#BTColumn – Two forms of deviance

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by this author are their own and do not represent the official position of the Barbados Today.

Michael Haralambos and Martin Holborn in the 6th edition of their book, “Sociology: Themes and Perspectives”, split deviance into two forms: crime and delinquency. They refer to crime as “activities that break the law and are subject to official punishment” and delinquency as “acts that are criminal… which are committed by young people.”

Both are societal woes that are birthed out of alienation and separation from the society in which one exists.

Two films that examine the results of these two forms of deviance are Mathieu Kassovitz’s “La Haine” (1995) and Antonie Fuqua’s “Brooklyn’s Finest” (2009). “La Haine” examines the relationship between the police and the disillusioned youths of France’s banlieues by showcasing the lives of three young men from different ethnicities.

While “Brooklyn’s Finest” discusses the hardships and struggles policemen have to endure on the job highlighting how it is possible for them to become corrupt.

This article will be looking at the climax sequences for both films, and it seeks to compare and contrast the directors’ manipulation of filmic devices in conveying meaning.

“La Haine’s” narrative is framed around the assault of a young man from a French housing project by policemen. This assault leads to riots and unrest in the neighbourhood.

The other young men from the victim’s neighbourhood are enraged. One of them, Vinz, promises to murder a policeman in retaliation.

Conversely, the narrative of “Brooklyn’s Finest” is framed around the struggles of three policemen who, in their own way, are all trying to ‘get out’.

One of these policemen, Sal, wants out of his inadequate housing which is causing health problems for his pregnant wife and has been robbing criminals to get the money for a down payment on a new house.

“La Haine” comes to its climax when Vinz has captured a skinhead and threatens to murder him. A medium close-up on Vinz draws the audience’s attention to what is about to happen. The shot is filmed at a low angle, hinting to the possibility that this is the point of view of the skinhead.

The dialogue in the scene highlights Vinz’s reluctance to do what he has said he will do all day, which is kill someone, anyone, to vent his anger.

This indicates to the audience that Vinz’s supposed aggression and violence are possibly just an attempt to assert his masculinity. Carrie Tarr in “Reframing Difference: Beur and Banlieue Filmmaking in France” highlights that “La Haine” foregrounds [the youths] at an age when they would normally aspire to adult masculinity [but they] find it difficult if not impossible to assert their masculinity in socially acceptable ways.”

Tarr emphasizes that the youths’ “socio-economic deprivation combined with [the] lack of acceptable paternal role models… prevent them from assuming an active role in society [and] instead they seek to protest at their emasculation through an overaggressive but ultimately self-defeating performance of phallic masculinity”.

This is reinforced by the mise-en-scene and the editing of the sequence as the fear that is portrayed on Vinz’s face mirrors that of the skinhead.

The two shots are also joined together by means of a dissolve which temporarily blends the faces of Vinz and the skinhead.

“Brooklyn’s Finest”, as the name suggests, is set in inner-city New York. The community in which the action takes places is a predominantly black community. Ed Guerrero in “Black Violence as Cinema: From Cheap Thrills to Historical Agonies” highlights that “with inner-city neighbourhoods ringed and contained by police departments, totally deindustrialized, poisoned with abundant drugs, fortified with malt liquor, and flooded with cheap guns, ghettos have become a self-cleaning oven”.

In “Brooklyn’s Finest”, the climax of Sal’s story shows us how the ‘oven’ cleans itself. In a medium shot that shows Sal filling his pockets with the money he has just found after murdering the inhabitants of a drug hole, a shot is heard. Sal, who is in plain clothes, is killed and robbed.

Here, sound and mise-en-scene work together to bring the journey of one of the film’s protagonists to its closure. Of importance to note is that ultimately Vinz meets the same end as Sal.

Therefore, we can see that both “La Haine” and “Brooklyn’s Finest” take the audience on a journey showcasing the social alienation, violence, and tragic end that comprises the shared experience of supposedly opposing forces. Yet, as Haralambos and Holborn highlight, crime and delinquency are two sides of the same coin: deviance.

Jade Gibbons is an arts and business graduate with a keen interest in social issues and film-making.