Number 240 on IMDb's Top 250
Vinz, who is Jewish, is filled with rage. He sees himself as a thug, modeled after Robert DeNiro's "Travis Bickle" from Taxi Driver. Sayid, an Arab, is the trio's constantly-talking voice of reason. Hubert, who is black, is a boxer, quietly pouring his energy into making something of himself and getting out of the ghetto. A friend of theirs, who has been beaten up in police custody, lies in a coma. Vinz finds a policeman's gun, lost in the riots in their suburb that preface the film, and vows that if their friend dies from his injuries, he will kill a policeman. This sets off a series of events that take the three down a path of destruction. Hilarity ensues. Travelling in to central Paris from the suburbs where they live, the three friends find themselves viewed as social outsiders, and having missed the last train back out to the projects, they are effectively locked out, in the city. Trying, unsuccessfully, to return to their home, they are obliged to sleep in a shopping center. In the morning, they learn that their friend has died in hospital. For a moment it seems as if Vinz will go through with his boast, but backs down after a heated moment. At the end of the day when they are returning to their homes, Hubert separates from Vinz and Sayid, but is drawn back to them shortly afterwards when trouble breaks out. In the fracas, Vinz is picked up and shot by the same racist police officer he met in the preface, precipitating a last minute confrontation that ends in death and disaster for the trio.
Trivia: In some English language versions the name Asterix has been changed to Snoopy, as the film traveled further than the Asterix books did. Asterix is a French comic book character.
The American title of this movie is Hate. I don't really see a lot of hate in the movie. It's there, just not a lot of it. Most of the movie seems to center around Sayid trying to get his money back from people like Snoopy (The version I watched had it as Snoopy, not Asterix. See above). This movie was also supposed to be "an angry indictment of life on a Parisian housing estate." And "sent shockwaves through the French media on its release." I just don't see it. For 90 percent of the movie, they didn't even look angry.
Next Up: Witness For The Prosecution, Unmatched...in a half century of motion picture suspense!
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