La Haine

By Mal -

8 out of 10 (revised)

I’ve heard that this is meant to be a really good film, but I came away thinking it was merely ok. Casting light on the tensions between police and the immigrant communities of suburban Paris, the film follows the story of 3 youths caught up in the rioting. Maybe I was meant to side with them, but two of them were idiots and the other, while stronger, simply wasn’t strong enough to rise above his situation. Sure, police attitudes don’t help, but as with any long-running conflict, it takes two to tango and repeated escalations are almost inevitable. La Haine demonstrates this pretty well, but can’t offer a substantive solution. You get the feeling that, were you to travel to these parts of Paris today, nothing would have changed. The final stand-off says it all. It simply fills you with a sense of despair.

Hmmm... in the course of writing this review, I think I’ve convinced myself it was better than just ok. It’s certainly not a happy or hopeful film, but that doesn’t stop it being a good one. While I was going to give it a 6, I’m happy to knock it up another couple of notches. :)

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