"Nazism in California"

Title: American History X

Year: 1998
Genre: Crime, Drama
Director: Tony Kaye
Writer: David McKenna
Runtime: 119min
Cast: Edward Norton, Edward Furlong, Beverly D’Angelo
Produc.: New Line Cinema, Savoy Pictures, The Turman-Morrissey Company
Budget: $10 million approx.

American History X tells the story of Derek Vinyard (Edward Norton), a neo-Nazi from California, who after killing two black men trying to steal his car, ends up behind bars. Four years later, Derek is finally released, only to learn that his younger brother Danny (Edward Furlong), who has always admired him, has been following the same path that took him to jail.

The film begins when Dr. Bob Sweeney (Avery Brooks) finishes talking with a fellow and then has to call shouting the disinterested young Danny, to enter his office immediately. Mr. Sweeney is concerned about him and the bad environment that the boy is frequenting, which has been diverted him from achieving more productive goals.

Sweeney proposes Danny to become his history teacher, when his obvious goal is to shape the mind of a kid to someone clever. His first assignment, Sweeney says, is to write an essay in which he talks about Derek. It should comment on Danny skin-head brother everything he knows and what he feels about it. What's more, the delivery time will be the following day. Danny responds with moans, although we know that he will comply with the deadline.

Once we´ve met Danny, the director takes us to his brother Derek, who at this time is about to being set free. After a prolonged absence, the idea that such a menacing figure been reinserted into society is cause for alarm. Derek's presentation works for us to understand what it is the neo-Nazi ideology. Folks for whom the american color people are nothing, but just a patch of dirt on the map. The film uses the appeal of the color image to show the present and the black and white, each time we see the past through flashbacks.

There are three key scenes that let us understand the mentality of a skin-head. One of these takes place in a public basketball court, where Derek challenges a group of black kids to a game against the whites, and the winner will be the new owner of the field. Losers, on the other hand, will disappear forever from there. Derek proves to be a talented athlete and the whites are left with the court.

Soon, there is a second scene in which Derek and Danny are eating as a family, and where racial hatred is externalized to the very edge. A peacefully dinner losses all its calm when in an exchange of views, consistency (his mother and the others present) against incoherence (Derek and his girlfriend), end up shouting to each other. Hysterical and tired of his brother and his girlfriend, Davina (Jennifer Lien) gets up to leave, but Derek grabs her by the arm and the even forces food into her mouth. Fortunately, the situation doesn´t get any worse.

Then during the night, two black men (who lost before in the pitch) attempt to steal Derek's car, but both end up passing to a better life and Derek, imprisoned.

It is from his return to freedom, that the film will reveal, from Derek's own mouth, the other side of the same matter. Because we have a pre-sentence Derek, a bad guy and full of rage, shaved to zero and with a swastika tattooed on his chest. Later on we will have another Derek Vinyard completely diminish and renovated, rational and intelligent, whom the years of isolation have served to learn how to listen, to accept those who are different, and to change his defensiveness. He has even grown his hair.

The rehabilitated Derek will count with very little time to catch up on everything, and with very few opportunities to extricate his brother from that environment, if indeed he can do it.

American History X is a movie full of violence and drama, but that are worth seeing at every moment. It's a movie that makes you understand a few things to meditate them closely. It's a film that has very good performances, especially that of Edward Norton, who was nominated for an Oscar.

My rating: 9/10

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