La Haine

I felt that La Haine was a very powerful movie. I really liked how race was almost absent within the film. The three main characters, Vinz, Said, and Hubert, were of three different races and were great friends. The three of them were generally on the same side (despite some differences in opinion) and they seemed to not even notice that they were of different races. I felt that keeping the film in black and white set the mood excellently. Also the camerawork was very well done and the focus on the graffiti was very interesting. I felt the graffiti was shown to represent the ghetto expressing themselves and getting back a little bit against the police.

What I found to be the most interesting, for me watching this film, was how much I disliked the main characters and was even disgusted at most of their behavior. I was mostly annoyed with Vinz for how hotheaded he was but the other characters were still angry and acted on their anger often. Every conversation they had with anyone involved them yelling and trying to start an argument. They also treated women strictly as sexual objects. This was shown the most when they crash that art show and bother the two women. Although it was the interrogation scene at the police station that really made me start to understand the characters. This scene altered my judgment of the characters and even made me angry. The ending scene was obviously very emotional as well and made for an excellent and intense closing for the film. I felt this film was very relevant to our recent topics and did a great job of conveying the emotions that the characters in the film were going through.

Ryan Adams