School Daze

Vaughn “Dap” Dunlap is a politically and socially conscious black student at Mission College, a leading historically black college in Atlanta. On homecoming weekend, Dap leads an anti-apartheid demonstration, demanding that the school divest from South Africa, and feuds with Julian “Dean Big Brother Almighty” Eaves, the head/president of Mission College's Gamma Phi Gamma Fraternity chapter. Dap's younger cousin Darrell “Half-Pint”, a Gamma pledge, is ordered by Julian to bring a girl to the fraternity that night, and goes to Dap for advice.

Cedar Cloud, chairman of Mission's board of trustees, warns college president Harold McPherson that the divestment protests may scare off the school's wealthy donors. The Gamma Rays, the Gamma women's auxiliary led by Julian's girlfriend Jane Toussaint – mostly light-skinned black women with straightened hair – clash with some of their non-Greek classmates, including Dap's girlfriend Rachel Meadows – mostly dark-skinned black women with natural hair – over skin color and hair politics. Unsuccessful in courting any female students, Darrell and the pledges are hazed. Dap and Rachel have a falling out when she plans to rush a sorority, and she accuses him of colorism.

The weekend's festivities begin, and the Gamma brothers nearly come to blows with Dap and his fellow protestors at the homecoming parade. After the Mission football team suffers an embarrassing loss, Cloud and McPherson threaten Dap with expulsion if he continues his activism. Dap and his friends drive into town to eat at KFC, where they are harassed by locals who resent them as privileged college boys. Returning to campus, Dap confronts Julian about Darrell's pledge status. At the Greeks’ step show, a performance by Dap and his friends leads to a brawl with the Gammas. Seeking out Rachel, Dap is humiliated by her dorm neighbors, but he and Rachel reconcile.

Darrell and the Gamma pledges endure a grueling initiation and are welcomed as new members. At the school dance, Dap's roommate Grady hits it off with a female student and coaxes her to his room, but she refuses to stay when Dap and Rachel are already there. As the Gammas celebrate, Julian forces Jane to have sex with Darrell, but rejects her afterward. Darrell excitedly informs Dap, who is infuriated. At sunrise, Dap wakes the entire campus from the previous night's debauchery. A tearful Julian arrives and stands eye-to-eye with Dap, who breaks the fourth wall to tell the audience directly, “Please, wake up”.

• Larry Fishburne as Vaughn "Dap" Dunlap
• Giancarlo Esposito as Julian "Dean Big Brother Almighty" Eaves
• Tisha Campbell as Jane Toussaint
• Kyme as Rachel Meadows
• Joe Seneca as President Harold McPherson
• Ellen Holly as Odrie McPherson
• Art Evans as Cedar Cloud
• Ossie Davis as Coach Odom
• Bill Nunn as Grady
• Branford Marsalis as Jordan
• Kadeem Hardison as Edge
• Spike Lee as Darrell "Half-Pint" Dunlap
• Darryl M. Bell as Big Brother X—Ray Vision
• Joie Lee as Lizzie Life
• Alva Rogers as Doris Witherspoon
• Paula Brown as Miriam
• Jasmine Guy as Dina
• Samuel L. Jackson as Leeds
• Roger Guenveur Smith as Yoda
• Cinqué Lee as Buckwheat
• Cylk Cozart as Big Brother Dr. Feelgood

Spike Lee arranged for the two groups of actors to stay in separate hotels during filming. The actors playing the "wannabees" were given better accommodations than the ones playing the "jigaboos." This favoritism contributed to tension on the set, which showed in the on-camera animosity between the two camps.[3] (The producers used a similar tactic in filming Animal House, with similar results.) In School Daze, the method approach yielded strong results — the fight that occurs at the step show between Dap's crew and the Gammas was not in the script. On the day the scene was shot, the fight broke out between the two sides. Lee ordered the cameras to keep rolling.[3]

Officials of Morehouse, Spelman, and Clark Atlanta University asked Lee to stop filming on the campuses before he completed his work because the colleges' Boards of Directors had concerns on how he was portraying the historically black colleges in the film.[3] Lee had to finish filming at the neighboring Morris Brown College.[3]

Ruth E. Carter designed the costumes for the film, inspired by uniforms and styles worn at the HBCUs. At Lee's encouragement, she commissioned American fashion designer Willi Smith to design the gowns for the Homecoming Court in the film.

The film received mixed reviews for its exploration of issues within the black community. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times noted, "There is no doubt in my mind that 'School Daze,' in its own way, is one of the most honest and revealing movies I've ever seen about modern middle-class black life in America."[4] He also noted its frank exploration of issues of discrimination within the black community related to skin tone and nature of hair. He said it was significant as a film with a "completely black orientation. All of the characters, good and bad, are black, and all of the character's references are to each other."[4]

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 56%, based on 27 reviews, and an average rating of 5.67/10.[5]

"Da Butt," written by Marcus Miller and Mark Stevens, and performed by the group E.U. (who appear in the film), hit number 1 on Billboard's R&B chart and number 35 on its Pop chart. The School Daze soundtrack also features the song, "Be One," written by Bill Lee and performed by Phyllis Hyman, who also appears in the film.

• Historically black colleges and universities
• List of African-American fraternities
• Colorism
• Stepping
• Burning Sands (2017)

Wikiquote has quotations related to: School Daze

• School Daze at IMDb
• School Daze at AllMovie
• School Daze at Rotten Tomatoes