American History X

(1998)

Directed by

Tony Kaye

Review by Zach Saltz

There is an idolatry in American History X (1998) that exists between a cocky and unruly 15-year-old and his neo-Nazi older brother.  The boy narrates the film, which is its first flaw; the central character of the story should be the older brother, Derek, a despicable skinhead who happens to have a gift to captivate people with his callous and spiteful hatred (not unlike the Fuhrer himself).  What we expect is a psychological examination of a man torn between his duties as a patriarch and father figure to the younger brother and his devotion to the splurging world of neo-Nazis in Venice Beach.  What we get is more of an altruistic story rather than a profile, occasionally marred by over-ambition, but mostly effective in its presentment of a twisted group of all-too-real sociopaths that the collective American consensus too frequently forgets is a real and serious threat.

We see Derek in an early scene (shot in black-and-white as to inform us that it is indeed a flashback) in a fury at the dinner table, elaborating on the subject of African-Americans having a “racial commitment to crime.”  He proceeds to beat his sister and drives away his mother’s Jewish boyfriend, using every outrageous expletive and derogatory term imaginable.  What is most provocative is that we are expected, by the end of the film, to forgive and kind of like him -- all as a result of a prison sentence that changes him forever.  It is not the acceptance or humanization I object to; by dehumanizing Derek and deeming him a “monster” and ���freak of nature” we are simply elevating him to the same idolatry as Hitler or Idi Amin or Pol Pot.  The film shows us genuine progression and growth on the part of the Derek character, but it’s too much to expect that the progression is solely a result of his prison tenure.  It doesn’t help that the prison sequences are underdeveloped as well, and other than a horrific shower rape, the scenes are too teleological to make us believe they are capable of changing this same man from the earlier dinner scene.

But I’m making it sound like American History X doesn’t work.  It does, in fact, and its effect on the viewer -- in terms of its latent social criticism as well as its sheer emotional punch -- equals other forceful work such Do the Right Thing (1989) and, most recently, Paul Haggis’ Crash (2005). What separates these films from the mainstream, besides their racially-centered content, is the relentless hatred expressed in the form of unabashed cultural and racial stereotypes leaving characters mouths at rapid speeds.  Do people really talk like this in Naomi Wolf’s PC-ridden America?  Maybe not, but it’s nice to see films that dare to explore feelings and emotions forbidden by the constrictions of the social milieu.  Perhaps a curious observation is how all three films are set in a period of roughly 48 hours; there are too many emotional bombs dropped to adequately knot everything up in the final minutes of American History X, but the overall effect works because of our gradual knowledge and acceptance of its characters.

The other reason the movie works is Edward Norton.  The supporting work is strong (though occasionally bows down to cliché) but American History X is undeniably and unequivocally Norton’s film.  He plays the Derek character with the same fury as a young Brando or De Niro, and it’s not too surprising that he was later able stand his ground against both of them in The Score -- and even outperformed them.

The technical aspects of the film are moderately successful.  The taut black-and-white camerawork (shot by the director, Tony Kaye) is unnecessary, since the screenplay makes it very evident which scenes take place in the present, and which are flashbacks.  But some of the camera work is very nice; I liked the shots of water, in particular, coming out of a shower and the waves of the ocean -- water being a classical symbol of redemption.  The shots of Norton’s hefty and muscular bare chest recall Robert Mitchum’s towering presence in both The Night of the Hunter (1955) and Cape Fear (1962). The music occasionally swells in the melodramatic, but is nicely written and very welcomed.

I can only think of two other films about skinheads -- Alan Clarke’s Made in Britain (1982) and the Australian Russell Crowe vehicle, Romper Stomper (1992).  This is almost tragic, since one of the messages of the American History X, ironically, is that beneath the façade of the suburban house with its front windows draped in old glory lies disillusioned and dangerous people -- especially under the age of thirty -- who are capable of great pain and suffering but do not even realize it.  We are shown that the lives of Derek and his kin are an unfortunate sect of reactionary America that we tend to look away from, but ultimately must be examined in order to break the bonds of hatred that have been passed from generation to generation.  American History X shows us the ramifications of unadulterated idolatry and the consequences of looking away from its results.

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