Higher Learning

1995 "Question the knowledge."
6.5| 2h8m| R| en| More Info
Released: 11 January 1995 Released
Producted By: Columbia Pictures
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

African-American student Malik is on a track scholarship; academics are not his strong suit, and he goes in thinking that his athletic abilities will earn him a free ride through college. Fudge, a "professional student" who has been at Columbus for six years so far, becomes friendly with Malik and challenges his views about race and politics in America.

Genre

Drama, Crime

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Director

John Singleton

Production Companies

Columbia Pictures

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Higher Learning Audience Reviews

CommentsXp Best movie ever!
Odelecol Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.
Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.
kai ringler At Columbus University there is about to be a race war,, blacks vs the skin heads,, the skin heads also hate Jews, gay, and lesbian. Omar Epps plays a college Professor,, Tyra Banks does a good job in her role.. Kristy Swanson also did okay,, there is a "rape" scene in the movie,, but on to other stuff like how the "Skinheads" were aloud to roam free after beating up a gay couple,, sit down and eat lunch just like nothing happened. Film takes a turn with the violence being served up, and it hits you over the head like a hammer, there are also sexuality issues, in the movie,, a teacher battling to try and get thru to the kids he is teaching,, film shows college life with black and whites trying to do the best they can to get along,, very interesting look at racism,, not to be missed, just don't take everything too seriously, as the filmmaker took a lot of liberties,, with what actually would happen in real life.
tieman64 This is a review of "Rosewood" and "Higher Learning", two films by John Singleton. The weaker of the two, "Rosewood" takes place during the 1923 race riots of Rosewood, Florida. Structured as a western, the film watches as an archetypal "Man With No Name" (Ving Rhames, literally playing a character called Mann) enters Rosewood, only to find the town's predominantly African American population living on edge with a white minority who rule with guns, badges and a bucket full of resentment.A single incident sets the town alight: a young woman blames a black stranger for the vicious beating she received from her white husband. "He was so big!" she screams. "He was so black!" The news spreads. Local white folk begin assembling. Pretty soon a carnival atmosphere develops, whites arming themselves, getting liquored up and commencing the slaughtering of blacks. Charred corpses hang from trees, houses burn and bullets fly.Though it pretends to be "serious" and "historical", "Rosewood" is mostly a silly cartoon. Singleton creates an African American Eden, one which would have flourished had it not been for the white man. Whites are themselves portrayed as lecherous, stupid and one dimensional. One character, played by Jon Voight, is our token "nuanced white". He's a rich landowner, sleazy, but eventually learns to "do the right thing". Elsewhere Singleton consciously reverses common African American stereotypes: all the white families are oversexed, violent, carnal or single parents. The black families, in contrast, are torn straight out of Norman Rockwell paintings, celebrating birthdays, always surrounded by a warm glow or sitting at big, family meals. Later, Mann becomes a Biblical figure, a Moses who leads surviving black folk on an exodus out of Rosewood and across a river.Like most films "about racism", "Rosewood" has nothing to do with racism. The saviours of our victims are two landowners, the ruling class is invisible and it is specifically working class whites who are demonized. Racism, in other words, is caused by the stupid, poor, irrational lower class. But racism always has economic roots. In the US, racial policy became a means of combating worker unity by fostering conflicts and divisions between groups along racial, national, sexual or religious lines. The revitalisation of the KKK in the 1920s was itself a direct response to economic factors. Such things go back as far as the 18th century (quasi-military alliances between large corporations and governments repressed efforts to form labour unions and conduct strikes), when the ruling class pitted blacks, Indians and whites against one another to stave off insurrection. Indians, for example, were often hired as "slave catchers", whilst "strikebreakers" - workers used to replace white strikers – always came from outside the area and/or "lower" ethnic groups. This, of course, exacerbated racial tensions and disrupted communities. Where Rosewood is set, almost two generations after the abolition of slavery and the end of the American Civil War, many French Canadians, East Europeans and Africans were first introduced as strike breakers. The deliberate creation of racial and ethnic conflict was not a matter of individual employer prejudice but of capitalist class strategy. Ulimately, "Rosewood's" message is typical of all of Singleton's films: evil whites preyed on black, set them back, but now's the time for African Americans to help themselves, pull themselves up by the bootstraps, be good and earn a buck. Blacks, in other words, must now be good whites. Play the game that causes the problem and shunt the problem onto someone else.Singleton's "Higher Learning" tells the same story, but is set in a fictional Columbus University. It contains a number of intertwined subplots and characters, the most interesting of which involves Malik Williams (Omar Epps), a black athlete who resents being forced to represent his school on the track field. The film's philosophy is articulated by Laurence Fishburne, who plays a West Indian Professor. African Americans, Fisburne essentially says, should suck it up, work hard, stop blaming people and put up with the problem. Other subplots involve shy and naive girls turning lesbian after being raped by men and a lonely confused man (Michael Rapaport, deliberately parroting DeNiro's Travis Bickle) joining a neo Nazi group. The film ends in a big, climactic orgy of blood, as most of these films do. As with Singleton's best film, "Boyz n the Hood", actor Ice Cube (and rapper Busta Rhymes) stands out. He out classes everyone. The rest of the cast overact.While the film is right to show how racism as a system has been institutionalised within the very fabric of American social, economical, educational, and governmental institutions, and has always sought to dehumanise, devalue, and even destroy minorities and women, its ending, in which the word "unlearn" is boldly written on-screen, is completely unearned. The idea is that a "higher education" beyond "education" is the solution, that one should "unlearn" what they've been programmed to accept, but little in the film supports this theme and the statement largely comes out of left-field.7/10 - Worth one viewing.
tavm I thought I would originally review John Singleton's Boyz N the Hood and Poetic Justice for Black History Month here on IMDb but I found out the YouTube uploads had some scenes blocked by Columbia Pictures. So instead I'm reviewing this one, Higher Learning, having just watched on Netflix Streaming. Taking place at Columbus University, it centers on three freshmen: Malik Williams (Omar Epps) who has a half scholarship on track, Kristen Connor (Kristy Swanson) a naive girl from a town near Disneyland, and Remy (Michael Rapaport) who finds himself alienated from the beginning. They all attend the class of one Professor Phipps (Lawrence Fishbourne) who believes in not doing anyone special favors. Malik is especially resentful of this since he thinks the teacher should "help a brother out". Eventually, they all have some kind of mentor outside of class: Malik with Fudge (Ice Cube) and Deja (Tyra Banks), Kristen with Taryn (Jennifer Connelly), and Remy with Scott Moss (Cole Hauser). Compelling characterizations all with many pertinent topics and situations worth exploring though I feel I have to discuss one really interesting one: after Kristen gets raped, roommate Monet (Regina King) gets a call from the one who did it trying to reach her but gets rebuffed. He doesn't take it well and calls Monet a "black bitch" which then switches the focus from Kristen's misery to Monet's appalled demeanor with the result of her bringing her like-skinned friends to go to his place to...well, you've probably figured what they would attempt to do. This was the most compelling part that explored how one doesn't watch what one says in the heat of the moment with consequences to pay the only option. In summary, Higher Learning is perhaps not a great film but it's very good in pushing one's buttons. So on that note, it's well worth seeing.
Leonard Smalls: The Lone Biker of the Apocalypse To be fair, "Higher Learning" came out in the midst of one of the most liberal decades in the history of this country: the 1990's. Sadly, this does not excuse the blatant irresponsibility on display by writer/director John Singleton in his portrayal of both black and white college students. They remind me of characters from a film like "Not Another Teen Movie." Someone like me can watch this with a certain kind of eye and find the entertainment value in it, but to a young person or an impressionable teenager, "Higher Learning" is borderline dangerous propaganda and nothing more.The viewer is offered an entirely one-sided depiction of the racism that black people endure on a college campus, all the way up to the end. Not one campus security guard is black, they are all white and they are all racist. They even obstruct our hero in the end instead of going after the killer. It is absurd and unrealistic.The Neo-Nazi's are pathetic, mouth-breathing morons and the Black Power guys are intelligent, transcendent disciples of Huey Newton who, somehow, are still oppressed in 1995.I wouldn't say this is the WORST movie I've ever seen, but it sure is close. Only to be viewed by those with an IQ of 130 or higher and even then, just for pure comedic value.The acting is pretty good by all those involved, but the script stinks, the story is over the top ridiculous and the overall message here is not good. Anyone else notice that music in the 90's was better than now, but movies have definitely gotten better!?2 out of 10, kids.