At a public high school in Philadelphia, students attend classes, debate current affairs, and engage in extracurriculars—even simulating a trip to outer space. The parameters of their educational lives, however, are dictated by parents, teachers, administrators: adults who reinforce social mores.

In this revelatory film from Frederick Wiseman, the cultivation of young minds is closer to a bending of wills, one which lays the ground for conformist ideas to take root. With the Vietnam War looming large, High School draws a poignant link between different forms of American interventionism.