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1001 movies to see before you die. It was fascinating to see how I was captivated by something so simple, the conversations between students, teachers, teachers teaching class, the principal and many others. The direction was subtle to include specific people and conversations to manipulate the audience into calling into question how a High School is run, but it didn't show much about the successes of the teachers and focused on the authoritarian aspect of things. Regardless, it was a fascinating documentary and a good time capsule. It was on Internet Archives.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
03/31/23
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Audience Member
This documentary honestly didn't do anything for me. It was interesting to see a school from the late 60s but it didn't have any dialogue like most documentaries and kept jumping around every 2 minutes which made me wonder what was going on. Pretty Dull and Plain in how it was made..
Rated 1/5 Stars •
Rated 1 out of 5 stars
02/10/23
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Filmed in a mostly white Philadelphia high school in the late 1960's, documentarian Frederick Wiseman shows how the everyday struggles of these teachers, students, and parents were a microcosm of those in Vietnam-era America. Administrators trying to impose discipline on apathetic and unruly students, mostly clueless (but well meaning) teachers attempting to inject purpose and order into teenagers' lives, and parents trying to love their kids despite their desperate need to reject everything they stand for. Not only are the themes expressed here timeless, but it is the insight into how they played out in that exact place and time that is so fascinating. Whether it's a gynecologist insisting sexually experienced partners make worse spouses than virgins, a teacher trying to pedantically explain why Paul Simon's music is poetry, or another teacher organizing a fashion show while insulting the girls who will be in it, older audiences are reminded just how ridiculous high school was, while teenagers will take comfort in knowing their parents and grandparents had to put up with the same stuff they do.
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
02/01/23
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Audience Member
So good. And there's a Rushmore shot context in it! Student is using the phone in the hall without a pass, and an adult stops him, and he puts his finger out to him while still on the phone, just like Max Fischer does in Rushmore.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/19/23
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Audience Member
A interesting and morbid look at high school life.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
01/20/23
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Audience Member
In the film, "High School" (1968) by Frederick Wiseman, Wiseman uses the observational mode of documentary film to create an immersive atmosphere that simulates the visual and aural senses that a passive high school attendee might have experienced in the late 1960s. In standard observational documentaries, the cameraman is described as a fly on the wall. While not directly involved with the action, the cameraman in "High School" films in a way that allows the viewer to seamlessly meld to the position and point of view of a student or professor. Wiseman incorporates aspects that situate the viewer in the high school setting of the 1960s such as allowing the viewer to overhear cultural ideas and events that anchor the film to such a time. While not an issue at the time of its filming, Wiseman also exposes the one-sidedness of the school system in favor of the teachers' opinions.
The film subtly exposes the 1960s through the arts, political struggles, events and tragedies that all contribute to creating a realistic atmosphere around the viewer. Nichols writes, "Such works are characterized by indirect address, speech overheard rather than heard since the social actors engage with one another rather than to the camera." (39) Overhearing information in the film presents a more realistic reality because that is the way that information is often presented in real life. In the real world, outside of the classroom setting, people are not accustomed to having information thrust upon them and often learn through overhearing that information or discovering it on their own. The film presents themes not to the viewer, but to the students within the film and the viewer is given the opportunity to overhear that information if they choose. In a particular scene, a professor makes an announcement that there is to be a mandatory assembly about the death of Martin Luther King, Jr. During a separate assembly, a teacher reads a letter sent to the school from an alumnus who is going to war in Vietnam. Racial oppression is also presented through a clip of a teacher polling his class about whether they would join a club if it contained a certain ratio of black members. On a side note, in a classroom setting today, this discussion would be very inappropriate, but the 1960s setting permit it as a trending topic of discussion, which adds to the authenticity of the viewer's experience with the film. In none of these scenes do the film's producers manipulate the way that these topics are brought up and discussed.
The topical events and themes discussed do not only apply to the high school depicted in the movie. By letting the viewer overhear information, "High School" presents universal cultural topics that might have otherwise been overlooked in another style of documentary if they weren't directly brought up. In relation to this idea, Bill Nichols mentions, "The presence of the camera 'on the scene' testifies to its presence in the historical world; its fixity suggests a commitment or engagement with the immediate, intimate, and personal that is comparable to what an actual observer/participant might experience." (40) The viewer is constantly being barraged by the cultural themes of the 1960s through events that don't stray outside of the high school setting. These themes help give the viewer a sense of immediacy in the high school environment as well as a certain intimacy with its atmosphere.
Sound plays an important role in determining how natural a film feels. The use of diegetic music demonstrates the genres and styles of music that were popular at this time, such as a scene of girls dancing in gym class to Simple Simon Says (Raise your hands in the air!) or a professor's presentation of Simon and Garfunkel's "A Dangling Conversation" to an on looking class of daydreaming students. These songs engage the viewer in the same way that they engage the classmates listening to them, which is to inspire the desire to participate due to having a feeling of presence.
"High School" raises other topical concepts that aren't as prevalent in society today, such as how one-sided the school systems used to be. In doing so, the picture presents true to life sequences from students and teacher perspectives that stimulate the viewer to pick sides. In every scene relative to this topic, the teachers are depicted as stubbornly dominant, even when facing a logical issue with a student. In reference to the standard of an observational documentary, Nichols poses the questions, "To what extent and in what ways shall the voice of the people be represented? If they are observed by someone else, to what extent do their own observations on the process and results of observation deserve a place in the final film?" (39) The film frequently trails the voices of the teachers and positions the camera nearest them during outcries from students. The viewer is forced to hear their dominant voices. For example, early on, a student is discussing that he has a doctor's appointment, but is still being forced to wear his gym outfit. In a separate clip, a student approaches a teacher with a very reasonable argument, which also suggested that he is the victim of a bully, but the professor hands the student a detention and sends him on his way after a long discussion. Later on a student making an important call is caught without a hall monitor pass and sent back to class. All of these scenes put the camera behind the perspective of the teacher and preserve the very real actions and reactions between teachers and students.
While the film is an observational documentary, the cameraman is more than just a fly on the wall. The cinematography while not excessively planned, is vital in further immersing the viewer into the scene. The cameraman becomes a high school attendee through the use the handheld camera, which adds a natural camera shake to the entire film. The producers' lack of a voice, joint with proper cinematography supports Nichol's theory that "the observational mode of representation has enjoyed considerable use as an ethnographic tool, allowing filmmakers to observe the activities of others without resorting to the technique of exposition that turn the sounds and images of others into accomplices in someone else's argument." (40) The film has some subjective shots that are less practical in an observational documentary because they appear personal to the cameraman and ultimately subtract from the film's inherent neutrality. The close up shot of the young student's derriere that lasted nearly ten seconds was one of such shots and brought an isolated moment of voyeurism to the film. However, it must be mentioned that there is a possibility that this shot was included in the final work to help the viewer see through the eyes of a typical easily aroused high school boy.
Ultimately the observational documentary style in "High School" allows more thematic details to be presented to the viewer without coming off as overly blunt. "High School" puts the viewer in the seat of a high school attendee and lets them decide how they feel about each sequence rather than choosing a side for them and telling them what they should be feeling.
Bibliography
Maule, Rosanna. "The Kino Eye:1960's documentary film in North America." FMST 322/3 Classroom Discussion. Concordia University Library Auditorium, Montreal. September 25, 2014. Lecture.
Nichols, Bill. "Documentary Modes of Representation." Representing Reality: Issues and Concepts in Documentary. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991: 32-75; 270-277. Concordia University. CLUES Library Catalogue. Maule, Rosanna. FMST 322/3 Course Reserves. October 11, 2014. Web.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
01/31/23
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