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"Has anything you've ever done made your life better?"
Cameron Alexander (Stacy Keach) is a chickhawk. A predator. He hunts down likely teenage boys in the Venice Beach area to incite other young men to the supremacist cause. He finds the potential for a real leader in Derek Vinyard (Edward Norton), a young man whose fireman father had been murdered at the scene of a fire by African-American drug dealer. Derek's rage was palpable immediately and he quickly became a powerful force in the skinhead youth movement. When a gang of black youths break into his car one night, Derek goes after them with a semi-automatic and kills two of them, brutally and maliciously breaking the neck of one.
On the day of Derek's release from prison after three years for voluntary manslaughter, his kid brother Danny (Edward Furlong) is turned into the principal Bob Sweeney's (Avery Brooks) office by his history teacher (Eliot Gould) for writing a paper on Mein Kampf that supports the actions of Hitler. Sweeney, an African-American who has worked closely with gang problems in the past, knows how influential Derek has been in Danny's young life. He tells Danny that he'll be conducting a private class for Danny called American History X and Danny's first assignment is to write a paper about Derek. Derek is clearly Danny's hero and role model. To Danny, Derek made the neighborhood safe from the aggressions of the black boys.
But Derek is a changed man because of the brutality and experiences he had in prison at the hands of other skinheads. He's concerned about Danny's dedication to Cameran Alexander and racist attitude. Derek is done with it, all of it, but can he save his little brother?
Also appearing are Beverly D'Angelo as the Vinyard boys' mother; Jennifer Lien as their sister Davina; Fairuza Balk as Derek's pre-prison girlfriend; and Ethan Suplee as Derek's NeoNazi friend Seth.
This is an incredibly powerful, intense and violent film told largely in a series of flashbacks which were filmed in black and white so as to keep past and current times distinguished from each other.
Edward Norton was rightfully nominated for an Oscar for this performance.
Dorected by Tony Kaye.
Run time: 1 hour, 58 minutes
Rated R for sexuality, nudity, violence, and language.
My personal rating: B+
Cameron Alexander (Stacy Keach) is a chickhawk. A predator. He hunts down likely teenage boys in the Venice Beach area to incite other young men to the supremacist cause. He finds the potential for a real leader in Derek Vinyard (Edward Norton), a young man whose fireman father had been murdered at the scene of a fire by African-American drug dealer. Derek's rage was palpable immediately and he quickly became a powerful force in the skinhead youth movement. When a gang of black youths break into his car one night, Derek goes after them with a semi-automatic and kills two of them, brutally and maliciously breaking the neck of one.
On the day of Derek's release from prison after three years for voluntary manslaughter, his kid brother Danny (Edward Furlong) is turned into the principal Bob Sweeney's (Avery Brooks) office by his history teacher (Eliot Gould) for writing a paper on Mein Kampf that supports the actions of Hitler. Sweeney, an African-American who has worked closely with gang problems in the past, knows how influential Derek has been in Danny's young life. He tells Danny that he'll be conducting a private class for Danny called American History X and Danny's first assignment is to write a paper about Derek. Derek is clearly Danny's hero and role model. To Danny, Derek made the neighborhood safe from the aggressions of the black boys.
But Derek is a changed man because of the brutality and experiences he had in prison at the hands of other skinheads. He's concerned about Danny's dedication to Cameran Alexander and racist attitude. Derek is done with it, all of it, but can he save his little brother?
Also appearing are Beverly D'Angelo as the Vinyard boys' mother; Jennifer Lien as their sister Davina; Fairuza Balk as Derek's pre-prison girlfriend; and Ethan Suplee as Derek's NeoNazi friend Seth.
This is an incredibly powerful, intense and violent film told largely in a series of flashbacks which were filmed in black and white so as to keep past and current times distinguished from each other.
Edward Norton was rightfully nominated for an Oscar for this performance.
Dorected by Tony Kaye.
Run time: 1 hour, 58 minutes
Rated R for sexuality, nudity, violence, and language.
My personal rating: B+
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