Violence In La Haine

La Haine is a French film from the 1990s. The film is in black and white camera effect and sets a serious mood and tone. The movie starts off with clips of people rioting and cars being overturned. Right away, you can tell one of the themes in this film will be related with violence. The movie’s main characters are three young men; Said, Hubert, and Vinz. They all were from the projects. Although the three of them were ethnically diverse from one another. They derived from the same background and experienced similar conflicts within the French society. La Haine greatly exhibited how harsh life was for the people living in the projects. The movie revolved around themes such as violence, racism, and the struggle of coming from a relatively poor

and bad- reputed background. The cops, in the film, automatically assumed and labeled the people from the projects as delinquents. Henceforth, the relationship between the cops and the people was hateful. The people from the projects rioted, being sick of the system and infuriated, especially after the cops brutally abused an Arab from the projects named Abdel.
There were several themes presented in the film La Haine. One major theme was violence in the projects. As mentioned before, the movie began with riots; people turning cars over, vandalizing property, and burning cars and buildings. There was footage being played which clearly showed police brutality.
Guns significantly contributed to the violence in the projects throughout the film.

If you had a gun, you basically had power. When a lost gun from the riots was in Vinz’s custody, many internal as well as external conflicts arose. Hubert and Vinz, numerous times, had arguments and tensions arising between them two. Vinz wished to take a life of an officer to avenge the death of his friend, Abdel. Hubert felt that was a terrible idea and wouldn't make a difference because killing one officer wouldn't have solved the issue. Although Vinz never did get to execute an officer, despite his desires to do so, ultimately an officer executed Vinz accidently. Furthermore, in one riot, a group of men who were close to Abdel shot at cops, infuriated. Where there were guns, there was violence in the movie. Guns and violence were a huge theme in the

movie.
Another theme in La Haine was racism. There were many instances where racial slurs were being thrown around. For example, when Said and Hubert were being detained by the cops in Paris, they abused them both physically and verbally. The cops were unjust, they had no proof or reason to arrest them. Perhaps because of the way they appeared, one Arabic and the other black, the cops automatically assumed they were up to no good. Said, Hubert, and Vinz also threw racial slurs to the whites in Paris, calling them skinheads and neo-Nazis. The film showed that being black or Arabic degraded the person and lost their respect in the eyes of French society.
Discrimination was another major theme in the film.

The three men, Said, Hubert, and Vinz were without a doubt unfairly discriminated and mistreated by the cops. Simply because of where they came from, the police never gave them the full respect everyone is entitled to have. The police did not even know them or have proof they committed a crime or offense, but still beat Said and Hubert up severely. Even when a group of the people from the projects were just on the roof top, not causing trouble, they were forced to get off and disperse. And when they refused, the situation got out of hand and violence was

reinforced.
La Haine displayed and exposed the harsh police brutality and the struggles for belonging in the projects within the French society during the 1990s. The police picked on these young people whether they had a valid reason or not. It was injustice, and so the people ultimately rioted. Vinz briefly mentioned his hatred towards “the system” in the movie. The projects was a tough place to live in. Even Hubert mentioned that he wished to “get out” from there. Simply being from the projects automatically made them lose all the respect they had. They weren't seen the same way in the cop’s perspective. The film expressed many themes such as violence, racism, discrimination, and struggles.
La Haine was filmed and produced in the 1990s by Mathieu Kassovitz. Kassovitz was inspired to make this film with these themes and concepts when Makome M’Bowole, was shot in 1993. M’Bowole was shot by a cop by accident, just how Vinz was shot in the film. Although the film was scripted, these events and issues were very much authentic and huge issues in the 90s. The film incorporated many scenes that were based on real life events. The unfortunate truth is that in the 1990s police brutality and riots were trending globally, not in just France. Discrimination and violence was not only a progressing issue in France, but even in the U.S. In 1992, Rodney King was savagely beaten by cops in Los Angeles. The impact of this was weeks of civil unrest and riots. It was terrible time and situation in both the U.S and France.