Amazon.com video review:
Perhaps the highest compliment you can pay to Edward Norton is that his
Oscar-nominated performance in American History X nearly convinces
you that there is a shred of logic in the tenets of white supremacy. If
that
statement doesn't horrify you, it should; Norton is so fully immersed in
his role as a neo-Nazi skinhead that his character's eloquent defense of
racism is disturbingly persuasive--at least on the surface. Looking lean
and
mean with a swastika tattoo and a mind full of hate, Derek Vinyard (Norton)
has inherited racism from his father, and that learning has been
intensified
through his service to Cameron (Stacy Keach), a grown-up thug playing
tyrant
and teacher to a growing band of disenfranchised teens from Venice Beach,
California, all hungry for an ideology that fuels their brooding
alienation.
The film's basic message--that hate is learned and can be unlearned--is
expressed through Derek's kid brother, Danny (Edward Furlong), whose
sibling
hero-worship increases after Derek is imprisoned (or, in Danny's mind,
martyred) for the killing of two black men. Lacking Derek's gift of rebel
rhetoric, Danny is easily swayed into the violent, hateful lifestyle that
Derek disowns during his thoughtful time in prison. Once released, Derek
struggles to save his brother from a violent fate, and American
History X partially suffers from a mix of intense emotions, awkward
sentiment,
and predictably inevitable plotting. And yet British director Tony Kaye
(who would later protest against Norton's creative intervention during
post-production) manages to juggle these qualities--and a compelling clash
of visual styles--to considerable effect. No matter how strained their
collaboration may have been, both Kaye and Norton can be proud to have
created a film that addresses the issue of racism with dramatically
forceful
impact. --Jeff Shannon
Amazon.com video review:
Edward Norton was nominated for a 1998 Best Actor Oscar for his role as
Derek Vinyard, a
thoughtful kid turned neo-Nazi after his father is slain. Edward Furlong
plays his younger brother, Danny, determined to follow in his brother's
footsteps. The easy routes the film seems prepared to take never
materialize. It continually makes Derek's transformation both in and out
of
his racist beliefs believable and persuasive. Stacy Keach is given the
head
vampire role of the local skinhead chapter, Cameron, and he's the closest
this film comes to an overt overstatement. Norton, however, is fantastic,
embodying a person who roller-coasters through hatred like he can't wait to
ride again. His diatribes are not unlike what can be heard on any given
conservative radio station on any given day, but he doesn't spew them as
cant or screed. Only when his violent emotions take charge, negating any
sense or stand, is the underlying fallacy and nature of his beliefs made
plain.
This film was undermined by the film's own director, Tony Kaye, who made
such a braying ass of himself and his work that it distorted the public's
view of what is an interesting social and psychological lesson in the war
between ideas and ideologues, reason and racism. --Keith Simanton
