An Introduction To The Film American History X
Written by Casandra Cooke on April 15th, 2010
You likely don’t need a lengthy explanation of what this article is actually about. The content here will serve to properly introduce you to one of the most impressive films of all of the 1990s, “American History X”. You should learn a few different things about this film to fully appreciate it as it was meant to be appreciated, and most of this prevalent information will be contained within the upcoming paragraphs.
This movie was not based on real events, as some people seem to think that it was. Though, the course that the film takes might not be all that unlike what others might have experienced in their own lives. This is a reflection about how we can be led so strongly to believe something that we later cannot believe in anymore through the introduction of circumstances beyond our control.
The movie starts rolling by introducing you to Danny Vinyard, who is still in high school. After getting in some trouble over having written a history paper on a white supremacist, he is told to write a paper on his brother Derek. Derek is Danny’s older brother and he is, for all intents and purposes, the main character of the piece.
You also learn that Derek, his immediate family and his close friends all share a extremist skinhead view on the world. That world, indicates that black people are the problem that society has to put up with and for all intents and purposes should be eradicated. This began when Derek was a small boy and watched his father gunned down by a black drug dealer. He was taken under the wing of a white supremacist that encouraged him to stand up for himself. So Derek formed his own gang of white kids that would never be afraid of blacks in their community again.
You learn that Derek is in jail, and see a visual depiction of what landed him there. Some black people were attempting to break into his car, when he was alerted of it and he raced outside, gun drawn. He began firing at them all, killing one and wounding another. One managed to escape. The fate of the wounded would mark one of the most graphic scenes ever depicted on film, which was Derek forcing the man to put his teeth onto the street curb and Derek stomping on the back of his head.
However, Derek is required to face his beliefs when he heads off to prison. He learns very quickly that there is no place for his beliefs, and ironically befriends a black man when they are forced to share laundry duty together. When his old history teacher visits and tells him that Danny is headed down the same path, Derek vows to change his ways for good when he gets out and move himself and his brother far away from the mess that he has made.
At the welcome home party of his release, Derek asks his girlfriend to go away with him and Danny, she leaves upset and refusing. Derek is also forced to confront Cameron, the man responsible for Derek’s former beliefs and tell him what he now knew to be the truth. The brothers leave and Danny is able to finish his paper, which is spoken as narration through the last bits of the film.
The tragedy is the ending of the story, which while Danny narrates that hate is too much to keep up with and no one should hate anyone else, he is gunned down by a black kid in the high school’s bathroom. Powerful acting from Edward Norton (Derek) and Edward Furlong (Danny) make this film a movie that you simply have to see at least once.
Next venue was Grauman’s Chinese Theater, which was followed by the Shrine Auditorium. Movie Download File Whatever makes it great for you is why you have to have it. Ok, so I went to Walmart, but the movie wasn’t there.
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