High School
1968 Directed by Frederick Wiseman
Synopsis
Documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman takes us inside Northeast High School as a fly on the wall to observe the teachers and how they interact with the students.
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"Is it possible to impregnate the girl by rubbing the surface of the vagina? With what, your nose?"
This is an extremely entertaining documentary. Within this entertaining film, is the scene of the gynecologist answering questions in front of a gymnasium full of male students. There is a real boy's club atmosphere to this scene, and the entire way that the gynecologist is presenting himself suggests that he is approaching the situation as if he was a stand-up comedian, and by the response of the male students, you'd think he was.
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This is only the second full Frederick Wiseman movie I've seen (as well as Titicut Follies) and marks what I can only be the beginning of my burning through his filmography. I have some more of him movies ready to watch and if they're anything like this, and I assume they are, I'll be making short work of them.
The film follows different characters in a '60s high school in Wiseman's trademark style - no voice over, no music. There are many endearing people at the school as well as some pretty interesting lessons being learned and values put forth when viewing from a modern perspective.
The scene where the sports teacher is talking to the 'nerd' who feels he…
Recent reviews
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"Is it possible to impregnate the girl by rubbing the surface of the vagina? With what, your nose?"
This is an extremely entertaining documentary. Within this entertaining film, is the scene of the gynecologist answering questions in front of a gymnasium full of male students. There is a real boy's club atmosphere to this scene, and the entire way that the gynecologist is presenting himself suggests that he is approaching the situation as if he was a stand-up comedian, and by the response of the male students, you'd think he was.
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Fascinating documentary time capsule of an era. Rather than intrude on the everyday situations he captures, Wiseman pioneered a direct cinema approach, using long observational takes of scenes built into a portrait of an institution. It's hard to tell if the anti-authoritarian streak is inherent in the film or something the viewer brings to it; either way, despite never being introduced to or explicitly told about characters, this is engaging and compelling film-making.
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80/100
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Indoctrination's a bitch, ain't it?
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Shot by documentary film maker Frederick Wiseman at Northeast High School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the aptly titled HIGH SCHOOL transcends standard fare by inadvertently offering a daring (editing provides a themed narrative) look into the flaws and pitfalls of government schools, also known as public schools, through a time portal of crisply preserved sound and video quality. Chosen in 1991 for preservation by the National Film Registry, the film, which was indubitably controversial upon it’s release, is perhaps even more so today in light of the US education system being so hotly contested state to state, nationally. Certainly student behavior was superior decades ago, but do we really want schools to go back to the way they used to be,…
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The mechanisms and institutions of adolescent development all conspire to do what society does: to instill deference to authority, suspicion of dissent, intolerance of idiosyncrasy, and an attitude of uniform compliance to accepted norms with the instinct to segregate and deride anyone who deviates from them. Wiseman captures every aspect of this process merely by caring to observe it. The ending, with the letter read aloud from the young man thanking his teachers for instilling him with the "discipline" that got him killed in Vietnam, is heartbreaking.
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This is only the second full Frederick Wiseman movie I've seen (as well as Titicut Follies) and marks what I can only be the beginning of my burning through his filmography. I have some more of him movies ready to watch and if they're anything like this, and I assume they are, I'll be making short work of them.
The film follows different characters in a '60s high school in Wiseman's trademark style - no voice over, no music. There are many endearing people at the school as well as some pretty interesting lessons being learned and values put forth when viewing from a modern perspective.
The scene where the sports teacher is talking to the 'nerd' who feels he…