MovieChat Forums > La haine (1996) Discussion > This has to be a joke...Top 250 really?

This has to be a joke...Top 250 really?


As I was checking some movies that I haven't seen from the aforementioned top list I came across this one. Since it is rated so high I thought that it would be at least watchable. But all I came across was a joke of a movie.
This is a chaotic mixture of a gangsta-ghetto movie with 3 despicable characters in the center of attention. Basically all I did was wait for the movie to begin from start to end, it all seemed like a prelude to something, but that something was actually nothing, i don't even bother about mentioning the ending ( which did not exist).
So, the plot is practically non-existant, the characters and what they go through I couldn't care less about, actors are going waaay out of hand with their lines and their insults towards others and the overall point of the movie was bogus to me.

Only good thing notable about this movie is the Travis Bickle impersonation which reminded me how a great movie shoud be like ( Taxi Driver).

I've even seen people comparing it to City of God and even Pulp Fiction. Honestly ,I would rather take 5 minutes of Pulp Fiction over this whole pile of overrated nonsense that is La Haine.

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[deleted]

First of all , movies are not made for specific types of people. Movies are made for people, in general, no matter the age or background. When I watch a movie, I expect to be impressed somehow...it doesn't matter through what...story,lines,acting,all of them combined. And as for me, I have a very wide experience in movies. I have watched different genres over the years by many different directors, including Ingmar Bergman and Fellini, which have a lot of subtext in their movies, which are non-linear and which are also quite difficult movies for the average viewer.
So if I can understand the subtext of these movies, I'm pretty sure I would have picked up any of it if it was present in La Haine. But there was NONE...just despicable insults by 3 very bad actors. What can hide behind those ,apart from being born in the ghetto? So now we are supposed to accept and pity them for their upbringing in that environment? And it's not just about that...for example I enjoyed City Of God, which had a somewhat similar theme. But that movie made an impression on me, it had something, it made me still remember it now. But what had La Haine that would make me remember it in the future???

Why does it deserve to be in the top 250 over hundreds of other movies better than it?

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[deleted]

TL;DR

Didn't care for this OR City Of God. Yes, they are both to some degree open to interpretation but both had poor payoff. Kinda like climbing a mountain to find a can of Coca-Cola.

I don't love her.. She kicked me in the face!!

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I don't know what the person said, because his post was gone... but I just wanted to let you know films are actually made, literally, for a target audience. From the screenwriter, to the producer, to the director, to the advertisers. Just thought you should know... I mean you really think a film like A Clockwork Orange would be made for a 9 year-old? So your whole point would be flawed from your one statement. Screenwriters write with a target audience in mind, know where they should go with the story and how to write it. The Director makes the film with a target audience in mind, by casting certain actors, having certain subjects in the film, and how it is filmed, goes on and on.

So a film like La Haine was made for a 90's film festival type audience, so grungy and artistic. The same audience who went to go see the the last big blockbusters are not guided to films like this... and it was intended to be that way all the way back to the outline of the script.

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"and even Pulp Fiction" - enough said metalhead adrian


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sorry, not everyone make transformers

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Movie's just too good for you, and you didn't get a single thing.

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Ok Mr. Einstein. This movie had no plot, it had no likeable characters or dialogue. It was sooooo good that I couldn't get a single thing. All you geniuses commenting about this stupid movie, you might as well go watch paint dry, it is just as thrilling as this movie. I don't know why I'm even digging out my post from over a year ago, but it is bogus to me why people defend this movie.

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Aaaand you didn't even get my comment either.
No wonder you can't get a simple movie.
A movie is not only about its plot.



"This movie is pretentious" = Nobody wants to admit they're not as smart as they thought.

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Ok. It might reflect a kind of social reality that was valid in the 1990s but frankly I don't care. When I watch a movie I don't want to see a documentary instead. Go to Discovery Channel and see all this ghetto crap there. A movie has to be original in a way, it has to have scenes that make you remember it. What do I remember a year after seeing this movie ? Apart from three pathetic characters insulting everyone, NOTHING !

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Still not the point.
But then again, I'm a native french speaker. So I can see why anyone else who doesn't speak french would miss how great the movie is.
It's like "The Big Lebowski", or "Friday". Nobody cares about the plot in these movies either, but they still love them.

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I can see why anyone else who doesn't speak french would miss how great the movie is.
Well I don't speak French, except poorly, and I have loved this film for a long time. In fact I prefer it now to when I first saw it on release.
I give my respect to those who have earned it; to everyone else, I'm civil.

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It has a plot that explains who riots in paris suburbs - as we see a few years later in reality - start. Yes the intention to make this movie was to explain the POLITICAL and psychological background for it - something that never happens in US movies because (it's all drugs and USA is #1).

It deserves an 8-9 rating while you Sir deserve a 0-1 rating.

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Your first mistake is to think IMDb's top 250 represents good films. It doesn't. It represents what is the most popular and readily available to view and is riddled with newer English language films at the expense of some real classics and gems.

Films don't need to have likeable characters to be good either. I wouldn't describe the 3 main characters - Vinz, Said and Hubert - as despicable. They are mixed characters and how much one sees them as good or bad speaks of the values one holds rather than any inherent good or bad in the characters.

In another post you suggest this film has no good acting. I can't take you seriously on that point I'm afraid. You seem to have 'thrown the baby out with the bath water' at this juncture.

I understand why some people do not like this film; it is morally ambiguous and deliberately so because the situation it fictionalises is too complex to permit only one moral version. I think it's possible to dislike a film, consider it not for you and appreciate that others' viewpoints are as valid as yours. Hence why it has made it to the top 250, amazing as that is!

I give my respect to those who have earned it; to everyone else, I'm civil.

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Well said.

People who don't like their beliefs being laughed at shouldn't have such funny beliefsī²

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I think that La Haine is even a better movie than American Histroy X, which als had the same kind of statement like La Haine. The simple statemnt is: Hate is bad. Even a "Metalbrain" should be able to understand that. And of course you can not compare La Haine with Pulp Fiction or City of God, only because the movie is ranked on the (overrated) "IMDb Top 250" list, but you can compare it with those, because of your personal feelings about the movie.

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Comparing American History X with La Haine is practically telling me that some of you are smoking something illegal. In my opinion, a movie is basically an entity made by a number of components includig acting, directing, cinematography, the script and the message. A movie cannot be rated so high just because it had a valid message for its time, the 90s in France when everything else just falls short from it. The actors are just inducing a state of disgust for any viewer and we are forced to watch them wonder around aimlessly for the whole movie, doing what ?

I am a fan of artsy movies myself, I have watched all the movies of Fellini, Ingmar Bergman,Kurosawa, Tarkovsi and Bunuel. But, that doesn't mean that any pretentious crap is art and that's why I think that when a movie is bad it should be deservingly bashed.
I have watched many more movies that most of you defending this crap and I know how to form an objective opinion about a movie when I see it.
If one would make an experiment and put 1000 people from different backgrounds and make them watch American History X or City of God and then La Haine, trust me, most would be on my side.

But, as with any movie there are people lurking around, you didn't get this, metal brain that, bla bla bla, sorry for not acknowledging the fact that La Haine is a masterpiece.
I am not a hater as some of you may think, I came with valid reasons for why this movie isn't worthy of its place. And as a conclusion, after i was done watching, for example, American History X, I was completely blown away by everything about that movie and still remember scenes to this day because it made a strong impression on me, contrary to La Haine which made me remember only how abject it was.

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Metalhead Adrian, grow up and stop giving metalheads a bad name. If you don't like it just shut the *beep* up and don't come whine on the internet how you didn't like it. If you need to brush up your ego go do something out of your life instead. Go rewatch your Tarantinos instead.

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Nobody is whining. You are completely retarded and your post has no valid arguments to what I've said. And I'm not a metalhead anymore, that was my original nickname from 2007.
By the way, how does a post on a movie forum give metalheads a bad name? Your logic obviously leaves questions about your sanity. Are you sure you aren't taking something illegal?

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You, as a viewer, have failed. Not every film serves you thrills on a platter like the movies you mentioned as examples of "better" films. You said it yourself, you didn't get it. You obviously weren't paying attention. You can't blame the movie, the director, the plot, nothing. There's tons of people who like it, critics who love it, I just watched it myself and I found it extremely well done in many aspects.

You're in a room full of people who loved the movie, and you didn't understand it/get it/like it/whatever, so that makes it a "joke of a movie"! Movies must appeal to everyone, regardless of their taste, mood, intellectual abilities, background and if they walk in in the middle of the movie or stop paying attention halfway through, or never paid any attention at all! That's your logic. You even admitted to not getting the "overall point of the movie", even though it's by far the most painfully obvious thing about it! I like to think it's trolling, but if it's not, all I can do is recommend that you rewatch it and pay more attention this time.

Also, in reply to some of your other thread comments, the message of the movie is not just "valid for its time". What kind of isolated cloud 9 glass palace do you come from? The strongest thing about this movie is that it's scarily realistic and scarily relevant - even more so now than it was in the 90s. Situations like this (and much worse) arise again and again and they'll continue to for a very long time.

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[deleted]

I think its very good. Im not sure if I would put it in the top 250 myself, but its definetly better than many movies on the list.

One thing I want to say though is that there are many good movies without a plot. You mentioned Taxi Driver, that is just about a guy who drives a taxi in New York.

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