American History X
December 18, 2010
Powerful first half, sentimental second half
There are a lot of good movies out there that are revolved around racism.Movies don't need to be racist to be good, but the power of the subject and performances is what makes these movies worth watching."American History X" is just such a movie that has both things.Edward Norton gives the best possible performance of his career as Derek Vinyard, a former neo-nazi skinhead who went to jail for the brutal murder of a man who tried to steal his car.Derek was part of a group that was discriminant against Jews, blacks, and pretty much every other race that doesn't involve whites.Derek's younger brother, Danny, has become a skinhead since Derek was away.He comes back and he realizes the big mistake his brother just made, so he tries to prevent Danny from going down the same old racist road that he had once gone through.
The actual events of the movie are shown in color and the flashbacks are featured in black and white, and there's quite a bit of non-color in this movie.Not that there's anything wrong with it, it's just that some of the flashbacks start to drag and made me wanting the ACTUAL story.The flashback that shows Derek in jail goes on for about 25 minutes.I know that it was necessary to show Derek in jail, but it goes on way too long and really left me wanting to see Derek and Danny in the real times and not back then.The first half of "American History X" is a raw and powerful story about racism, the second half prevented me from the giving the movie an "A-" by being sentimental and typical when Derek and Danny agreed to not be skinheads anymore.Talking about the actors, Edward Norton gives an amaizingly powerful performance, and should've won the Oscar for his role.Edward Furlong from "Terminator 2" gives another foul-mouthed but interesting performance, maybe not Oscar-worthy, but he's very good here."American History X" is a good and very well-acted movie that deserves to be watched, not to be judged by it's use of words against races such as the Jew or the African American.
Note: The video I have posted to the right contains some strong racism, but shouldn't be called racist for the sake of being racist.
Grade: B+
There are a lot of good movies out there that are revolved around racism.Movies don't need to be racist to be good, but the power of the subject and performances is what makes these movies worth watching."American History X" is just such a movie that has both things.Edward Norton gives the best possible performance of his career as Derek Vinyard, a former neo-nazi skinhead who went to jail for the brutal murder of a man who tried to steal his car.Derek was part of a group that was discriminant against Jews, blacks, and pretty much every other race that doesn't involve whites.Derek's younger brother, Danny, has become a skinhead since Derek was away.He comes back and he realizes the big mistake his brother just made, so he tries to prevent Danny from going down the same old racist road that he had once gone through.
The actual events of the movie are shown in color and the flashbacks are featured in black and white, and there's quite a bit of non-color in this movie.Not that there's anything wrong with it, it's just that some of the flashbacks start to drag and made me wanting the ACTUAL story.The flashback that shows Derek in jail goes on for about 25 minutes.I know that it was necessary to show Derek in jail, but it goes on way too long and really left me wanting to see Derek and Danny in the real times and not back then.The first half of "American History X" is a raw and powerful story about racism, the second half prevented me from the giving the movie an "A-" by being sentimental and typical when Derek and Danny agreed to not be skinheads anymore.Talking about the actors, Edward Norton gives an amaizingly powerful performance, and should've won the Oscar for his role.Edward Furlong from "Terminator 2" gives another foul-mouthed but interesting performance, maybe not Oscar-worthy, but he's very good here."American History X" is a good and very well-acted movie that deserves to be watched, not to be judged by it's use of words against races such as the Jew or the African American.
Note: The video I have posted to the right contains some strong racism, but shouldn't be called racist for the sake of being racist.
Grade: B+
Posted by Tyler Kirk.
