The Hate U Give (2018 movie)

Category: Race-relations/social commentary drama

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It takes balls to create a movie revolving around black-on-black crime and still think that it's white people that need to take notes. Maybe the people behind this movie went to the same school of logic as the people who made Candyman.

And it takes even more balls to be half-Dutch half-American actress from Los Angeles, consistently get work as you grow up, become a trained violinist but somehow still say your people are opressed and that "white people crying was the goal!". Seriously - get over yourself!

My children had to watch this movie as part of a school project, which they liked it enough to make me watch it. And look, as a movie, The Hate U Give (based on the book of the same name) is not bad - the story is easy to follow, pulls at the heartstrings in all the right spots, all that stuff.

But there's a reason why fictionalised drama is just that - fictionalised.

It leaves out the small things that often can and do happen in real-life situations, and the person making the movie can do anything, litle or big, to sway audience opinion - such as leaving out inconvenient counterpoints to the narrative.

A basic (and incomplete) plot outline:

Starr Carter (Amandla Stenberg) is an African-American teenager who lives in the rough part of Garden Heights with her African-American family, but goes to a private school in a classier, predominantly white part of town. One night after she attends a party, she leaves with her best friend, Khalil (Algee Smith) who is pulled over by a traffic cop. Khalil makes the stupid mistake of pulling out a hairbrush which the policeman believes was a handgun. Khalil is shot by said police officer and dies, shooting becomes news, but Starr keeps quiet about how close she was to the shooting.

However, after a while, Starr decides to speak out and in doing so, blames the local gang for issues in her neighbourhood. This upsets the local gang leader, King (Anthony Mackie) who wages a terror campaign against Starr and her father, Maverick (Russell Hornsby) in order to silence them. Adding to the drama, it turns out Maverick was a member of King's gang and did time for him by way of a false confession.

Further complicating matters still is the fact that Starr's boyfriend is white (played by KJ Apa).

The offending police officer is cleared of charges, Starr and the locals riot, then King tries to murder Maverick and his family in a firebombing. The community then band together to stop King and King is put away, while Starr decides to devote her life to calling out police violence.

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While I try not to watch movies simply to criticise the politics or social commentary (just see my reviews for Candyman, Lady Ballers or Am I Racist?), when a movie is made specifically to railroad you into having a specific view a specific social justice issue, it's asking to be commented on. So let's go over a few things:

- Yes, black people have been killed by white people officers. Not arguing that. But truth is that white people are also killed by police officers, and that more black people are killed by other black people than by police officers. 

- It's one thing to cry "white police brutality", but the real drama of the story is that the leader of the drug gang is threatening Starr and her family into silence and actually tries to murder them. Say what you want about police brutality, but ain't no cops firebombing the dad's grocery store in this story.

- Yes, some white people are racist. But simple observation shows that Starr Carter was accepted by the white people of her private school and she is even dating a white guy who is trying to learn more about the African-American culture. When I heard Amandla Stenberg's interview with Trevor Noah about wanting to "make white people cry" with this movie, I think she forgot that she herself is half-white.

- Something else I picked up in this movie, something from fairly early on before all the cop-drama starts - in the scenes at the party (but before Khalil tries to drive Starr home) we see the black women at the party be nasty, catty bitches…towards other black women! If there's anyone who should be crying at The Hate U Give, it should be young black women who are represented here as the most horrible and malicious people in America. 

I suppose if you're in to social justice causes, you might be inclined to be excited about the existence of this movie. And look, for the blinkered view of things it shows, it's dramatic and makes its point, and it is an OK movie - I will grant that. But if you're using THIS movie to base your worldview on, you may as well watch It to decide if clowns are safe for children or watch Godzilla to learn about Japan.

STAR(R) RATING: 3/5