When we think about the early career of Spike Lee, the focus is usually on two of the films he made in the 1980s – She’s Gotta Have It, widely considered one of the greatest directorial debuts of all time, and the brilliant Do the Right Thing, which is one of a small handful of films that can legitimately contend to be considered the greatest work of American cinema ever produced. However, there is a film that exists between these two that combines the rambunctious ambition of the former and the astonishing complexity of the latter, leading it to be just as much of a masterpiece, albeit in a very different way. School Daze is a comedy inspired by Lee’s experiences as a student at Morehouse College, the most prestigious historically black university in the United States, and the place where many incredible artists, athletes and activists made their first substantial efforts to imprint on the culture. A hilarious but often quite bleak odyssey into a moment in the past when tensions around the world were notoriously high, and it filters the experiences of a select group of individuals into a fascinating and often quite provocative comedy that touches on broad issues, all the while retaining a genuine sense of complex humour, something that has defined a majority of Lee’s films, which has continued to define him as one of the great directors of his generation. A genre-blending work of extraordinary artistry, delivered with incredible precision by a filmmaker who has been standing on the cutting edge of the medium since the first moment he stepped behind the camera, School Daze is one of his most captivating achievements that explores very serious subjects in a way that is unquestionably entertaining and profoundly moving. Armed with a strong sense of humour and an authentic dedication to every intricate detail, Lee tells this story with poignant honesty and a lot of charm, leading School Daze to be one of his most intriguing and unique films and one that is overdue for reanalysis.

Lee is quite a versatile filmmaker and has dabbled in many different genres and styles over time, which has given him quite a layered career that has seen him go in several different directions. Yet, there are a few elements that bind his work together and make it thoroughly captivating. It would not be out of place to imagine that Lee considers himself a social activist in the same way that he is an artist – all of his work carries some degree of commentary that speaks to various issues, particularly those facing the African-American community, and it is rare to find him producing a film that doesn’t carry some significance in terms of the message being conveyed on screen. However, it’s not surprising that once he was able to request more resources he would put them to good use in forming a very ambitious film that touches on profoundly important issues. School Daze is a fiery, passionate film that looks at the lives of college students who are divided over various matters, whether it be protesting against Apartheid in South Africa, promoting different standards of beauty or a range of other issues that exist at the very epicentre of the African-American experience, and continue to factor into the culture. Lee does not hold back when it comes to how he examines these ideas, and he crafts this film as a biting satire on social issues that is delivered with a layer of intentional snark and incredulity towards the structures that uphold some of these draconian conventions. The decision to set this film exclusively on a college campus adds layers of complexity to the story, since we find additional commentary around intellectual issues, and the overall experience becomes one about juxtaposing historical, static institutions like a university and a more contemporary, socially aware style of activism that aims to dismantle colonial structures and their consequences that are simply accepted as part of the culture. Anyone who pays attention to social issues will undoubtedly know how the most meaningful movements start on educational campuses, so it is not a surprise that Lee would choose a university as the setting for this story, which focuses on how the youth are usually the ones pioneering these social developments that are intent on changing how society functions.

One of the qualities that we’ve come to expect from Lee as a director is a genuine sense of showmanship – he is as intent on telling incredible stories as he is giving audiences an unforgettable experience. Part of what makes School Daze so exciting is that it is not simply a straightforward depiction of tensions on a college campus, but takes the form of something much broader and more complex, which has always been one of Lee’s specialities when it comes to films he has produced over time. As usual, the director approaches this material in a manner that blends genres – School Daze is a combination of comedy and musical, with broad overtures of melodrama and romance thrown in for good measure. It is something of a contemporary Romeo and Juliet in how it is structured, and the many different storytelling avenues down which Lee traverses are captured in vibrant detail. It has always been quite astonishing how he emerged as a fully-formed director with a strong vision right from the start – there was never a period of finding his footing within the industry, and even his very quaint debut had moments that made it very clear it was directed by someone with an extremely strong vision, and we can see the natural progression of his work over time reflected in all of his films, which progressively become more complex and ambitious in terms of both story and style. Lee has a good sense of how to handle this kind of material, and he develops these ideas perfectly and in such a way that it speaks to the broader intentions of the material. His filmmaking is incredibly precise and always deeply captivating, and his manner of unpacking much of this material is incredible – he owes a lot of the success to his collaborators, who work closely with him to develop these ideas, but it’s the sheer ambition that Lee had in conceiving of this story and developing it in such a way that suggests a major talent that draws us in and puts us under the enigmatic spell that drives this entire production.

As is the case with all of his films, Lee is as focused on the visual aspect as he is on the narrative, and we find that for a film as complex in its intentions as School Daze, the visual and sonic aspects of the story are captured in extraordinary detail by the director. Stylistically, the level of detail that goes into this film is extraordinary, and we find that Lee brings so much complexity to an otherwise very simple story. We’ve noted how the film takes the form of a musical, but unlike a lot of independent musicals that combine gritty filmmaking with musical performances, School Daze is as much about the message as it is about the production. Despite slightly more paltry resources that were at his disposal, Lee and his creative team (including cinematographer Ernest Dickerson, costume designer Ruth E. Carter and the entire art department – many of whom have continued to have strong working relationships with the director) do their best to replicate the look and feel of a major musical production. The colours are vibrant, and staging of the musical numbers is gorgeous to look at, and the overall experience is truly engaging. Credit also has to go to the team tasked with producing the music – Bill Lee once again is behind the score, and there are some genuinely fantastic songs written for this film that could have been directly plucked off the stage, or even been found in the repertoire of some of the greatest artists of the period. As we have come to realize throughout his career, Lee very rarely does anything half-heartedly, and working with this incredible group of creatives behind the scenes, as well as an ensemble cast that manages to perfectly capture the emotions of the film (including the two leads, played by the very young Laurence Fishburne and Giancarlo Esposito, both incredible), School Daze is an astonishing piece of filmmaking that feels like it is aiming to be a spectacle, albeit one with a lot of depth, and the creativity that goes into the films production being some of the most exciting in Lee’s career.

While it may not be considered one of his most famous works and has undeniably been overshadowed by the two films that were made on either side, as well as some of his later productions, School Daze is still an exceptional and deeply moving film with a strong sense of humour and an even more forthright attention to detail that immediately piques our curiosity. It is certainly difficult to not be taken aback by the sheer ambition that drives this film and makes it such an intriguing and compelling work, and Lee’s masterful direction and his willingness to layer the film with so many complex ideas are not lost on the audience, as we find ourselves growing increasingly more captivated by what we are seeing on screen, and we soon discover that there is a lot more to this film than initially meets the eye, which is part of its brilliance and the reason why it has become such a cherished film amongst audiences that have experienced it. Even the attempts to proclaim it as a cult film has not been successful, since this is a far broader accomplishment that is as important to Lee’s career as his canonical works, and deserves to stand alongside the many other incredible films he has made, since in terms of scope and sheer ambition, School Daze does something quite remarkable. Many of these ideas would be developed further in later films, and it often seemed like this was just an opportunity to throw out some ideas and see how audiences would perceive them – and one would imagine that the growing status of this film, which has developed into a more earnest and steadfast examination of cultural identity and social activism, proves that from the start, Lee had a firm grasp on the collective social pulse, which has allowed him to make several profoundly moving films, of which School Daze is one of his most fascinating achievements, and a film with a lot of nuance and genuine curiosity about social standards.