"American History X"
Reviewed by Heather Picker
Directed by Tony Kaye. Written by David McKenna. Starring Edward Norton, with Edward Furlong, Avery Brooks, and Stacy Keach. 1998, 119 min., Rated R.
"American History X" gained publicity when director Tony Kaye publicly denounced the version that was going to be distributed. He wanted his name to be removed, and 'Humpty Dumpty' put in it's place, claiming that the film's star, Edward Norton ("Primal Fear," "Rounders"), had re-edited it to give himself more screen time. Ultimately, the movie would gain more publicity when Norton garnered an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. His performance is truly stirring; the saving grace of a story with tremendous potential because of it's social relevance, but one that fails to rise above average.
Daniel Vinyard (Edward Furlong, "Pecker") is a high school student who turned in a report about Hitler's "Mien Kampf." His alarmed teacher takes the paper to Principal Sweeney (Avery Brooks), who calls Daniel into his office and tells him that from now on he will report to Sweeney for a class called American History X. By the next morning Daniel must have turned in to him a new report, this time about his older brother, Derek (Norton). Earlier in the day, Derek had been released from prison after doing time for killing two young black men whom he'd caught breaking into his car a few years ago.
Daniel arrives home and we're given a more formal introduction to his apparently racist background. His mother Doris (Beverly D'Angelo), sister Davina (Jennifer Lien), and younger sister, are fawning over Derek. The brother's hug and Daniel shows Derek a white power tattoo. Derek wants to know when he got it, and doesn't seem pleased. Seth (Ethan Suplee), the token hulking idiot of their circle of acquaintances, arrives, and he, too, is given an inexplicably chilly reception by Derek, who obviously has other things on his mind.
As Daniel writes his report, black and white flashbacks of what happened the night Derek was arrested begin. The flashbacks comprise a large part of the one-minute less than two hour running time of the movie. Derek's mysterious behavior continues when he tells Daniel not to go the party that is being thrown that night for the white supremacist group at the home of Cameron Alexander (Stacy Keach). Of course, Daniel goes anyway, and is shocked and feeling betrayed when Derek has a private confrontation with Cameron that escalates into Seth pointing a gun at Derek, who runs from the angry group that had, just moments earlier, been proclaiming him a hero for having killed the would-be burglars.
When Daniel catches up with him, we're treated to some more flashbacks that attempt to more fully explain Derek's change of heart. Turns out, unsurprisingly, that he wasn't as big a hit in the slammer as he had been with the groups he used to cheer into frenzied race-motivated attacks by simply standing on his soapbox and being the rhetorical ringmaster to a bunch of misguided teens. He was a recruiter and did Cameron's dirty work, something he didn't realize until his stint in jail, during which he was raped and became close friends with his secret protector, Lamont (played terrifically by Guy Torry). All of this opened up his eyes, and he turned to Sweeney, who had once been a man he greatly respected, for help.
When Derek is through telling Daniel about what 'changed' him, the flaws in the story become more noticeable, mainly because Daniel is so willing to accepting of Derek's reasons, and himself reforms. The next morning, Derek has an appointment with his parole officer, and is eager to get his life back on track by obtaining his old job position, and he stops with Daniel, who is on his way to school, to get a cup of coffee. Sweeney and a police officer show up, in need of Derek's help. Cameron had been beaten badly the night before, and they need Derek to get to the bottom of things. Derek reluctantly agrees, telling Sweeney, "You're going to get me killed by a bunch of white boys."
Foreshadowing has been evident up to this point, with Derek looking a bit ill at ease before he even entered the coffee shop. But as he sees Daniel off in front of the school building, the impending sense of doom is palpable. If this synopsis seems short, let me assure you that it basically covers the entire film, except for a short incident at the beginning that is pertinent to the ending, I left it out because it would definitely be a spoiler. Even so, considering the running time not very much happens. The 'present-time' actions occur in color and within a very short (24 hour) time frame, and the flashbacks, tastefully done in black and white, span from Derek's high school years to his final day in prison.
Furlong is solid as Daniel, but it is the amazing performance of Norton that keeps "American History X" from lapsing into a tired story. The biggest fault of the script is that believable reason for what led to the racist views and actions of the Vinyard boys is never explained. Instead, an ill-conceived dinner table scene has their murdered father, Dennis (William Russ of TV's "Boy Meets World") explain "affirmative black-tion" to Derek, who had just told the family about Sweeney, a double Ph.D. holder and great teacher, who was having the class read "Native Son." What Dennis said, and how Derek had been portrayed as up to that point, don't come close to adding up to the hate Derek harbored towards non-Aryans.
Lacking motivation, the characters wouldn't be believable at all if not for the acting. Furlong gives his Daniel a depth that, while really only extending towards trust, admiration, but also residual pain from the horror of what he witnessed his fallen-hero older brother do to the intruders on the night of the murders. And Norton's often chilling performance provides one of the scariest cinematic scenes in recent memory; that of Derek's look of triumph as he is arrested after the killings. Additional cliched characters include Stacey (Fairuza Balk), Derek's ex-girlfriend, Murray (Elliott Gould), the teacher from the beginning and an ex-boyfriend of the equally cliched ill Doris, and the liberal sister (Lien). The supporting cast does what they can with their underdeveloped roles. D'Angelo, Brooks, Torry, and Suplee in particular, but the real supporting standout is Stacy Keach as the disgustingly cowardly bigot Cameron.
The most frighteningly realistic aspect of the story is that, while it never convinces us why the main character(s) joined the neo-Nazis, it is very convincing in it's depiction of insecure teens who feel a need to belong, and find that sense of belonging in unabashed hatred. Charismatic recruiter Derek isn't the kind of Bible-thumping Grand Dragon that appears on cheap talk shows, he is a poised, passionate, and fervently articulate and captivating speaker. Even those who disagree with his ideas listen, though incredulously, and are, like Murray in a flashback scene, still resigned to the fact that nothing can be done about it.
In spite of the lackluster script (which admittedly may have come across as a bad story because of the editing. Unless the Kaye-approved version is over released, that may never be known), "American History X" is an engrossing film that deserves to be seen. After seeing this, I'm looking forward to seeing future work of director Kaye, who first made a name for himself directing commercials. He also served as cinematographer, with impressive results. Shots that are alternately stylish and gritty add a realistic touch that is otherwise only visible through the performance of Norton.
Brought to DVD by the New Line folks, renowned for their excellent Platinum Series, of which "American History X" is not a part, the disc is, as expected, an excellent package. The picture quality, for both the color and black and white sequences, is crisp and clear. Presented only in widescreen, also enhanced for 16x9 (widescreen) televisions, and in it's original 1.85:1 aspect ratio, it is another great transfer from New Line. The sound is also very good (5.1 Surround or Surround). The supplements include, beside the usual interactive menus, three deleted scenes (two are about a minute or less and fairly inconsequential, another scene which explains what happened to Cameron runs about five minutes long), the original theatrical trailer (widescreen), and biographies and filmographies of the cast and crew.
Notes: Rated R for graphic brutal violence, pervasive language, nudity, and sexuality.
DVD Details: Snap case. Widescreen (16x9 enhanced) featuring three deleted scenes, the original theatrical trailer, and cast and crew biographies and filmographies.
The Verdict: "American History X" is a stirring drama, and marks the beginning of a promising career on behalf of director Tony Kaye. The story is uneven, but Edward Norton's brilliant portrayal of a young neo-Nazi who's time in prison forces him to reevaluate where hatred has gotten him in life is reason enough to view this film. For optimum picture and sound quality, the DVD is very highly recommended. mailto: Ahber16@aol.com Review courtesy of http://www.thatmoviesite.8m.com
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews