I so wish a movie like American History X (1998) was not relevant
at all today. Instead it feels like but a short prologue to the madness that
was to come. The movie's director, Tony Kaye, apparently wanted to disavow the
movie but fortunately star Edward Norton helped bring a finished cut to the
screen. The result is a story about white nationalism, neo-Nazis, hatred,
racial division, and a war of ideas that couldn't feel timelier in today's
political climate. When a neo-Nazi proudly talks about the advances they have
made with the Internet I got chills.
I had been vaguely aware of the movie ever since it came out, never
being very interested in watching it given the heaviness of the subject matter.
It became available on Netflix recently so I thought I may as well scratch
another Greatest Movies off my list. The short plot description also told me
this could sadly have been shot last year as a possible companion piece to
Spike Lee's Blackkklansman. As I watched the events of the story unfold part of
me thought it should be re-released in theaters to spark a conversation.
Another part of me thought it might accidentally further galvanize the wrong
crowd.
Plot-wise, the story is relatively short. Teenager Danny Vinyard (Edward
Furlong, of Terminator 2 fame) is in trouble for having written an essay
praising Adolf Hitler at his Venice, California, high school. Danny shrugs off
the reaction of his Jewish history teacher (Elliot Gould) and principal
(Avery Brooks) because he has grown up in an environment where Hitler is a
figure to be revered. This is in large part due to his older brother Derek
(Norton), who has a swastika tattooed on his chest and has been released from
prison after three years for killing an African-American man during an altercation.
However, much to Danny's surprise, Derek seems to have turned a new leaf in
prison and wants to turn his back on his white-supremacist
ideology.
While Danny writes a replacement essay about his brother, titled
American History X at his principal's request, black and white flashback scenes
reveal the history of Derek's descent into hatred. One key incident was the
death of his firefighter dad who was shot by apparently an African American
criminal. During a TV interview Derek starts spewing about how minorities are
the cause of all the crimes in America whereas white European settlers managed
to peacefully make a life for themselves. Later, he rallies other angry young
white men and rants to them about how minorities are crossing the border and
working illegally in businesses that used to belong to white men. Is any of
this starting to sound familiar? Derek never says they should build a wall to
keep the illegals out, but I got the feeling he would not be against the idea.
Derek eventually gets to reveal flashbacks of his own when he explains
to Danny why he chose to leave this hatred behind after prison. Once again
there are many factors at play, but key to his change is a conversation with
the school principal, Dr. Sweeney. This rational man, who also works with the
police to help fight hate groups, asks Derek if any of his life choices have
actually helped him. The answer is of course no since those choices have landed
Derek in prison.
Unfortunately, while Derek is finally getting a positive influence,
Danny is getting just the opposite. White-supremacist gang leader Cameron
Alexander (Stacy Keach) is recruiting lots of young angry men just like Derek
and Danny in order to channel their anger and organize them into an army. For
guys like Alexander, a race war is a best-case scenario. After spending time
with these people, Danny starts to believe he should hate anyone who is not
white and Protestant. These are the kinds of people who would have been
perfectly at home screaming hateful things while marching with tiki torches in
Charlottesville in 2017.
A very important point the movie makes is that hatred is taught. Derek
was not born hating people who are different from him. Angry people in his
orbit convinced him all his problems are caused by others, and even worse, that
he should do harm to all these others. Singling out a group of people and
saying they are responsible for all crimes has consequences.
You can't give enough praise to Edward Norton for taking on this role. Sometimes
I even got the impression he is playing two people. Before prison Derek is a
person you will find repulsive and disgusting, so much so his own mother
(Beverly D'Angelo) tells him she is ashamed to have brought him into this
world. After prison however you root for the guy since he realizes he has been
manipulated and is now focussing on stopping his brother from going down the
same path.
My biggest problem with this movie is that it is a little too short despite
having a running time of just under two hours. I would have liked to have seen
more scenes of Derek being radicalized and then more scenes of him deciding to
become a changed man. The ending also feels a little abrupt and perhaps too
sad, but maybe that's just because I would like a happier ending given the way
things are today. Perhaps instead of being re-released this is the sort of
movie that could be adapted into a TV series to explore how this hatred is
spread, and more importantly, how to stop it from spreading.
Comments
Post a Comment