When a movie begins with a joke about a man falling from a building to his certain death, you know you’re in for some dark subject matter with a little bit of black humor. But considering the film is also titled “hate” you should have already been prepared to take a little journey down an uncomfortable looking alley into the parts of the city they don’t show in the travel brochures. You’re going a bit outside of your comfort zone, but as the punchline to the joke goes, it’s not the fall that matters, but how you land.
Cue the riots.
Despite being made in France in the mid nineties, La Haine is still sadly topical, as racial injustice and police brutality continue to make headlines twenty five years later. But oppressive power is rarely confined to one region of the globe, and public outrage towards vicious police tactics is understandable in any language. If there is anything us Americans sadly understand all too well, it’s rage. Anyone facing a blockade of angry faces armed with riot gear can tell you exactly what’s at stake when anger and fear compete for the controlling emotion.
La Haine stars Vincent Cassell, Hubert Kounde, and Said Taghmaoui as Vinz, Hubert, and Said, three young men whose lives in a Paris housing project are turned upside down by a riot sparked the night before. The local police have arrested a teenager, Abdel, and wounded him critically. Vowing violence, specifically Vinz, if he dies, the three friends go about their day, keeping one eye on the news and another on the police that are still found around every corner. As day turns into night and tensions among the trio heighten, they might soon be faced with a choice that all of them might not want to make. As the film continues, we learn that we aren’t watching the lives of angels, as each finds themselves on the wrong side of the law for one reason or another.
Director Mathieu Kassovitz, working from his own script, gives us enough information to make our own choices about his characters. Sure, Vinz might be a bit unhinged and all too ready to fight, but as he puts it, “when a brother goes down, I stand up.” There’s no mistake that he’s going to do something with the police gun that he found the night before. And Hubert, a boxer who owns his own gym, has the most to lose by sticking around his friends, but their his people and he’s going to be loyal to them, even when tortured by cops hoping to show a rookie the “right way” to do things in their district. Hubert is thoughtful and introspective but he’s not afraid to deck an officer when necessary. Lastly there is Said, perhaps the most quiet of the group, but it’s his quest to get paid from his drug dealing that sends the friends throughout the city on perhaps it’s most dangerous day.
La Haine is one “fall” after another. The lads refuse to stay quiet and antagonize officers at every opportunity, but their anger is real. They live in abject poverty, having little money to their name to the point that even a five franc hotdog is out of their price range. They are flawed. While their talking points might be of revolution, most of the time they’re more concerned with petty crime and making money. At times their behavior is reprehensible, but it’s obvious they are each a product of their environment, so when their anger points towards the systems that keep them oppressed you can’t help but cheer them on as they fall past each floor.
But as the joke goes, it’s the landing that matters. La Haine does not attempt to solve all of society’s ills. Drugs, racism, and poverty will still continue to exist once it’s run time is up, but it does present us with a situation that we can hopefully empathize with, and work to make better once the screen goes black. It lets us know that there is work to be done, and until things improve we will likely continue to hear the stories of resulting tragedy. But let me tell you this, it certainly sticks the landing.
“Hate breeds hate.”
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
