisive and very complex. Charges of oversimplification are inevitable, and many people are going to hate it no matter what the message.

I'm a white guy, but I know from friends and acquaintances that it often seems that whites just do not get what it is like to be non-white in our society. I also think that the discussion may be more open and honest in the US at present than nearly anywhere else. So if this movie seems biased against whites, at least it expresses how many African Americans really feel, especially if you realize that for some, they are much more of a minority when they arrive at college than they ever were at home.

I would like to note that the movie actually did take a couple of pretty heavy swipes against the Black Panther crowd. First was the scene where Fudge orders one of the girls to go shopping. The other was when Deja and Malik are watching the boys rehearse their battle with the skinheads. Deja's open-mouthed shock underlines how primitive and violent their behavior has become.

So I like this movie because it is provocative and real, expressing a point of view that we should at least know about, even if we don't totally agree with it.

Confused Emotions

[Dubs · 7/10 · 9 April 1999]

What a great effort by John Singleton! "Higher Learning", while not as good or focused as his earlier "Boyz N the Hood", certainly deserves a screening and is even more worthy of a subsequent debate, whether internal or not, as to how realistic and meaningful the story related is.

Synopsis (at least at first glance): Several students of varying background come to large, diverse university but find themselves more segmented than ever.

Outcome: Singleton does a good job of making the viewer understand the backstories of the characters he focuses on, especially Omar Epps and Michael Rapaport. Indeed, Epps' story is certainly the best and most worthwhile. However, Rapaport is convincing as an outsider in search of an identity--a role that many college students find themselves in, at least at the beginning of school. Fishburne is terrific (especially in light of his "Matrix" character, which is quite a departure--but not totally--from the stately professor he plays here.)

Since anything else I am going to say is going to be derivative of Roger Ebert's review, which really hit the mark, I can summarize quickly. This is a good movie, but it is in no way realistic. It exaggerates and highlights and twists some realities of the college experience. The movie asks you to "unlearn" at its finale; I ask you to decide why it comes to this conclusion.

Not a Movie For Today

[justsixblack · 8/10 · 19 March 2023]

I saw this movie in the theatre when it came out. I couldn't stop thinking about it after seeing it. I cried while watching it. It really affected me. Being a youth during this time is something that the youth of today can't understand. Just as I will never understand what it was like to be a young person living in the 60s, for example. So I'm not surprised about all the bad reviews on here that have been posted from the current decade. Sure, the characters could've been written better. They could've focused more on rainbows and lollipops, too. But this movie is something that mirrored the INTENSE feeling of the times and what people like myself experienced. So if you're someone who can look past the typical "movie critic complaining" and allow yourself to FEEL what this movie is intended to make you feel, then I believe you can enjoy it and appreciate it for all its worth.

Lawrence Fishburne The Master Of Acting

[FilmMan47 · 6/10 · 13 September 2019]

Man o man i just saw this and i flipped Kristy Swanson was hot in this i like her she did her best and so did the other cast members i am not going to waste time time talking about the themes and plot you know it already its written here on but the best part about this was Lawrence Fishburne my god what a master of acting,the plays the role of a professor,his teachings and explanations to students and the guy who he helps the dialog's he says are hard hitting honest brutal and amazing,just look at the way he acts there is a reason later this man became Morpheus in the Matrix trilogy 1999,Reloaded 2002,Revolutions 2003.higher learning 1995 is a slow film and not for everyone its not one of those brainless movies you can watch and throw it away .i am not saying just leave your brain or be open minded or whatever 2 things will happen either you will love this or hate it,its got a topic that needed to be addressed at that time and still does to this date,you can choose to be ignorant or not choose to be ignorant about this issue both ways after you see this,its going to make you think that why humans do this one thing i know for sure we cant help it this world is messed up but it is still our world,this film and American History X 1998 that came after this needs to be seen by everyone it does not matter who you are if you are a human or have feelings see this unless you are a alien from outer space and don't want to its a men and black joke but still. my rating is 6/10.

You'd be surprised (that this is a good portrayal). . .

[MovieBuffMarine · 8/10 · 15 December 2003]

Of life in (some) colleges. Of course there were artistic licenses taken, but some of what you saw in this film go on in some colleges.

I went to colleges in Southern California where the races pretty much hang around with their own. It's funny because these are schools that want racial unity, equality etc. and I can honestly say, that it's there. But the thing is when class lets out, or when they're just hanging out waiting for class, they (students) seem to just hang around with people of their own race or ethnicity. Is that bad? Not really. Everyone needs a feeling of belonging. But like the school paper of one of the schools I attended once wrote about that, "we should all try to hang around with students of other ethnicities and try to know them." Otherwise you're creating your own segregation.

Racism certainly existed in one of those schools I attended. One time someone put leaflets around campus talking about the glories of the Aryan Race and had the symbols of some of those racist organizations. Fortunately, nothing happened like the incident in the movie where the young Caucasian man went off and started shooting at a multiculturalism gathering.

I can only hope and pray that nothing like that ever will happen.

So is "Higher Learning" overly dramatic? Exaggerated? Maybe. Is it way "off mark?" It depends on where you went to or go to school. The race thing where the ethnicities just hang around with their own DOES happen. Minus the Hollywood exaggerations, the race thing hit pretty close to home for me.

Good movie

[dhyan · 6/10 · 7 May 2000]

Even though the characters and story are over-drawn, this is one good movie. Racial conflicts aren't usually this entire, but it's a good dramatization of how they could be. Because it depicts racial relationships in such a manner, it better shows what can, and often does happen. No one is right, that's certain, and we're more than the color of our skin. Still, most of us let that divide us..... We have many lessons to learn.

Worst movie ever

[hast-2 · 2/10 · 9 October 2006]

This may have been the worst movie I've ever seen. You have a normal white kid who is picked on one time by black kids, and he becomes a skin head!!! Then you have a girl who has one problem with a guy so becomes a lesbian! Then a black kid who feels ignored so he joins the black panthers!!! This is a joke of a film. Never watch it. Never ever watch it. I want my two hours back! I want my life back! It was just so awful. I am so mad I watched it. It was so bad. It was such a joke, and a waste of time. I would never want anyone to see it ever in a million years. I would not watch that black propaganda again if I was held at gunpoint!

Trite, we've seen it all a zillion times

[momma-3 · 24 April 1999]

good acting, bad script...this film attempted to cover every issue of a controversial nature that one might experience in college...problem is the film's too short to effectively and realistically explore and resolve these issues (if he had his heart set on making a film about racism, lesbianism, rape, and interracial conformity then perhaps Singleton might have wanted to invest in a cable mini-series) and for this what we got was a mix of stereotypes/cliches that made this too predictable and, at times, ridiculous to watch. Nevertheless, great acting from Epps, Rappaport and Fishburne.