Line #7 YMMV/HigherLearning


1	* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: When Taryn and Kristen kiss in her dorm room, did the two actually sleep together afterward? Or was Kristen fantasizing about being with Taryn, in preparation for her having sex with her boyfriend Wayne?
2	* {{Anvilicious}}
3	** Racism is bad and [[{{Eagleland}} America is racist!]] ''Can't we all just get along?''
4	** Unlearn, which the movie [[LiteralMetaphor literally spells out]] for the audience to end the film.
5	* BestKnownForTheFanservice: Most people remember the movie best for its kissing scene featuring Creator/JenniferConnelly and Creator/KristySwanson.
6	* CryForTheDevil: "I wanted to build things! I wanted to be an engineer!"
7	* EthnicScrappy: Dr. Phipps is treated this way in-story (when some of the students mock his accent).
8	* HarsherInHindsight: [[spoiler: Remy's rampage can remind modern audiences of the UsefulNotes/{{Columbine}} shootings.]]
9	* HilariousInHindsight: Creator/LaurenceFishburne's first line is "[[Film/TheMatrix Welcome to the real world.]]"
10	* HoYay: The kissing scene between Kristen and Taryn. Also their close friendship.
11	* MisaimedFandom:
12	** Some white viewers tentatively identify with [[spoiler: Remy]], arguing that [[spoiler: his homicidal rampage in the climax]] was only [[PayEvilUntoEvil an accounting for what had been done to him]]. They forget that 1) Fudge and his goons, for all their negative traits, are ''not'' bloodthirsty zealots; and 2) [[spoiler: the two people actually shot to death by Remy are innocents who never tormented him and barely even knew him]].
13	** In an even more bizarre case, the actor who played the character has had to deal with ''black'' viewers telling him how much they identify and sympathize with the character.
14	* {{Narm}}
15	** The montage alternating between Kristen and Remy decorating their dorm rooms (to two radically different styles of music) is slightly wacky.
16	** That bizarre, [[FakeBrit pseudo-British accent]] the leader of the neo-Nazis uses.
17	** [[spoiler: Remy's Mental Breakdown and attempts to escape from the campus police.]]
18	** The [[TitleDrop Higher Learning]] poem, delivered in full {{Beatnik}} fashion.
19	-->''"What is '''''high'''''? What is '''''high-er'''''? What is '''''learn'''''? What is '''''learn-ing'''''? What is '''''[[TitleDrop higher learning]]'''''?"''
20	* NightmareFuel:
21	** [[spoiler: Deja is shot in the stomach by Remy and suffers an agonizing death, [[BloodFromTheMouth vomiting up blood]].]]
22	** Kristen's rape. Despite not being particularly violent or graphic, it's so realistic and identical to what has played out in countless college dormitories that probably triggered some horrible memories for a lot of people.
23	* RootingForTheEmpire: It's obvious that Singleton wants us to see the Nazi characters as evil and cruel, even to the point of [[{{Anvilicious}} having ominous music play whenever they appear]]. But he did a little ''too'' good a job of demonization, making every skinhead character [[BeingEvilSucks so stupid, delusional, cowardly, or pathetic]] that many viewers wound up [[UnintentionallySympathetic sympathizing with them anyway]]. This reached EpicFail dimensions when Michael Rapaport reported hearing ''black'' moviegoers saying they identified with his character!
24	* StrawmanHasAPoint
25	** Creator/JohnSingleton wants us to see Remy's behavior later on in the film as irrational and merely acting out. But when you take into consideration how Fudge's gang, including Malik, treat him, is there any wonder he [[FaceHeelTurn went nuts]]?
26	** It happens to Scott, Remy's nazi friend who urges him to stay in school. Scott does it for the wrong reasons (he thinks college learning for whites would help them go on as the master race), but still there's no denying the value of education.
27	* TooBleakStoppedCaring: The one character that isn't a jackass fed up with everything bad going on or looking for solutions in the absolute worst places [[spoiler:is the WideEyedIdealist girl that gets shot by Remy at the climax. And Malik, TheHero, runs away and drops out of college]]. So, yeah.
28	* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: Even if you can ignore the hairstyles of the male characters, which by themselves date this film, there is also the heavily closeted lesbian relationship - not to mention the (literally) black-and-white racial politics and general exaggeration and cartoonishness, which will have "[[PoorMansSubstitute poor man's]] Creator/SpikeLee" spilling from your mouth within seconds.

Context YMMV / HigherLearning