American History X (Wide Screen) > Reviews > X Rated

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Indifferent to it
Story	Good
Characters / Performances	Outstanding
Special Effects	Standard
How does it compare to similar films?	Good

Advantages:	Norton, Thought - provoking
Disadvantages:	Disturbing

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

American History X is a powerful movie which deals with the controversial topics of white supremacy and racism mainly through the eyes of Danny Vinyard (Edward Furlong), a young white male. Danny is idolises his older brother Derek (Edward Norton) who is in prison for the manslaughter of some black men who were trying to break into his car. When given an assignment on civil rights to do in High School Danny hands in a report on Mein Kampf to his coloured teacher. The same teacher saw the downfall of a gifted student in Derek and instructs Danny to go home and write a report on his brother’s fall from grace. This causes the majority of the film to be based on Derek’s experiences and the influences on both himself and Danny that caused them to become the people that they have.

Derek on his release form prison is a reformed character. This doesn’t seem to have anything to do with rehabilitation but is more to do with his experiences on the inside. The prison is split into gangs and he must choose which he joins for his own protection. The scenes inside the prison are perhaps not as long as they could have been and I got the impression that Derek changed his beliefs a little too easily. This was probably more to do with time constraints but I feel that it would have added a lot to the movie if more time had been spent in the prison.

Derek sees the error of his ways and in many ways sees himself in his younger brother. Danny has become involved in the hatred since Derek’s imprisonment and cannot understand the change in his brother. Trying to change Danny is the difficult task which faces Derek.

The movie shows the current times in colour and the past in black & white. This is a very effective way of dealing with the two times as it is immediately obvious which time frame you are dealing with. Also the reformed Derek is looking back on his dark past so the darkness comes across even more strongly.

There are some disturbing scenes in the film; the two which immediately spring to mind are a rape scene and the actual manslaughter incident. Both scenes are necessary for the films development but even thought they are violent they are not as graphic as they could have been which is definitely a good thing in my opinion. The manslaughter scene in particular contains a very sickening incident but thankfully it is only a distant view we are given of it. I think that this is a real strength of the movie, it is not the actual showing of the violence which is designed to shock; it is the hatred and motivation behind the acts which has to be looked at.

Edward Norton is magnificent in this role. In some scenes he is hatred personified but in others he comes across as a likeable balanced intelligent man. He plays both the past and the reformed character as well as anyone could have and it is his performance that makes this film in a lot of ways.

In many ways the film forces you to take a look at your own values. Even though I do not have a racist bone in my body I felt guilty after watching this movie. I think this was just through association of being white and knowing that people can act in this manner towards others. You know that it is a powerful movie when it affects you in this way.

Similar to Schindler’s List this is a movie that cannot be enjoyed, purely because of the subject of the film. However, it is definitely worth viewing.