American History X

February 26, 2004

DVD, Somerville, MA

* 1/2 / ****

American History X is a powerful message movie (Hate Begets Hate) that features tremendous performances from Edward Norton and Guy Torry and a relentless pace that leaves the viewer at once angry, disturbed, and in awe. Unfortunately, however, for every scene that explodes with rage there are handfuls of others that struggle to tie up motivation and plot. Don’t get me wrong, this is an entertaining and thought provoking movie with many scenes that capture white middle class rage far better than any Eminem song could ever dream. The problem lies in the lack of articulation from the other side, the side that director Tony Kaye seems to want to favor, but can’t for the life of him figure out how to portray: the thoughtful, struggling black man.

X is the story of skinhead Derek, played excellently by Edward Norton, who hates minorities and shows that hatred with despicable acts of violence. His younger brother, Danny, played by Edward Furlong, looks up to his older sibling and begins emulating his most troubling characteristics. Derek’s violence eventually leads him to a stint in jail where violence enacted on him in the pen opens his eyes and his mind to ideas his hatred had never allowed. Meanwhile, as Derek learns his lessons in the slammer and begins to change for the better, Danny delves further and further into the hatred of white supremacy. Caught at a crossroads and forced to make a choice between becoming the racist, hate filled man that his brother was before incarceration, and getting out of that way of life before it is too late, Danny’s fate is the prize lying in the balance of American History X’s weighty tale.

In one important and telling scene that explains why this movie fails, Edward Norton’s Derek gathers his skinhead brood to seek revenge against an immigrant who had recently opened a convenience store to replace a white man who had operated at that location for decades. Derek rants about the opportunities white people are losing because of the protection afforded illegal immigrants who, as he states, don’t belong here in the first place. It is well thought out and powerful propaganda that has much truth in it and Derek’s way of presenting the message is charismatic and insightful. The trouble, which surfaces numerous times in the film, is that there is almost nothing from the opposing viewpoint that can stand as powerfully as Derek’s comments. Happening over and over and over again until the end, this point-of-view becomes mantra rather than a cautionary warning which easily gets the movie’s message lost in the shuffle. This is especially troubling considering that this opposing viewpoint is the message Kaye seems to want us to ultimately accept in the film’s conclusion. The whole scenario becomes an oxymoron: Why present only the best aspects of the point your movie is struggling against without a fair and thoughtful rebuttal? I suppose you’ll have to ask Kaye to explain because personally, I can’t find one good reason.

Even more troubling than Kaye’s lack of focus on an articulate message opposing right wing conservatism and hate, the movie’s supposed modus operandi, is the movie’s recurring theme that black people will almost always resort to crime and violence as the answer to every dispute. The movie opens with a scene of black on white hatred and ends with a different scene of the same. In Kaye’s world, white people hate because they’re pissed off and tired of having to work twice as hard to get the same thing as a black person, and black people hate uncontrollably and irrationally, or at least that’s how it is portrayed here. This message may not be in the dialogue, but it is everywhere in the individual actions of the respective races in this film. If Kaye truly believes his own rhetoric that life is too short to hate, as I hope he does, it might have been easier to swallow if the bad guys in his movie weren’t all painted in black and brown, but rather, every color of the rainbow as they truly exist. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case, and sadly, I think, the individuals who will most enjoy this film are the misdirected racists this movie unwittingly glorifies.

Close, but no cigars.