The Hate U Give
One of the growing trends in the Hollywood film making industry is the use of novel stories to create films. Whether these stories are real-life experiences or fictional, producers and directors, find it easy to create movies off of these already developedstorylines, creating another medium for the storyline’srepresentation. However, the challenge of such a direction in the movie-making is to use cast members that breathe life into the novel’s characters and maintain the same momentum to build on the book’s major themes. George Tillman Jr. takes the same chances when he directs the production of the film version of the novel, The Hate U Give, written by Angie Thomas. The film rendition of the book The Hate U Give is expertly executed by the director George Tillman Jr. who carefully selects his cast members to match the personalities of the novel’s characters and selects the perfect location, all of which effectively bring out the major themes of the book.
The first aspect of the film that makes it stand out and build on the momentum of the novel is the director’s selection of cast members. Some of the principal cast members include Amandla Stenberg, who plays Starr Carter, Algee Smith, who plays Khalil, KJ Apa playing Chris, Starr’s boyfriend, and Russel Hornsby, Lamar Johnson and Regina Hall who make up for the rest of the Carter family. The novel portrays the Carters as a black family, which is what the director Tallman goes for. The cast members playing the Carters are naturally white, which builds on the film’s authenticity from the cultural viewpoint. At a point where most film directors adopt the cultural appropriation technique of using actors from a different cultural background to depict another culture’s lifestyle, Tillman uses black actors to bring out the African Americanculture of the Carter family.
Another outstanding aspect of characterization is the ability of the cast members to live the lives of the characters they play. The amount of emotions each actor puts into their work breathes anauthentic experience into the film, and in a significant way, makes this rendition better than the original version. For instance, when Khalil gets shot by the police at the side of the road, Starr’s reaction indicates emotional stress, something she battles with for the better part of the film. The way she remains affected by what she witnessed reflects not only a real-life traumatic experience but also the loss she incurs since Khalil was her good friend. The cast member Amandla Stenberg brings her character into so much life in a way that establishes an emotional connection with her audience, enhancing the bond that the audience formed with the novel character Starr.
Apart from the use of characters, director Tillman does an excellent job of using a location that creates the perfect environment for his actions. In the novel, the audience is directed to visualize a black community filled with so much gang violence and police brutality. Although the novelist Angie Thomas paints the perfect picture of this location, Director Tillman breathes life into the setting through his use of better props. He shows the audience run-down, abandoned buildings that act as the breeding grounds of gang violence, portrays the thug life in the fictional blackneighborhood of Garden Heights, painting a holistic picture of the promiscuity and immorality that goes on in the wild parties teenagers attend. All of these aspects of the community are in contrast to the white neighborhood lifestyle reflected by the white private school Starr attends.
While most directors would shoot most of their scenes in studios and enhance the scenery through advanced technological editing, Tillman prefers to go with an actual black neighborhood to give his audience the authentic experience of growing in a blackcommunity. One of the challenges of producing movie versions of any novel story is the effectiveness of the location in painting the exact picture of the environment that the novelist builds on. Tillman effectively delivers this aspect, which makes his movie effective, and sheds more light on the significant themes of violence and social insecurity. Tillman not only uses scenes such as Khalil’s shooting at the side of the road to emphasize the lack of security in Garden Heights but also uses such props that create the allusion of empty streets. Less unbothered pedestrians walk by the other side to create a holistic picture of how such neighborhoods are a result of security ignorance.
Lastly, Director Tillman’s effectiveness in producing the film version of The Hate U Give is in his objective depiction of the major themes of the movie. The novel’s significant items are gang violence, social insecurity, police brutality, racial discrimination, and prejudice. Tillman follows the lives of the Carters as they struggle with each of these factors. Starr attends a white private school which, although is strictly on bullying policies, the character occasionally gets picked on by her school mates for being black. She finds it hard to make friends because of the stereotypes who single her out as the black kid from the black neighborhood. While some of these aspects of discrimination and prejudice are not pronounced in the novel, Tillman finds ways to incorporate them in the film in subtle ways that may quickly go unnoticed.
The director equally follows Starr as she struggles to keep her identity as a witness in Khalil’s murder a secret. Her family keeps this fact a secret because the police try to defend their action by accusing Khalil of being a gang member. The war between the police and the neighborhood’s prominent gang quickly escalates when Starr names the King Lords as the gang that controls Garden Heights. It is impeccable how Tillman builds momentum as he focuses on the actions and consequences involved in unearthing the truth behind Khalil’s shooting. The director paints the definitive picture of the conventional war between law enforcers and gang members protecting black communities in America, battling police brutality and racial profiling. The director not only brings out thesethemes from the novel but also expounds on them to reflect the sad reality of most black American communities struggling to break free from violence on both ends.
In conclusion, director George Tillman Jr. manages to effectively execute Angie Thomas’s novel through his use of professional cast members, the development of the plot to reflect the major themes, and his use of outstanding locations. The director manages to breathe life into the novel, creating a more authentic version of the story that most African Americans easily resonate with. The director steers away from culturalappropriation by using authentically black characters to depict the Carters. He develops Garden Heights to fit the typical black neighborhoodscharacterized by gang violence and wild parties. Overall, the film version of The Hate U Give is a tremendous success.