MovieChat Forums > Higher Learning (1995) Discussion > All the main characters are racist

All the main characters are racist

posted 3 years ago by kuatorises (7467)
2 replies | jump to latest

So I caught a part of this on TV the other night and was reminded how bad this movie is. It's actually funny to watch. The characters are all really (badly acted) stereotypes.

Omar Epps character is as blatantly racist as the white supremacists. Him, Cube and that whole crew trash white people the whole movie. When Kristy Swanson's character is raped, all they care about is that the rapist called Regina King's character a black bitch. Rapaport's character and his new friends are all obviously racist too given that they're Nazis The whole lot of them are unapologetically racist.

This truly an awful movie, but it's a lot of fun to laugh at.

[–] HarveyManFredSin (4877) 2 years ago

It's a very bleak film, for sure, but I don't know if it's necessarily out-of-touch.

Sadly, a lot of people *are* self-obsessed, narcissistic and *only* care about slights towards *themselves* rather than more serious acts of abuse.

I don't know whether John Singleton was sincerely condemning the Black group who cared more about the n-word than they did about a *rape* but that doesn't mean his pessimistic view of human nature was way off base.

I admittedly find it a very compelling film, but I do hope that the characters are OTT types rather than realistic depictions of college students. Alas, I do wonder...

[–] mechajutaro (2788) 10 months ago

"It's a very bleak film, for sure, but I don't know if it's necessarily out-of-touch"

Yeah, HL is hamfisted in the way so many 90s flicks which explored such themes were, but the characters and mindsets they exhibited are far from uncommon. Fishburne's character is the only one who's especially sympathetic, the film's implication is "Most people aren't wired to be as intellectually profound as Phipps is... Moronicism and degeneracy is the rule, rather than the exception"