La Haine vs City of God

The first film I’m going to write about is Le Haine which came out in 1995, it was directed by Mathieu Kassovitz. The film shows 3 young men in the French ghetto, and shows their story over 24-hours. The 3 young men are, Vinz, a Jew, Said, an Arab, and Hubert, a black boxer, they grew up in the French ghetto that we are shown, and we are shown racism and tension between young people and the police force. In the film we are shown a riot that was going on in France, during that riot a police officer lost his handgun, and Vinz found that handgun, and he tries to gain the respect he thinks he deserves, and how vows that will kill a cop if his friend Abdel dies in the hospital. Abdel was in hospital because of the beating he got by police during the riots.

The quality of the performances from the 3 main actors, their conviction, and the way they interact with each other, Kassovitz’s script and direction make this a very interesting movie, it’s full of action, detail, unexpected incidents and quirky humor. There are constant confrontations with a brutal, racist police force, and Vinz has a 44 Magnum which he found, as the police officer lost it during the riots, and we all know that it will be used on someone at some point during the film.

The second film is City of God which was released in 2002, it was directed by Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lund. The film is showing two young boys growing up in a violent neighborhood of Rio De Janeiro, and shows how they both take different paths in life, one of them becomes a photographer and the other a drug dealer. The film shows the different scenarios of life that make up the wider-story and they are presented in Pulp Fiction style chapters. The story shows all facets of the life, focusing on several key members of the gangs from childhood through to young adulthood, showing their life from young hoodlums to local drug barons. The final parts of the story shows the battle between the two gangs which was caused by business and personal matters being mixed up which lead to unavoidable confrontation.

Martin Scorsese had a heavy influence on the direction of City Of God, as at many points it looks familiar to his work. Close ups, sweeping scene shots, freeze-and-zoom shots, these are all the trademarks that were mainly used by Scorsese throughout his career. Many shots look familiar to Goodfellas, in which the camera was used to highlight the main points in the script, just like it was used in City Of God, the directors managed to use the camera to highlight the most important points in the script and the draw the viewers’ attention to certain people or scenarios.

 

The two films are similar as they both show poverty which leads to violence and crime, as in City Of God, most of the young kids started robbing people and selling drugs because they needed money, and in La Haine, Hubert sells drugs to get himself money. More importantly both films focus on “respect”, in City Of God, everyone wants to earn respect and the films shows that respect can only be earned by killing people and selling drugs and being the biggest drug dealer. In La Haine Vinz wants to earn respect and that’s why he wants to kill a cop, so people will give him the respect he deserves.

 

Young men from ethnic minorities are the main social groups represented in both films. Each film has a young black male protagonist. Rocket in City of God and Hubert in La Haine. The American ‘hood’ film sub genre usually shows a character that is trying to reject the crime life and get away from the trouble. Rocket and Hubert both fit in this, they both try to reject crime from their lives. Rocket is involved in crimes but can’t go through with robbing or killing people because of his nature, he tries to get away from crime by getting a job at a supermarket but he get fired because of his connections to the favela. At the end of the film we are shown that Rocket becomes a successful photographer because of his connections to the gangs. Similarly, Hubert rejects crime by not agreeing with the rioting on the estate. He runs a gym that we worked hard to get money for and promotes boxing for young people showing that he doesn’t want to get involved in the life of crime. We first see Hubert on the film when he’s standing in the middle of the burnt down and destroyed boxing club which was destroyed at the riots. The films ends with us seeing Hubert potentially killing a police office or being killed by one, we don’t know, but it shows that he doesn’t want to be involved in crimes but he would do anything for his friends.