This Movie Marked Me

In my 13 years of blogging, I’ve written very few movie reviews. This is one I must write.

I don’t know the last time I paid to see a movie twice in the theater. But the first time I saw “The Hate U Give,” I was moved at a deep level. I had to see it again. With brilliant directing and acting, this cinematic work of art has helped me see the world in a different way.

It has me thinking…

I don’t know what it is like to live in a place you can’t escape—where everything you do seems to make life worse—where people senselessly die.

I can’t imagine raising my family where “the talk” isn’t about the birds and the bees, but rather about how to keep from being killed when you get pulled over for a traffic violation.

I did not grow up in a racist family. I never heard any racist comments from any of my family or friends. But this movie made me more aware of what white privilege means and what biases I have that are way below the surface.

Even more, I’m thinking about what life is like when white privilege doesn’t apply to you. I will never know what that is like. But I’m a bit more aware now.

This story also awakened me to the difficult decisions that cops have to make every day, and how their experience or fear or bias can result in mistakes that take the lives of the innocent.

I understand just a little bit more how the pent-up frustration of a community can come out sideways and hurt people it was never intended to hurt.

In this brilliant movie, I watched the power of family, and what it means for a dad to believe in his son or daughter and call the best out of them. And how a daughter’s belief in her dad can provide him the fuel to be a better man.

I witnessed the result of what violence does in the heart of children, and how the cycle of violence and hate brings hopelessness, but what It also looks like when someone stands in the gap and says, “No more.”

In Marked By Love, I wrote the following:

“Consider your greatest bias or the people group you have a hard time understanding (i.e. rich people? another race? the LGBTQ community?). Find a way to enter that culture with the sole purpose of seeking to understand life from their perspective.”

Today, that challenge is pointed at me.  

“The Hate U Give” might already be gone from the theaters near you. But write it down somewhere. You need to see it.

Have you already seen this movie? I’d love to hear your comments on how this movie impacted you.