Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email
Answers.com

American History X

 
Movies:

American History X

 
  • Director: Tony Kaye
  • AMG Rating: starstarstar
  • Genre: Drama
  • Movie Type: Urban Drama, Message Movie
  • Themes: Social Injustice, Race Relations, Going Straight
  • Main Cast: Edward Norton, Edward Furlong, Fairuza Balk, Beverly D'Angelo, Avery Brooks
  • Release Year: 1998
  • Country: US
  • Run Time: 118 minutes
  • MPAA Rating: R

Plot

Tony Kaye made his feature directorial debut with this dramatic exploration into the roots of race hatred in America. In a shocking opening scene, teen Danny Vinyard (Edward Furlong) races to tell his older brother, neo-Nazi Derek (Edward Norton), about the young blacks breaking into his car in front of the house, whereupon Derek gets his gun and with no forethought shoots the youths in their tracks. Tried and convicted, Derek is sent away for three years in prison, where he acquires a different outlook as he contrasts white-power prisoners with black Lamont (Guy Torry), his prison laundry co-worker and eventual pal. Meanwhile, Danny, with a shaved head and a rebellious attitude, seems destined to follow in his big brother's footsteps. After Danny writes a favorable review of Hitler's Mein Kampf, black high-school principal Sweeney (Avery Brooks) puts Danny in his private "American History X" course and assigns him to do a paper about his older brother, who was a former student of Sweeney's. This serves to introduce flashbacks, with the film backtracking to illustrate Danny's account of Derek's life prior to the night of the shooting. Monochrome sequences of Derek leading a Venice, California gang are intercut with color footage of the mature Derek ending his past neo-Nazi associations and attempting to detour Danny away from the group led by white supremacist, Cameron (Stacy Keach), who once influenced Derek. Director Tony Kaye, with a background in TV commercials and music videos, filmed in L.A. beach communities. Rated R "for graphic brutal violence including rape, pervasive language, strong sexuality and nudity." ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Cast

Stacy Keach - Cameron Alexander; Jennifer Lien - Davina Vinyard; Elliott Gould - Murray; William Russ - Dennis Vinyard; Ethan Suplee - Seth; Joe Cortese - Rasmussen; Guy Torry - Lamont; Giuseppe Andrews - Jason; Antonio David Lyons - Lawrence; Keram Malicki-Sanchez - Chris; Jordan Marder - Curtis; Nicholas R. Oleson - Huge Aryan; Anne Lambton - Cassandra; Alex Sol - Mitch McCormick; Paul Le Mat - McMahon

Credit

Dan Olexiewicz - Art Director, James Kyler Black - Art Director, Valerie McCaffrey - Casting, Jon D. Hess - Co-producer, David McKenna - Co-producer, Doug Hall - Costume Designer, Mark Cotone - First Assistant Director, Tony Kaye - Director, Jerry Greenberg - Editor, Alan Heim - Editor, Michael De Luca - Executive Producer, Steve Tisch - Executive Producer, Lawrence Turman - Executive Producer, Bill Carraro - Executive Producer, Kearie Peak - Executive Producer, Brian Witten - Executive Producer, Anne Dudley - Composer (Music Score), John Gary Steele - Production Designer, Tony Kaye - Cinematographer, John Morrissey - Producer, Tessa Posnansky - Set Designer, Steve Nelson - Sound/Sound Designer, David McKenna - Screenwriter

Similar Movies

Across the Tracks; Blood in the Face; Do the Right Thing; Romper Stomper; La haine; The Inheritors; The California Reich; Pariah; White Lies; Brotherhood of Murder; The Believer; Manito; Elephant; Führer EX; The Gatekeeper; Green Street Hooligans; Train of Dreams; The Turning; This Is England
Search unanswered questions...
Enter a word or phrase...
All Community Q&A Reference topics
 
Wikipedia: American History X
Top
American History X

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Tony Kaye
Produced by John Morrissey
Written by David McKenna
Starring Edward Norton
Edward Furlong
Beverly D'Angelo
Avery Brooks
Stacy Keach
Jennifer Lien
Fairuza Balk
Elliott Gould
Ethan Suplee
Guy Torry
William Russ
Music by Anne Dudley
Cinematography Tony Kaye
Editing by Jerry Greenberg
Distributed by New Line Cinema
Release date(s) October 23, 1998
Running time 119 min.
Country USA
Language English
Budget $20,000,000
Gross revenue $23,875,127

American History X is an Academy Award-nominated 1998 film directed by Tony Kaye. The lead actor, Edward Norton, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance. The film received an 83% on Rotten Tomatoes.[1] It grossed $6,719,864 from 513 theaters in the United States, and a total of $23,875,127 worldwide.[2]

The film tells the story of two brothers, Derek Vinyard (Norton) and Daniel "Danny" Vinyard (Edward Furlong) of Venice Beach, Los Angeles, California. Both are extremely bright and charismatic students, and Derek is drawn into the neo-Nazi movement after their father, a firefighter, is murdered by a black drug dealer while trying to put out a fire in a South Central neighborhood. Derek kills two black gang members trying to steal his truck, and is sentenced to three years in prison for voluntary manslaughter. The story shows how Danny is influenced by his older brother's actions and ideology and how Derek, now radically changed by his experience in confinement, tries to prevent his brother from going down the same path as he did.

Contents

Plot

In the opening scene, Danny Vinyard, a young white supremacist, sits outside the principal's office, where his history teacher explains to the principal, Dr. Sweeney, that Danny wrote a book report sympathetic to Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf. After some discussion, Dr Sweeney calls Danny into his office and informs him that he will now be his history teacher, calling the class "American History X", and that his first assignment is to write a paper about his brother Derek.

The next scenes are flashbacks showing Derek's transformation into a vengeful white supremacist in Venice Beach having already been influenced by his firefighter father's latent racism, and is driven to action when his father is murdered by an African-American drug dealer.

Eventually Derek becomes second-in-command of a neo-Nazi gang, The DOC, and entices young whites to join by promising protection from predominantly non-white gangs. The gang commits acts of intimidation, such as damaging a store owned by a Korean and challenging basketball games against groups of black players. One night while Derek is with his girlfriend Stacey (Fairuza Balk) three blacks try to steal Derek's truck, which upon discovering Derek exits the house and violently confronts the men as Danny watches in horror.

Derek is sentenced to prison after being convicted with voluntary manslaughter where he joins the Aryan Brotherhood. He becomes disillusioned with the gang, especially over the group's friendly dealings with a Mexican gang. When he voices these opinions, he is quickly shut down by the other white supremacists, so Derek chooses to not associate with them any more and is beaten. It is while working in the prison laundry room that Derek gradually becomes friends with a black inmate named Lamont.

While in prison, Derek is visited by Dr. Sweeney, whom he asks for help to get out on parole. Sweeney informs him of Danny's aspirations of becoming a neo-Nazi like Derek and heading to right where he is. He confides in Derek that he used to hate white people as a youth, but he came to the realization that racism was pointless. Sweeney asserts that Derek has spent his life pursuing answers, and then asks him: "Has anything you've done made your life better?" This proves a turning point for Derek, who further distances himself from the Aryan Brotherhood and changes his outlook on life. Lamont emerges as his only true friend in prison.

When Derek returns home he finds that Danny has become a white power skinhead and then tries and fails to convince him to leave the gang. Derek then tells the leader, Cameron Alexander, that he will no longer associate with him or the gang at which Cameron provokes Derek who beats him before leaving his office. During an ensuing confrontation, Derek's friend Seth Ryan points a gun at him, which Derek wrestles from him, and points it at the angry crowd before running away from the party. Danny angrily confronts Derek who tells him about his experiences in prison. The confession seems to prompt a change in Danny and they walk home with the insinuation that they will start to change their ways.

The following morning Danny concludees his story and Derek gets ready for a meeting with his parole officer. Derek walks Danny to school before his meeting, and on their way they stop at a café where they are met by Dr. Sweeney and a police officer. They tell Derek that Cameron, the leader of the white supremacists, and another member were found after being jumped, and that they are now in the hospital. Derek claims no knowledge of the incidents but they ask him for help, which Derek reluctantly agrees to do.

At school, Danny enters a bathroom before class starts and is confronted by a young black boy who is a gang member, with whom he had a confrontation the previous day. The black student ends up shooting Danny three times in the chest. The film ends with Danny narrating part of his paper, in which he quotes the conclusion of Abraham Lincoln's inaugural address: "We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."

Development

Kaye, the director, disowned the final cut of the film. He tried and failed to have his name taken off the credit list.[3]

Cast

Deleted scenes

These are featured on the DVD.

  • A scene in which an elderly black woman is harassed and made to cry on the boardwalk by teenage white power skinheads.
  • A scene after the "party", in which Cameron and Seth go to a cafe and discuss Derek's change. They harass an interracial couple, and then leave. A car is waiting outside, in which several black men that are unrelated to the couple, watch Cameron and Seth leave, before going after them. One black man inside the car (the same black guy from the school) remarks "Somebody fixin' to get they ass whooped." The aftermath is not shown, but the audience later learns that Cameron and Seth were attacked.
  • A brief scene in the cafe near the end in which Derek winks at a little black girl and asks "How do I look?"

References

External links


 
 

 

Copyrights:

Movies. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Movie Guide ®, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "American History X" Read more

 

Mentioned in