American History X is quite a film. The movie is very detailed about racism and prejudices that face the world. The film is about two brothers who are led on the wrong path to become white supremacists. The eldest brother, Derek Vinyard (Edward Norton) is the man of the household after his ‘racist’ father is killed by a black man during a fire. He is then put into jail when he shoots three black men for stealing his car. His younger brother, Danny (Edward Furlong) begins to follow in his brother’s footsteps under the wing of his brother’s neo-Nazi party leader, Stacey Keach (Cameron Alexander). While his brother is in jail, Danny is sent to the principals office because of a offensive paper he wrote. He has been told to write a paper about his brother instead. This is where the story unfolds into black and white memories of the boy’s past. Derek explains to his brother about what happened to him in jail and how he is a changed person. Derek tries to change Danny’s behavior and changes his perspective of how he views others. In the end, we think that all is well because of their change, but Danny is horrifically shot by a black boy who he had confrontation with in the beginning of the movie.
To me, this movie was way over my thoughts about racism. I never thought that people could be so hateful to each other. The movie not only shows the racism between blacks and whites, but also against Jewish, Hispanic, and Asian people as well. It is a pity to think that some people are really that angry about differences. Even though the movie showed racism to great extremes, it still made an impact on the way that some people view others. I believe that the adult’s influence greatly impacted this story. There was the father, who was prejudice towards black people, an older brother who was a neo-Nazi skinhead, and an even older father, almost grandfather-like influence that was the same way. Danny was stuck in a world of hate until his brother told him the stories of his time in prison.
Sad enough, (I didn’t want to be right) I predicted someone’s death in the end. I thought that it could possibly be Derek because of the way he killed the men in the beginning or because he turned on his white supremacist friends. But I expected Danny’s death even more. Danny didn’t go through the same change that Derek did. Sure it was great that he changed his views, based on his paper and his new found attitude when taking down his racist posters, but he never really had any closure, forgiveness, or apology between him and his murderer. Not that there should or should not have been, it was just a movie kind-of prediction.
I completely agree with you. It's insane to think that people are so hateful towards others just for being different. I also agree with what you said about the adult's influence in the movie. If it was not for Derek and Danny's father, neither of them would have been prejudice and neither of them would be the type of people they were throughout the movie. Like Sweeney said, Danny's beliefs were learned and could be unlearned - which they were in both Danny and Derek. It's tragic that Danny had to die after changing his beliefs about people, but that just goes to show you what racism and prejudice can do. And we'll never know what happens afterward. Does Derek blame the black student for what happened? Does he continue with his anti-racist beliefs? How does he and the family cope with Danny's death? This movie does quite a good job of showing the horrors and tragedies of prejudice.
ReplyDelete