Jayclops' musings on his favorite pasttime and escape.
back off, n*ggah.
May 9, 2007American History X (Tony Kaye, 1998)
The tranquil shots of LA beach, some awash in gray, as the opening credits roll, won't prepare you for the oh-shit moments to come. American History X offers the audience with a penchant for violence a full platter. Kaye doesn't tread on Tarantino territory here, but violence come not in the form style, but a sense of moral critique to the more salient subject matter of racism. We're not talking about Crash melodrama here, we're talking old-fashioned -Mr. KKK-white power kind of racism. A hostile war kept alive by its embers.
Sporting a buff physique and a glaring swastika, Edward Norton, whom I regard one of the finest actors around, delivers his best performance to date as Derek Vinyard, a neo-Nazi who lives and breathes White Power. He is the brainchild of a local neo-Nazi Cameron convinced on organizing massive fronts of Hitler disciples across the state and country. Derek is regarded a demi-god, not just to his skinhead minions, but more so by his brother Danny (Edward Furlong) who is becoming a younger version of him. Norton carries the film from start to finish. He completely blows you away with his inscrutability and savagery.
His speedy transformation is chronicled through Danny's history paper titled American History X to the behest of his black teacher (who was once a teacher of Derek), after Danny wrote a paperr on Mein Kamf. Through this narration, we learned that Derek got a three-year sentence after killing two black men who attempted to steal his car, the other one got a broken skull. It was in prison that Danny got what he need to realize in the end concluding in a savage rape scene. It could have shed more minutes though to stress Derek's espousal of far-right ideals, the only motivational force comes in a father-son table conversation and the ignition with his father's murder by two black men.
This is one heavy film because of its big message, one that has to rely with the power of its individual scenes to drive home the point — that violence begets violence and hate waste your energies, your time, your life. It's difficult to sit through it not because it's brutal, but it's also kind of horrific — because it's actually real.
