39,327
edits
Higher Learning: Difference between revisions
m
Mass update links
prefix>Import Bot (Import from TV Tropes TVT:Main.HigherLearning 2012-07-01, editor history TVTH:Main.HigherLearning, CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported license) |
m (Mass update links) |
||
Line 4:
The third film by Oscar-nominated director John Singleton, following ''[[Boyz N the Hood]]'' and ''Poetic Justice''. It's often considered Singleton's first "white" film, although the main protagonist is still black.
Malik Williams (Omar Epps), Kristen Connor (Kristy Swanson), and the mysterious [[First
As the story progresses, three lives gradually come to be changed forever. Malik becomes more and more disillusioned with the supposed promise offered by higher education, while Kristen and Remy are both radically transformed by their sometimes traumatic and always bewildering experiences.
Line 11:
----
=== This film contains examples of: ===
* [[All There Is to Know About "The Crying Game"]]: About the only two scenes that people tend to remember about this movie (assuming they remember ''anything'' about it) are {{spoiler|Kristen}} and {{spoiler|Taryn}} kissing on top of {{spoiler|Taryn's}} bed (because, [[Every One Remembers the Stripper|well....)]] and {{spoiler|Remy}} crouched on the roof of a campus building clutching a sniper rifle (because [[Weird Al Effect|the scene was parodied]] in ''[[Don't Be a Menace To South Central While Drinking Your Juice In The Hood]]'').
* [[Anger Montage]]: Remy trashing his dorm room after Malik calls him names.
* Anvilicious: During the "Take Back the Night" rally, a woman in the crowd holds a sign that reads [[Captain Obvious|"Rape is A Crime"]]. That said it's more nuanced than most films of its day when it comes to addressing racism and sexism.
Line 18:
* [[Black Comedy Rape]]: Granted, it's at the expense of the rapist rather than the victim herself - but it's still [[Mood Whiplash|quite jarring]].
* [[Bow Chicka Wow Wow]]: Rare non-ironic post-1970s example. (It's used to underscore tense or turbulent scenes.)
* [[Bully Hunter]]: {{spoiler|Remy}} is a deconstruction. Although a victim of bullying, the targets of his wrath progress from the bullies themselves (Fudge and his friends) to black people in general to non-white people in general to all of the above people ''and'' fellow whites who [[Category Traitor|do not subscribe to his neo-Nazi views]]. No wonder that he finally decides to [[Kill
* [[But Not Too Gay]]: {{spoiler|Kristen}} and {{spoiler|Taryn}} are barely even allowed to kiss onscreen.
* [[Cluster F
* [[Cry for The Devil]]: "I wanted to build things! I wanted to be an engineer!"
* [[Downer Ending]]: {{spoiler|Remy and Deja are dead, Kristen's dream of bringing peace to the campus has been cruelly shattered, and Malik decides he's had enough and decides to drop out of school.}}
* [[Everything Is Racist]]: Both Malik and Remy come to view the world through this lens.
* [[Genius Bruiser]]: For such a ne'er-do-well, Fudge sure is enamored with black literature.
* [[Hey
** [[Saving Private Ryan|Stanley Mellish]] is Remy's roommate.
** [[The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Film)|Leatherface]] plays one of the Nazis.
** [[Billy Madison|Veronica Vaughn]] is the [[Alpha Bitch]] who befriends Kristen.
* [[Innocent Bigot]]: Kristen. Having grown up in a community with scarcely any black people, she at first thinks of Malik as a [[Scary Black Man]] (which he eventually becomes later in the film, but that's another matter) and becomes visibly afraid when he gets on an elevator with her. (Malik just contemptuously rolls his eyes.) And even after embracing student activism, Kristen still comes off as prejudiced when she tells a sympathetic male character that [[Double Standard|he can't join a non-sexist student group because....well, because he's a man]] (i.e., men are naturally sexist). (He [[What the Hell, Hero?|calls her out on her hypocrisy]], though, and she realizes her mistake.)
* [[Jerk Jock]]: Deconstructed. Much of Malik's swaggering attitude stems from feelings of inadequacy, which in turn can be traced both to his being awarded only a ''partial'' scholarship to Columbus and to the other athletes on the track team, who resent him for the supposed pampering he received from his coaches in high school.
* [[Kick the Son of A Bitch]]: Billy (the fratboy rapist) gets beaten up for the wrong reason, but he still arguably had it coming.
Line 36:
** That bizarre, [[Fake Brit|pseudo-British accent]] the leader of the neo-Nazis uses.
* [[Not So Different]]: See [[Everything Is Racist]] above.
* [[N
* [[Patriotic Fervor]]: Deliberately evoked in the very first post-credits image of the film, but then subverted and/or deconstructed.
* [[Positive Discrimination]]: Yes and no. While it's true that the movie has a black protagonist given top billing and thus by default is going to be sympathetic to the black perspective, Singleton at first (with a few exceptions) avoids turning any character into a clear hero or villain, establishing that they're ''all'' capable of [[Jerkass]] behavior at times (and, ironically, when we first meet him, {{spoiler|Remy}} [[The Woobie|comes off as the most sympathetic character]]!) Singleton eventually makes the neo-Nazis the stereotyped villains, of course, but what's remarkable is not that this trope is present in the movie at all, but that it's applied so sparingly for a 1990s Hollywood film.
Line 43:
** Also literally invoked by an interracial couple at a Halloween costume party.
** See also Professor Phipps's [[What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic|repeated line]]: "Peppermint?"
[[[* [[Screw This, I'm Outta Here]]: {{spoiler|Malik flees the campus at the end.}}
* [[Screaming Warrior]]: Omar Epps, dramatically. Busta Rhymes, hilariously.
* [[Something Completely Different]]: In this film, we are presented with something not seen in a mainstream American film since ''[[The Birth of a Nation]]'' 80 years earlier: white-supremacist characters who are actually relatable and semi-sympathetic (though without the blatant hero-worship of D. W. Griffith's film, of course). We get a definite sense of what prompted {{spoiler|Remy's}} [[Face Heel Turn]] and why he would think himself [[Knight Templar|justified in his attitudes and actions]]. (It could even be argued that this film helped to set the stage for ''[[American History X]]'' three years later, in which the skinhead is actually ''redeemed''.)
Line 51:
* [[Strawman U]]: Columbus actually doesn't start out as this (being a fairly typical California college campus, even with some ''[[Animal House]]''-type mischief), but becomes increasingly so as tensions escalate.
* [[Suddenly Sexuality]]: It's actually Kristen who asks Taryn to sleep with her, but Taryn refuses believing that Kristen is merely "curious" and discouraged by men at the moment. It's implied that they do, or at least Kristen ''really'' wanted to.
* [[Third Line, Some Waiting]]: Played straight and then subverted. Remy barely appears during the first third of the movie, but then his story gradually starts to take over and becomes paramount.
* [[This Is Reality]]: Dr. Phipps lays this out for Malik during one of his private lectures to him. (Then again, in a later scene, he paradoxically hints that "All this is a game!")
* [[Title Drop]]: The poet at the festival.
Line 58:
** [[Leonardo Di Caprio]] was originally cast as Remy, but had to leave due to his commitment to ''[[The Quick and The Dead]]''.
** [[Drew Barrymore]] was almost cast as Kristen, but appeared in ''Boys On The Side'', ''Mad Love'', and ''[[Batman Forever (Film)|Batman Forever]]'' instead.
* [[White
* [[White Mask of Doom]]: The skinheads hide behind grotesque theatrical masks that resemble skulls while assaulting an interracial couple (justified, since it's Halloween).
* [[Women Are Wiser]]: The female characters definitely seem to have their wits together more often than their male counterparts, especially the character of Deja (Tyra Banks).
| |||