La Haine

When it comes down to it, La Haine is a film about contrasts. There is the projects and there is Paris. There are the cops and there are the kids who grew up poor. Contrast as an element of shot composition is also very noticeable because of the decision to film the movie in black and white, which makes the often used low key lighting stand out a lot. The point of all this contrast is to show how cut off from the projects are from what most people view as normal society. The employment of little didactic stories sheds light on the greater situation of someone born in the projects. Said, Vinz, and Hubert are all running along the train trying to pull up their pants and freezing to death. They are falling and saying "so far so good".
The directors intention in the film was very much to humanize the plight of people who's actions may seem only violent and destructive to the outside world. He attempts (and succeeds) in sharing their humorous moments with the audience, as well as their darker ones. The main theme of the story which is summed up by Hubert's line "Hate breeds Hate", is most relevant in his own story. Hubert is the most mild mannered of the three protagonists and actively expresses a want to leave the projects for a better life, but in the final scene when a less than friendly cop shoots Vinz by accident he just can't take it any more and snaps. The director wanted to portray the troubles that disenfranchised people go through on a day to day basis to the world. And when I say the world I mean the world. This film was meant for international viewing. The most obvious example of this is that Said's coke snorting and Russian roulette playing friend is named by the subtitles as "Snoopy", a internationally known lovable American cartoon character, but it is painfully obvious to anyone who speaks french that the characters actually are addressing him as "Asterix", a popular French cartoon character. The director really wanted to tell as many people as he could about this subset of culture that is hated merely because people perceive that it hates them.

Badlands

Badlands was certainly a weird movie. Throughout watching it in class I felt awkward to almost find it amusing how Martin Sheen's character seemingly kills people for no reason whatsoever. Not knowing the true story behind the film, I had no idea where any of it was going, and for a while, before Sheen's character kills the father, I thought that the film would be a typical romance movie about a rough boyfriend clashing with his girlfriends disproving father for an hour and a half before they learn to appreciate each other. The nonchalant manner in which Sheen's character killed people was very odd to watch, and while it didn't glorify violence, it sort of glorified Sheen and Sissy Spaceks' characters journey and struggle. They ride in cool cars, build a crazy tree house, and get in all sorts of adventures in cool landscapes (the locations for the film were very impressive). The film made it seem like what they were doing, running off and breaking the law, was very cool, and even after they get caught, Sheen's character keeps his place as a "cool person", casually conversing with the arresting officers.
This leads into what I don't like about the film. After learning the story behind it, the violent killing spree and the years of trials endured by the real girl, I felt like the film had cheated me. I feel that when a film is based off a true story it ought to convey the gist of that true story, which the movie doesn't do. In real life the murders were far more violent, Sheen's character killed more people (including a child), and the response to them was much harsher. In the movie the narration mentions that people were terrified of Sheen's character and that there were police hunting for him, but the movie never justifies that through the portrayal of the crimes. Another major point in the narration is when Spacek's character states that she got off easy with parole, which is far from the years in prison that her real life counterpart endured. All in all the movie chose to be nonchalant, and seems to have wanted to downplay the role of violence in the murders, but I feel that it lost out on dramatic material by treating murder so casually and having Spacek's character be an airhead about it.