What struck me most in the movie Hate was, well, the whole movie was pretty powerful. I think there are 3 things which I had a great pull towards. The first thing I think would be when the TV lady and camera man ask about the riots based on racial profiling. It is obvious that they are doing this because they don’t come out of their van to talk to the boys because they are too afraid. They also ask questions that are very accusatory towards the boys.
My second thing is the part where the boys are coming out of Snoopy’s apartment and the police grab them without thinking twice. I think part of this is because they were racial profiling and these boys were not “French” so they must have been the “robbers”. Then the cops proceed to take the boys to jail where they show torture/interrogation techniques to the rookie cop. I don’t think that they would do that to a French “criminal” but since they were of different descent it was acceptable. I also would like to note that the rookie knew something was wrong about how the boys were being treated but he didn’t do anything about it.
The third thing that struck me was the ending. It was very powerful how the racist cop pulls over the 2 boys and threatens them with a gun for no reason and then the black friend who throughout the movie was the one who tried to keep them out of trouble snaps. This was powerful in itself. The fact that he pulls the gun that the friend who found it (Vinz) gives him. Really builds the intensity of the scene. When the cop shoots Vinz that was really unexpected and astonishing. But what really made this scene really striking was the quote about falling. “When a society starts falling from grace it keeps telling itself so far so good, so far so good, so far so good but it’s not how you fall that matters, (gunfire) it’s how you land.” The shooting and the voiceover at the end make your mind think about hope and the survival of the 2 boys. Which I think is important.