Question

1.How does the movie Higher Learning reflect its social context?

? How are the social the social conditions depicted in the movie different or similar than those today?

Answer 1

Higher Learning is far from the best work of writer and director John Singleton - he's not even far from his Oscar-nominated debut, Boyz n the Hood. Higher learning was, however, painfully applicable in early 1995. Violence nationwide broke out in movie theaters showing the film during its opening week. Racial tension was high in America after former big NJ OJ Simpson was accused of murdering his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and his friend, Ronald Goldman, in June 1994. The film was released a few weeks before the beginning of the murder trial, which remains one of the most publicized racially charged to date.

The film opens and ends with strokes of the American flag, finally ending with the word "unlearn". This message, overt and clumsy as higher education itself, urges the public to move away from the lessons that life has taught them. But for all the progress of the world in the 20 years since the release of the film, his statement failed to find an echo powerful enough to cause significant changes.

Very little of what students get from experience comes from textbooks or classrooms. The pursuit of higher education is an accelerated course in life lessons. As a freshman at Columbus University deliberately titled, Malik (Omar Epps), Kristen (Kristy Swanson), and Remy (Michael Rapaport) offer three different perspectives. Malik is an athlete, but no archetypal and stupid jock and eager to prove it; Kristen's intentions are pure, but she is naive; Remy is a socially clumsy loner whose inability to connect with others makes him a mobile explosive. Like every search of their place on campus, vulnerability drives them to older figures with concrete beliefs.

In John Singleton's eyes, "unlearning" means releasing the toxins that pollute individuals and society. But this cleansing process also involves the adoption of a new, more progressive set of values. Which leads to the biggest question: What did we learn in the two decades that followed the creation of Higher Learning? The answer is alarming. While we may seem closer together, recent events prove the opposite. People of different ethnicities can be influenced by the same things, from music to style, but are still not viewed in the same way by society.