Havoc Movie Analysis

Havoc is a movie that gives an insight to what it is like for some adolescents. In the movie, the two crucial characters are Allison and Emily. These girls, like almost every other person in this movie, are white upper-class teens who try to emulate gang and street life. They are so eager to experience the street life and would do anything to make it seem as if they are from the hood. They are naïve in some ways, but go to the far extreme to be something that they are not. Even in the beginning of the movie, one can see that Allison, Emily, and their friends have this fascination to appear as if they are from the streets, even though they are well off. After Allison’s boyfriend, Toby, gets threatened by a gang member, Hector, the girls still

find a way to go back there and even get themselves into trouble along the way. This trouble ends up being something as serious as rape. In a pursuit to prove how “hood or tough” they are and in a pursuit to become a member of the gang, they end up bargaining for what they asked for. These girls will go on to discover that the street life is not all that it appears to be and that they are trouble that comes with the lifestyle. Allison and Emily represent the adolescents that likes to experiment. Although they are well off, they feel as though living a different way (street) is the “cool way”. They also represent the high risk taking adolescents. One can tell that Allison and Emily had a desire to belong. In doing this, they underestimated the amount of trouble they could get themselves into. Also, it can be perceived that Allison and Emily did not have comfort from their parents, which may be the reason that they wanted to seek it elsewhere.
This movie is a great example of high risk behavior in teens/adolescents.

All the high school students, except Eric, had this urge to do something risky in order to appear a certain way or to impress others. This is generally how teens get themselves involve in crimes they did not know they have committed. Sometimes, teens may feel trapped and would want to explore something out of their comfort zone. In the movie, we can see that there is a lot of drug use and even underage drinking. This was often seen at regular social hangout parties. In an effort to appear “cool”, many of the teens engage in this behavior. That is not all. There are also sexual activities that goes on. We see Allison perform sex acts on her boyfriend at the party. This is not really all about peer pressure in this case. No one is pressuring them into doing these things. They are most likely doing these things because they think that this is the type of behavior that is done in the “hood”. One can come to the conclusion that Allison and Emily’s friends might have seen or heard something in the media that seems to glamorize the type off lifestyle that they are trying to emulate. When Allison and Emily go for a drive with their boyfriends, they always seem to want to go the hood part of the neighborhood. They see how tough they act over there and think it is a way to act. Allison and Emily were the only ones out of their whole friends that were longing to continue going back to Hector’s rough neighborhood, and thus put themselves in a position to be manipulated, just because they wanted to join a gang. They were willing to be someone that they were not just to fit in. This is why Hector told Allison, “You ain't real. There's nothing real about you. Your talk ain't real, Your walk ain't real, the way you dress ain't real. You don't even copy it from the real thing, you fucking get it from the TV” (Havoc) . Allison and Emily knew this was not the type of life for them. They also knew that this

type of lifestyle is not as glamorous as if appears to be. Lastly, there are teens who will do anything just to seek out their own identity and then there are those teens who are just willing to do anything for just no reason. Like Allison says to Eric, “...we're just teenagers and we're bored” (Havoc). This goes to show that some teenagers do things just for the fun of it.
In conclusion, the message I received from this movie is that teens need adults guiding them every step of the way. This does not mean that the adults will not give them space, but it is necessary for parents to be aware of their children’s action. As I was watching this movie, I could not understand why there were barely any parental involvement. I understood that Allison’s parents were having a rocky marriage and were trying to solve it, however, it is still important to pay attention to the children as well. As for the adolescent perspective, I understand that this is the age that teens feel like they do not need their parents, but in my opinion, is the age when we might need them most. If the parents had been more involved, the teens might not have gotten into the type of trouble they had. One thing I do understand is that this is also the stage in which teens try to experiment. It is normal for a teen to try to experiment and discover things, but what the girls in the movie did went beyond that. They were simply trying to be someone and something that they were not. They could not grasp the reality that a certain way of life comes with consequences. Allison and her friends grew up in the upper class, and I could understand why they would want to experience being lower class, but there are other ways to go about that besides really trying to live that way. Allison and her friends had to learn that your backgrounds are what makes you who you are. The situations that they put themselves in helped them to come to this realization. While watching this movie, I could not help but connect it to the other videos and things that were talked about in class. I recall this one video in which a boy was talking about how his parents did not give him space. Yet, even with close parental guidance, he was still able to find himself and do what he enjoyed doing. If Allison and Emily and the other friends had parents who would really sit down and talk to them, they might not feel trapped and want to explore beyond their means. All in all, this movie helped to bring awareness of the different type of challenges that adolescents go through.