MovieChat Forums > Attack the Block (2011) Discussion > Honestly, I can't understand why people ...

Honestly, I can't understand why people hate the characters so much

posted 10 years ago by dacookielad
23 replies | jump to latest

I truly don't understand why people complain about the characters. I mean, is it because most of them were black? Is it because they were ghetto?

They were anti-heroes. Yes, they did do *beep* things like mugging a woman but in the end it's revealed that they were just as terrified of mugging the woman as she was. The audience is left to assume that they had to resort to mugging because of the lack of income/parenting that they have.

There's several characters like this that many, many, many people love though! Jesse Pinkman from Breaking Bad is a great example. The only difference is that Jesse didn't live in a low income household(He kinda seemed like he was around upper middle class or something). Jesse sold (in my opinion) the worst kind of drug on the streets, crystal meth. In my opinion, that's far more taboo than a bunch of ghetto south London kids mugging someone.

The ignorance in people disappoints me. I don't like to pull the race card out, but at this point it really seems like I have to. The fact that characters like Jesse Pinkman, Jax Teller(or any of the other sons of anarchy characters, ESPECIALLY Tig) are well loved and respected but characters like these have to be hated just because they're "Ghetto".

I loved this movie. I love anti-heroes, I love them because they're far more relatable than characters like James Bond, Superman, or any other "perfect" hero out there. We're all flawed and we all do things that we're not proud of, so why do we have to hate people just because they're ghetto?

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[–] plasmic_steve 10 years ago

Yes, it is because they begin the movie by doing something that villains do. For many audience members, you can never really care about the characters because of that. The action is too negative to recover from - for most. It's a chance the filmmaker took and I don't mind, but I definitely couldn't bond with the characters the way I would in a more mainstream type of action movie.

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[–] madi-840-42222 10 years ago

It's irrational but (despite my best efforts to keep my mind open) I found it pretty much impossible to root for them when it was revealed Sam was a nurse. Like I said, I tried- I really did! I tried to distance myself from the situation and empathise with the boys but as a nurse myself the flippant way they responded to her being poor didn't half piss me off. Seeing a character who has the same profession as me, living in a *beep* area like me and knowing the lack of sleep, rest and respect we get and then seeing them treat her like that... ugh
It's personal, I can admit that.

Doesn't mean I disliked the whole film but the mugging scene combined with them not asking for help/saying please and basically just ordering her around when the white kid got injured really rubbed me the wrong way. Honestly I feel like had they kept the first scene in without Moses knocking Sam to the ground/pulling the knife I would have rooted for them a hell of a lot more than I did.

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[–] bureau203 9 years ago

People hate them because they are thugs. They are victimizers. They robbed a defenseless woman and laughed about it.

If your characters are all going to be villains, people want one of two things: To see them change and grow into better people, or to see them defeated.

Watching a movie where the kind of people everyone hates wins in the end is not fulfilling or positive. It's like getting dirty and not being able to take a shower.

I've seen things that would make you want to write a book on how to puke.

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[–] activista 9 years ago

Oh, really? Like one of the previous posters said, there are characters who have done far WORSE things in films than these kids did, yet they are popular anyway. You make it sound like these kids (which is what they were) are some vicious little criminals going around offing people. Once again, I just feel like if these kids were white, nobody would be claiming that they're so evil and unredeemable,and don't deserve a second chance.. As if what they did was so much worse than anything white kids would have done just because they're black---that's basically where all this hate is coming from.

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[–] bureau203 9 years ago

" Once again, I just feel like if these kids were white, nobody would be claiming that they're so evil and unredeemable,and don't deserve a second chance."

What makes you think they're redeemable? Certainly nothing in the film showed that.

Once again, we find someone who thinks of racism first, and thereafter they can shut off their brain and not think about the issue any more. Just accuse people of racism and walk away, assuming a "moral victory", although certainly not an intellectual one.

I've seen things that would make you want to write a book on how to puke.

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[–] Fishbowl-Space-Helmet 9 years ago

"What makes you think they're redeemable? Certainly nothing in the film showed that. "

You mean other than saving a chunk of London from an alien invasion?

Skipping page long posts for over a year now.

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[–] activista 8 years ago

bureau203:

What makes you think they're redeemable? Certainly nothing in the film showed that.

Obviously you didn't even bother to watch the whole film, because all of the boys are forced by their situation (the alien invasion) to turn from being little wanna-be thieves to completely turn their back on the whole idea of being gangsters, and they wind up saving their block from the vicious alien monsters. Also, people have mentioned popular white character in other films and shows that have done FAR worse things than mug someone, yet you complete ignored all that and are stuck on that attempted mugging at the beginning of the film. They spend the second half of the film redeeming themselves, but I guess you just never got to that part of the film, apparently. Or you just fell asleep during that part. But to say that they didn't turn their lives around by the end of the film is a complete falsehood, and you know it. Just admit that you couldn't stand them because they're black and be done with it. I mean, for example, I've never seen Game Of Thrones, but apparently a lot of the characters in that show are popular even though some of them are thugs and killers. But since they're white, they get a pass from you, I'm sure. And,yeah, race has had everything to do with why British viewers in general hate the kids in the film.

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[–] ChuckyDucky 9 years ago

I truly don't understand why people complain about the characters. I mean, is it because most of them were black? Is it because they were ghetto?

They were anti-heroes. Yes, they did do *beep* things like mugging a woman but in the end it's revealed that they were just as terrified of mugging the woman as she was. The audience is left to assume that they had to resort to mugging because of the lack of income/parenting that they have.

There's several characters like this that many, many, many people love though! Jesse Pinkman from Breaking Bad is a great example. The only difference is that Jesse didn't live in a low income household(He kinda seemed like he was around upper middle class or something). Jesse sold (in my opinion) the worst kind of drug on the streets, crystal meth. In my opinion, that's far more taboo than a bunch of ghetto south London kids mugging someone.

The ignorance in people disappoints me. I don't like to pull the race card out, but at this point it really seems like I have to. The fact that characters like Jesse Pinkman, Jax Teller(or any of the other sons of anarchy characters, ESPECIALLY Tig) are well loved and respected but characters like these have to be hated just because they're "Ghetto".

I loved this movie. I love anti-heroes, I love them because they're far more relatable than characters like James Bond, Superman, or any other "perfect" hero out there. We're all flawed and we all do things that we're not proud of, so why do we have to hate people just because they're ghetto?


Look man, all I can say is, if audiences can romanticize characters like Keylo Ren from 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens,' who quite literally helped orchestrate the destruction of worlds...yet hate on anti-heroes who are black and actually saves the day...then yes, the reason why most of these people didn't like em, is because most of them harbor some type of bias that they're not willing to discuss or disclose...until it's time to critique movies like these.

It's all BS. You know these people are racist...there's no hiding it, man. It is what it is...and people will make up all kinds of excuses to hide it. Anyway...

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[–] nolerhett (78) 7 years ago

The problem with the antiheroes in this movie is they attacked a women, who was not part of their world (not a criminal), and they were not being forced or coerced in any way to commit the act. After doing that they then laughed about it and felt no remorse or at least no remorse was portrayed on screen.

I think being a movie didn't allow enough time to show their situation and how desperate it may (or may not) have been. TV shows like Breaking Bad or The Wire have that time and b/c of that people have an easier time rooting for the characters portrayed (even the criminal ones).

As for Keylo Ren he was coerced into helping with the threat of the death of his family and even then only helped once he realized it would be completed regardless, at which point he used his position to create a way to destroy it. So yeah completely different scenario.

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[–] Kowalski (75520) 4 years ago

Definition of antihero
: a protagonist or notable figure who is conspicuously lacking in heroic qualities

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[–] nufsaid16 (685) 3 years ago

You got that right----they just won't admit it, that's all.

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[–] HardKaneda (7) 4 years ago

If you use the race card to justify there behaviour you have no moral core!

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[–] nufsaid16 (685) 3 years ago

Nobody is doing that, troll. Plus there is no such thing as the "race card"---another thing right-wingers made a thing which makes no damn sense in real life.

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[–] McQualude (4231) 4 years ago

Because the characters were unlikable thugs that prey on their own neighbors, and the actors had little skill and no charisma. Aaron Paul played a worthless punk but is a terrific actor which made the character fun to watch. Ditto for Walter White. This was just a B-movie letting thugs do what thugs do, except to guys in gorilla suits with glowing teeth instead of the gang one block over. Frankly it would have been a lot better movie if it were the latter.

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[–] nufsaid16 (685) 3 years ago

I totally disagree---the kids become the heroes by the end of the film, and because they chose to turn their lives around and not be thugs, but you just ignored all that of just didn't see the entire film. There have been worse thug characters in films who are white, and they don't get as much hate as these kids in Attack The Block get. It's ridiculous. There's also the fact that none of the kids commit any crimes during the entire film, except for the one at the beginning of it, but you act like they couldn't possibly redeem themselves after that---which they actually did? Come on now. Admit you're being racist, and that you wouldn't be saying all the nonsense you said if the kids in ATB were white. You know it, and I know it, so stop lying. And the kids were good actors in it too, especially John Boyega, who's become the biggest star out of the cast since then, due to his having become an essential part of the Stars Wars franchise.

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[–] McQualude (4231) 3 years ago

You need deprogramming.

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[–] nufsaid16 (685) 3 years ago

No, I don't. Just tired of the racist hate that's always getting thrown at this film, simply because the characters are black, plain and simple. And because I've always liked the film, too.

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[–] Ace_Spade (9544) 3 years ago

I'm fairly certain it was in JM Barrie's Peter Pan that I first heard the phrase, "First impressions are the most important." It's a pretty good adage, whether Mr. Barrie is the originator of the idea or not.

These characters are introduced as hooligans. They jeer as they mug an innocent woman. They show no remorse for this. They respond to the aliens with disproportionate levels of aggression because they process everything through violence.

I agree with you that by the end of the film Moses at least is behaving more selflessly, but they can't really prove heroic because by that point they're just fighting for their lives.

Other characters get "passes" because they show remorse and/or aren't as violent (Jesse Pinkman) or because they have more sympathetic origins (Walter White).

Now, I like Attack the Block, and I don't hate the characters. It's a comedy (or part-comedy) film, and so the non-heroes make sense and they work for the movie. But I think the reason people find these characters unsympathetic is because they enter the film in an extremely unsympathetic way, and they don't do a lot that is sympathetic as the film goes on either (because of the self-defence thing - it's not noble, it's survival).

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[–] nufsaid16 (685) 3 years ago

Oh, come off it. Just admit you hate these characters mainly because they're black. That's the only damn reason most of the Brits who posted about this film hated them when the film first came out---they even admitted it. You're only giving those characters you mentioned a pass because they're white. Walter White turned from a good guy to a major thug in the end, but yet he's still okay by you because he started out good? There are plenty of movies that start out with people being bad and later turning good in the process---like in Attack The Block. You forget that Moses did apologize to the nurse for having scared and robbed her, but you just conveniently forgot that. And once again, the aliens attacked them first---that's why they fought them off. Those aliens weren't some cute little puppies running around----they were dangerous as hell monsters ready to tear someone's head off at a moment's notice.

But keep on rationalizing why you hate these particular characters in this particular movie that just happens to have a mostly black cast. Most of whom were not the "violent thugs" you say they were---you're just rehashing that same old tired-a** "black people are violent" racist stereotype again. No, black people are not any more violent than anyone else. White people commit violent acts, so stop pretending that they don't, and stop glorifying white violent anti-heroes just because they're white like you. Knock it off. This film has already been out a decade, and people are still saying this ignorant, dumb racist s*** about it. How fucking pitiful.

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[–] Ace_Spade (9544) 3 years ago

"Now, I like Attack the Block, and I don't hate the characters."

That's how I opened my final paragraph. See there? I don't hate them. I rather like them. They're anti-heroes and they suit the material.

Let me clarify some positions:

I like anti-heroes or unconventional heroes. I think Eggsy from Kingsman largely the same as I do characters like Moses: they're not standard-issue heroes, but by the end of the movie, they've grown. They also suit the material, which isn't standard-issue hero story stuff, either.

As for Walter White, I find him to be sympathetic at first, but by the end I was hoping for his capture or failure. I wished he would see the error of his increasingly disturbing ways.

Some final notes:

I didn't say only black people could be racist. I'm well aware of the evils committed by all peoples and colours and creeds. I certainly didn't say black people were more violent than anybody else or that white people didn't commit violent acts.

I didn't glorify white anti-heroes. I was speaking of why audiences find some characters sympathetic. I opened my post with the JM Barrie quote about first impressions and went on to discuss the introduction of the characters in Attack the Block (mugging a woman) vs. Walter White (beating up a bully who was tormenting Walter's son), to show how those first impressions give the former characters an uphill battle and the latter a lot of goodwill. And, again, just in case you missed it: I don't find Walter's actions to be laudable by the end of the show and I was "against" him.

And I will end with two questions: why does the colour of my skin or my cultural heritage guarantee or deny the validity of my opinions? And: what makes you so bloody sure I'm white?

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[–] McQualude (4231) 3 years ago

You need deprogramming.

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[–] [deleted] 2 years ago

Its because they're creetins and destructive lowlifes. Almost as bad as the space aliens.

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[–] Boricanator (1440) 4 months ago

People seem to like the black characters in the Wire.

They also like Frank Lucas from American Gangster and Jules from Pulp Fiction.

It think it is a matter of the characters not being fleshed out enough and, perhaps, a lack of charisma from the actors.

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