American History X

If you haven't seen American History X... see it. But if you don't want to hear spoilers, don't read.

I saw this movie soon after I got my driver's license and it was one of the most amazing and frigtening movies I'd ever seen. I have been talking about wanting to see it for about a month, so finally last night I aquired a copy of the DVD and gave it a watch. I know this movie has been out for a billion years and everyone and their mother has seen it, talked about it, etc, but I was impressed and dissapointed at the same time seeing it again.

First off, the good parts that STAYED good for me. I enjoyed the subject matter. I loved the character of Derek (Ed Norton). Derek Vinyard is the leader of a skinhead movement called DOC. I loved his acting, but only as adult Derek... I'll get to that. Derek wasn't made a hateful son of a bitch without having the intelligence and charisma that made him a born leader and an interesting character to watch. He's athletic, proud, cares about his family, well spoken, physically intimidating, and covered in tattoos of HATE. He's focused on what he believes in and does not waver... well... until he realizes he's the only one... again, I'll get back to this.

I loved how his little brother Danny carried himself throughout the film. It was a very real look and feel to a character we have all known at one point in our lives. He's the skinny punk kid smoking in the bathroom who isn't afraid of anyone and has an air of being a tough guy even though 99% of the people around him could pound him into a pulp. You don't fuck with him because you know the people he runs with. When you get to know him he's confident, but has a touch of confusion. Perfectly played from the first scene to the last. I've never seen a child who was traumatized and took on a belief system to cope with what he's seen played better than Danny in AMX.

The other family members really can be lumped together. The father is a racist fireman who's murdered putting out a fire at a drug dealer's house when Derek is a teenager. The mother is an open minded person who doesn't care about race or religion. She only cares about her family. She's sick with something... probably cancer. The younger sister is an outspoken liberal who gets straight As and wants to go to college. She's the exact opposite of Derek when it comes to her politcal beliefs. Of course, you have to throw in the baby sister who's only in the movie to make the brothers look loving. She brings nothing else to the movie. There really isn't anything else to say about the family but what role they play because they are all very one dimentional and if you understand where they are coming from, you know what they do.

Well, As I'm sure you know, the movie starts out with Derek knocking the bottom out of his skinhead girlfriend in bed and danny waking up to a couple black dudes breaking into Derek's truck (a gift from his murdered father). He alerts Derek who shoots them both and curb stomps the one that didn't die instantly. The cops show up, he does nothing to resist, smiles at Danny, who sees the whole thing, and gets locked up for 3 and a half years.

The way this movie works is everything that's a flashback is in black and white... the current stuff is color. The whole first scene is a flashback and the current events start with a jewish teacher going to Danny's black principal about a paper danny wrote about Mein Kampf. This scene is amazing when you understand the context, but even though I was paying SUPER close attention to the movie and had seen it before, I didn't realize it until I went back and watched the scene a second time in a row. The principal says "I can guarantee you his brother did not put him up to this." That's because he visited him in prison after he changed, but you don't realize that unless you can recall it 2 hours later. It's unfortunate because the principal is really a cool character if you realize where he's coming from early in the film.

They also don't make it clear that the first "color day" (present time) is the day Derek is getting out of prison. It makes the next scene of the Principal talking to a committe on skinheads seem out of place until... again... you watch it a second time. The only reason I skimmed through the film again was to try to understand why some pieces really seemed to be building to something and not go anywhere. The committee being one of them. The whole reason that scene is in the movie is to explain why they believe Derek went down the skinhead path. He is interviewed by a reporter who is PERFECTLY COMFORTABLE discussing the race inplications of a fireman being murdered. If you watch that news clip and you feel it's believable, turn on the evening news. If that reporter really existed, I'd watch the news every single night. Derek gives him a little, and he follows up with a hard hitting question that Derek answers with more fuel which builds the fire higher until they are having a discussion about social problems facing California when the original story was talking to a boy who's father was killed. IT WOULD NEVER HAPPEN. He would freak out and kick it back to the studio.

Most of the interesting parts of this story and ALL of Derek's skinhead days are shown through flashbacks. The skinhead stuff is told by Danny, the prison stuff by Derek. Danny witnesses a white kid being beat up by black dudes in the school bathroom and goes into a few different stories about how when Derek was around, they weren't afraid of minorities because he helped them stand up against them.

When Derek comes home, he's no longer a racist and doesn't want his brother involved with the skin heads. He tells Danny about his experience in prison and why he changed his mind (which he really doesn't make very clear. To me, you can almost discount a conversation he had and write it off as someone who was hurt by people and turned on them if you aren't going to let the film get away with simple answers). Derek and Danny go home and there is a scene of them taking down all the nazi posters and flags and throwing them away.

The "central driving plot piece" in this film is the paper Danny has to write that night. The principal makes him write a paper about his brother. By the end of the night (the whole movie takes place in about 24 hours) he has finished the paper and the movie concludes with his voice over reading the final paragraph about peace and getting along with people... that is after he's shot by the same black dudes we met beating up a white guy in the beginning of the movie.

Now that I've pretty much told the story, here's my take on what happened:

This movie is amazing writting coupled with really awful lazy writting. Derek was made into a full and amazing character from the very beginning. The problem? He was made that way. He learned to be the way he is from others, but what does the writter decide is the best way to show that? Is it a string of events over time that slowly turned him into what he is today? Is there a build up to where he turns? Nope. We get perfect scenes. When something has to be told about the past there is a 5 minute clip of the perfect situation to illustrate the problem. For instance, when Danny is writting/talking about where it started he mentions that it wasn't his father's death, it was his father's life. Derek is a teen sitting at the dinner table talking about a book about black history that his black teacher is having him read and how much he enjoys it. His father makes some argument about "black literature replacing the traditional great literature he WOULD have read if the black teacher wasn't there." The conversation goes downhill about as fast as one can go. Mr. Vinyard goes from "what about the other books you would have read?" to "Don't trust niggers." in about 30 seconds. Derek is like "I'll keep my eye out" and buys right into his shit without even arguing.

The problem with that scene is that a few minutes before we had another scene at that table showing how well spoken, deeply opinionated, and intelligent he is. He gets in an argument with his mom's new jewish boyfriend about the Rodney King incident and is amazingly eliquent. Great points are being thrown out on both sides and by everyone involved. He doesn't show even an ounce of giving in. He is not threatened by points that make sense for the other side. He has answers for everything. I've never seen someone debate anything that powerfully. But that's the same guy, sitting in the same chair, at the same table as the teen that takes everything at face value and begins to hate everyone but whites because his father says "Don't trust em."

I was actually uncomfortable. I was embarassed that such a great movie took such a cheap and meaningless way out of a situation that could have been handled in a million different ways. Why a discussion with dad? Why make it so simple? Why not make it action instead of words.... especially with someone who is so unbelievably persuasive throughout the film? I wanted to look at the writer and just shake my head and go "how could you? I'm ashamed of you."

Then we see Derek in prison. The first scene of him walking out of his cell and looking both ways down the line to only see black inmates and wondering if he's even going to make it through the day was amazing. Then we meet the goofy black guy who turns him around. He's paired up with a black dude who's yappy and silly in his laundry job. The goofy black guy finally gets him to laugh and the next scene they are talking about the lakers vs celtics. WTF? You didn't think there was a way to make him learn the problems with his perception without throwing in a fucking clown black dude who he bonds with? This is going on as he's learning that the skinheads in prison get along with the mexicans and that they don't believe in things as clear cut as he does. What a fucking idea! What a powerful revelation. What an amazing piece of writting... but he had no clue how to make him turn but to have some corn ball make him laugh over a pile of laundry? Come on now.

Then comes my biggest problem with the movie. Derek gets raped in the shower by the skinheads after he befriends the black dude. I still think the huge white guy that bangs him is Meat from Porky's, but I can't find him on IMDB. Anyways, he's in the medical ward after receiving 6 stitches to his ass and the black principal shows up. He sits down next to him and Derek puts his head down and starts crying. He asks the principal for help. And then the change happens. The single line that makes Derek realize that his life of hate and destruction has been a waste of time? What do you think it was? Here goes, folks... get ready to have your socks knocked off... "Has anything you've done made your life better?" To which Derek shakes his head.

THAT'S IT!!!!!!!!1111111 OMG I never thought about that. I have been killing people and terrorizing minorities for my whole life but never thought about that point!

Bullshit. The Derek we met for the past hour would have had something to say in return. He would have talked about scaring off the korean convenience store owner who hired illegals instead of the white friends of his who were fired because he could pay them less. He would have talked about being able to walk around the streets without fear because he formed an alliance of like minded individuals who protect each other. He would have talked about a lot of things... but does he? Is there a time when the two most powerfully intelligent characters in the movie get to exchange blows and bring about the most amazing dialogue ever written? Nope.

That scene, to me, felt like two undefeated teams playing in the superbowl and one team going up by 100 in the first quarter. These two characters... Danny and the Principal are both AMAZING but they settle everything over one stupid fucking retorical question?

Very dissapointing.

Now for the big old loose end. In one of the last scenes the principal and a cop show up to talk to Derek. Allegidly, somehow, through a mob of violently loyal followers, Seth and the leader of the DOC Cam, had their asses severly kicked and were in the hospital. The cops wanted Derek to talk to the skinheads to try to stop them from retaliating. Derek agrees, but wants to drop Danny off at school first. Of course, Danny gets killed by a young gang banger, and the movie ends with him holding Danny's dead body in his arms in the bathroom. So what does Derek choose? Does he go and talk to the skinheads and try to bring peace? Does he use his brother's death and his acceptance of the fact that his hate brought about his death to bring credibility to his words? Does he realize that this personifies everything he was fighting for and go back to being the leader of the skinheads?

WHO KNOWS? They don't wrap this up. I guess you're supposed to believe he's cool with his death, blames himself, and moves on. Only problem with that is that he made an agreement that he'd stay in town and work for peace if the principal would speak on his behalf to the parole board, so he's not going anywhere.

Acording to IMDB: "The script's conclusion had Derek shaving his head in the bathroom of the school, transforming back into a naziskin after the death of his brother. However, this was never filmed and dropped from subsequent re-writes of the screenplay."

Well, there's a plot twist for you. There's an interesting way to end the movie and tie up the loose ends. There's something to think about. The circle of violence lives on. It makes you think about society. When the darkest of hearts changes only to be swept back into it by the violence he was no longer interested in, what can be the solution? It's thought provoking and powerful. What if he had went to the skinheads and told his story? What if he had been killed by skinheads? What if they agreed and followed him? What if they looked elsewhere for leadership? What could have been? Christ... I wanted more out of this movie. I think that the director basically read the book, took the parts he thought were the best for a movie, filmed them, and then filled in the gaps with SHIT.

The film was not nominated for Best Film. When you watch it young, you can't figure out why not, but as an adult, you see the big gaping holes in the story and have to feel cheated. Though I love this movie, it needed a whole extra hour to work with. It's unfortunate that money drives everything. If they could have sold a 3 hour movie about nazi youth and actually filled out the plot I can basically guarantee that this would have won best picture... oh, if it weren't for one more thing...

Ed Norton is the WORST crier EVER. The only time it is believable is when you can't see his face. When he's supposed to be decimated by his father's death I just dont' buy it. He looks like he's trying to hard and his acting STINKS as a kid. Even when he's trying to agree with his father. It's like he actually IS Derek Vinyard the adult and he's trying to act like Derek Vinyard the child but doesn't know how to be weak and impressionable. That sounds like what you actually want, but he is supposed to be a hardass racist because events in his life turned him from a good boy to a violent maniac. You shouldn't see an actor trying that hard EVER. If it doesn't look natural, it just doesn't work. These were other moments when I felt uncomfortable for the director/writter/whoever was in charge. Just get a teen that looks like Ed Norton and let HIM be a teen. Don't settle for him doing it himself when he obviously blows at it.

Again, I love this movie. I think it's really fun to watch is amazingly written at times, and really makes you think. I couldnt' wait to come on here and post after seeing it, but that was because I wanted to hash out the holes, not discuss the content.