American History X
From Free net encyclopedia
Template:Infobox Film American History X is a 1998 film directed by Tony Kaye and written by David McKenna. It stars Edward Norton in the lead role, and co-stars Edward Furlong, Beverly D'Angelo, Jennifer Lien, Ethan Suplee, Fairuza Balk, Avery Brooks, Elliott Gould, and Stacy Keach. Norton was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance.
Contents |
Summary
When reformed neo-Nazi Derek Vinyard is released from prison after three years for the cold-blooded, hate-fueled murder of two black gang members trying to steal his car, he finds that his brother has embraced Derek's ways in his abscence and in on the way to becoming an active white supremacist. The film centers on Derek's struggle to sever ties with his racist past but keep his family together, intercut with scenes from Derek's life showing how he got to the point he is now.
Synopsis
The title of American History X is derived from the name of a class Danny is forced to take after writing a controversial essay on Adolf Hitler's autobiography, Mein Kampf. When his Jewish teacher becomes outraged, he bursts into Principal Sweeney's office and complains. Danny is called into the office and is told that he must write about his brother, Derek Vinyard's, life and have it on his desk the next morning or face immediate expulsion. The class is entitled American History X. Danny continually complains that his neo-Nazi ways have nothing to do with his older brother, but Dr. Sweeney rebukes him and sends him on his way.
This film tells the story of Derek Vinyard (Norton). An extremely bright and charismatic student, Derek is drawn into the neo-Nazi underground after his father, a Los Angeles firefighter, is shot and killed by a black gang member while trying to put out a meth lab fire. Derek concludes that blacks are poverty stricken for a reason, and that they are holding back the supreme white race and killing each other off due to what he came to believe was an innate unintelligence and lack of forethought. He becomes second in command of the Venice Beach neo-Nazi gang, The Disciples of Christ, which entices young whites to join by promising protection from Mexican and black gangs who are essentially in control of the area. He and Cameron, the number one D.O.C., eventually regain control of the boardwalk, basketball court and beach area, and maintain a large presence at the high school. The D.O.C. becomes a symbolic gang in Venice Beach, for allowing whites to stick up for themselves while maintaining a drug and terror-free atmosphere, which had not existed under the other, constantly warring gangs.
One night while Derek is making love to his girlfriend, three Crips park in front of his house and one breaks into his Ford Bronco. His younger brother, Danny, hears the glass smash and awakens him, telling him that "a black guy" was breaking into his truck. Dressed in nothing but a white pair of boxers, Derek becomes infuriated and seizes a Glock pistol from a nightstand drawer and puts on a pair of steel toed combat boots. Sneaking downstairs and kicking open the front door, he proceeds to shoot a man standing guard with a gun at his door, killing him. He then shoots the carjacker twice in the stomach, severely wounding him. The getaway driver begins speeding away. Derek fires at the back of the car and empties his magazine without accomplishment. Realizing that no more rounds are left, Derek rounds on the wounded carjacker.
Derek grabs him by his jacket and drags him over to the curb and begins a loud, profanity-laden rant about the primitive nature of blacks. Recognizing the carjacker, Lawrence, as the leader of a black gang which he personally kicked off the basketball court by scoring the game-winning point with a dunk in a street basketball game on which they had both bet control of the courts for their respective gangs, Derek yells that he will teach Lawrence "a real lesson", puts his gun to Lawrence's head, and tells him to put his "mouth on the curb". Terrified and completely aware of Derek's intentions, Lawrence reluctantly obeys. Then, as Danny watches from the front door, Derek curb stomps Lawrence and spits on his body. Two police cruisers swerve around the corner, and Derek is arrested.
Derek is later sentenced to three years in prison, charged with voluntary manslaughter.
In prison, which Derek finds to his expectation predominately black, he is understandably in need of protection. One day during the exercise period in the prison courtyard, he removes his shirt, revealing a massive, black swastika on his left pectoral, which becomes symbolic of the movie. He shows off his impressive bench press to a group of men who are members of one of the prison's Aryan Brotherhood gang, and the next day at lunch they invite him over to discuss possible membership.
He flourishes in the gang for a while, his strong belief system soon alienates some of the others, who are only racist for their own motives. He witnesses one of the lead members perform a drug trade with a Mexican gang member, and later openly critizes him for doing so. That night in the showers, the gang jumps him and brutally rapes him.
After the rape, Derek soon befriends a black man named Lamont, with whom he works in the prison laundry room. Derek is reluctant to put his beliefs aside, but he realizes that Lemont is his only friend now that his former gang has disowned him. When Derek is released on parole, he realizes that only Lamont's intevention kept the black gangs from killing Derek.
Once his stint is over, Derek returns home only to find that his little brother Danny had followed in his hardline, neo-Nazi footsteps. He tries for the rest of the movie to lead Danny astray from this path, which Derek has since abandoned after his brutal treatment at the hands of men he believed were above such behavior and multiple talk therapy sessions with Dr. Sweeney. Danny eventually but reluctantly converts from his old ways after Derek tells him of his prison stint and how when the whites turned on him and a black man saved his life. Danny denounces his former lifestyle and beliefs, and the two walk home with a new relationship.
The day before, however, Danny had witnessed a white geek being beaten up for snitching in the men's bathroom by trio of black gang members. Danny blew cigarette smoke in their leader's face. While they were acting as if they would assault Danny, the bell had rung and the group left. The next morning, Danny walks into the bathroom, with his American History X report in hand, to urinate. The scene changes back and forth between Derek walking down the street as a Cadillac pulls up behind him and Danny in the bathroom, with the implication that the Cadillac is about to threaten Derek's life. But the car passes and Derek looks back at the school. When Danny zips up his pants and turns around to wash his hands, the black gang leader is standing behind him. He raises a Beretta and shoots Danny point-blank in the sternum, splattering blood all over the wall behind him. He shoots Danny twice more in the chest before leaving.
Derek bursts into the school lobby, shoving police officers, crowds of crying teenagers and Dr. Sweeney aside as he sprints into the men's bathroom, but stops as he sees Danny lying at the bottom of the urinal, completely lifeless and drenched in blood. Derek picks up his young brother and cradles him in his arms, weeping uncontrollably and shouting "No!" over and over. The film then ends with the closing paragraphs of Danny's American History X report narrated by Danny himself, with his conclusion that "hate is baggage" and (ironically) "life's too short to be pissed off all the time."
Issues
American History X touches on such controversial topics as racism, affirmative action, illegal immigration, the continued existence of Neo-Nazi hate groups within American society, the exploitation of vulnerable youth of all races by gangs, intra- and inter-racial violence and other topics that still split American society. It drew much criticism for several scenes in which Derek or Cameron make speeches or statements to a racist affect, often quoting accurate facts and statistics, but without (as is Hollywood custom) following up by a rebuttal of such statements. In this, many criticised the movie for what they felt was its lack of putting racist views into context, and some others criticised the ending in which Danny is murdered in cold blood by a black youth as not depicting the racial situation as a solvable problem, and many felt that this ending was meant to illustrate this very point.
Controversy
The main controversy over the film centered on director Tony Kaye's attempts to try to remove his name from the credits, prefering instead to invoke the pseudonym Alan Smithee. Kaye alleged that his reasoning for this was Edward Norton's re-editing of the film to allegedly give himself more screen time. The Director's Guild of America ultimately denied Kaye the right to remove his name from the production, reasoning that Kaye had placed ads in Variety attacking the film, thus violating Guild rules regarding the right to invoke the pseudonym. Kaye proceeded to sue the Directors Guild and New Line Cinema, claiming they had violated his First Amendment rights.
Additionally, the film, along with other films with ostensibly anti-racist overtones such as Romper Stomper, have a large following and popularity within the neo-nazi and far right movements. Many within these groups (as well as many not associated with far right politics) feel that such movies glorify far right causes, despite the opposite intent of the filmmakers.
Trivia
- An original scripted, but unfilmed, ending consisted of Derek shaving his head and reverting back to his neo-nazi skinhead ways after the death of his brother.
- The word "fuck" is spoken 205 times throughout the film.
- The quote Danny says at the end of the film is from Abraham Lincoln's Inaugural Address in 1861.
- Edward Norton packed on 30 pounds (13.61 kilograms) of muscle for the role.
- A white power song is heard that is set to the tune of The Battle Hymn of the Republic
External links
- {{{2|{{{title|American History X}}}}}} at The Internet Movie Database
- Movie Tour Guide.com - Maps and directions to American History X Filming Locations
Template:Wikiquotede:American History X es:American History X fr:American History X it:American History X nl:American History X ja:アメリカン・ヒストリーX pl:Więzień nienawiści (film 1998) pt:American History X sv:American History X tr:Geçmişin Gölgesinde