It’s hard to understand this movie until you see it for yourself. The Hate U Give is an intense and heartbreaking movie about how the world desperately needs to change after there is one death too many- and honestly one death is already too many. While this book and movie are fictional, the story of the many people who have suffered this event is not. Everyday, millions of people’s lives are changed because of the wrath of selfish white police officers- many of the effected being African Americans in general. Because of self-absorbed officers like these, many people are killed because of their race or ethnicity or anything that may specifically anger that one officer. This concept is indescribably disgusting, and this movie addresses this- which is clearly something that needs to be addressed.
Starr Carter lives in Garden Heights, a rough, mostly black neighborhood where her father has grown up and where their family plans to stay, despite Starr’s mother who is always wanting to live in a different community. This life, surrounded by her people, is for “Starr Version One,” and she loves her life as “Starr Version One.” “Starr Version Two” goes to a rich private school, Williamson, composed of mainly white kids who, for the most part, will never know what real problems are because everything has been given to them. Starr number two has Chris, her fun, cute boyfriend from school. Chris is the one thing that Starr truly cherishes at Williamson, besides her two friends Hailey and Maya, who Starr appreciates despite the fact they’re often extremely clueless and naive.
One night, Starr goes to a party in her neighborhood- no people from her school within miles. She mingles for a bit and is left to stand by a wall with a drink she finds disgusting until Khalil shows up. They were childhood friends, and when he shows up at this party and smiles at her, her heart practically stops. They haven’t seen each other in a long time. They start to reminisce about playing Harry Potter games when they were young until policemen show up, shoot a glass window, and everyone flees to their cars and drives off. Khalil and Starr stay together through this, driving off in his car down an empty, dimly lit street. Before they can even grasp what’s going on, they have been pulled over by a white, young, arrogant cop. Things soon escalate, and suddenly Khalil is standing by the side of his car door with his hands up waiting for what’s next. He’s trying to joke around with Starr, but nothing goes as planned. Reaching for a hairbrush that was left in his seat, Khalil doesn’t know what’s coming. Officer Bryan Macintosh soon pulls out his gun and shoots at innocent Khalil, all for grabbing a hairbrush that was apparently misleading to look like a gun. Starr races out of the car immediately by Khalil’s side, but she is soon sitting on the ground with her hands cuffed behind her back watching one of her best oldest friends whom she loves suffer from a bullet wound to the chest. The ambulances don’t come soon enough, and sooner than a bolt of lightning, a funeral has gone by, and protests are breaking out everywhere.
The cast of this movie is a well-composed cast that completely fits each character’s personality and their way of living. Starr is played by Amandla Stenberg, who has appeared in other movies like The Hunger Games and Everything, Everything. This 19-year-old actress is starting to make an iconic name for herself, and yet she only keeps succeeding. KJ Apa plays Chris (Starr’s boyfriend) and has also made a name for himself, playing parts in Riverdale, A Dog’s Purpose, Shortland Street, and many more popular TV shows and movies. Other characters include Sabrina Carpenter, who plays Hailey, Algee Smith, who plays Khalil, and Drew Starkey, who acts as the white cop who shoots Khalil. But the actors aren’t everything that make a movie good. The director of this film is the well-known George Tillman Jr., who is also a film writer and a screenwriter. He is most well-known for directing Soul Food and Men of Honor. With all these additions, they’ve produced a movie that is sure to start a movement that should not be ended until everything is finally acceptable; and that is something we can only do by mourning the deaths and making it so that our future does not repeat our past.
The Hate U Give is a sensational movie that is true to inspire many young minds to become better people. The message needs to be told, and this movie is one of the first steps. Not only was the movie phenomenal because of the message, the cast and scripts were perfectly chosen. While it addresses and explores the horrible issues of racism and social injustice, you also fall in love with Starr and her family, boyfriend, and friends. This movie should be viewed by everyone because it will not only make a mark in history, but will also have you crying along with the characters and clapping as loud as you can when the credits start to scroll.
Quincy Rane, 2024 & Ava McQueen, 2024- Reviewers/Critics
Photo Credit: 20th Century Fox
A reverberation of GALA student voices 