American Histroy X

Rating: Null/10 (30 October 2010)

Derek Vinyard, played by Edward Norton, is the leader of a white supremacists group who serves time in prison for murdering a black guy trying to steal his vehicle. While Derek is in prison, his younger brother, Danny, played by Edward Furlong, seems to be following in his foot steps. Danny narrates throughout the movie about his paper he had to re-write for Dr. Sweeney. The paper was about his brother Derek and why he was in prison. Derek befriends his black laundry friend while in prison and becomes to realize black people really aren't that bad. He really begins to realize his mistakes and misconception when he is raped in the shower room. Derek calls upon Dr. Sweeney to help him get out of prison. Dr. Sweeney acts as Derek's mentor at some point. The theme of the movie was racial tolerance and how people deal with it. The movie goes into detail as to why Derek has become the way he did. Derek finally gets out of prison and reconnects with his family after 3 years. He has reformed from being the white supremacist he was and wants to live a decent life beyond that. He attends a party at which the head of the group, Cameron Alexander, played by Stacy Keach, is in his office talking with Danny. Derek makes it a point to tell Cameron that he wants out and that he wants nothing more to do with the group. He tells him to leave his brother alone. While Derek has reformed and is trying to get his life back on track, he feels the need to look after Danny and keep him out of trouble. The tragic ending of the movie comes when the black kid who had a grudge towards Danny for blowing smoke in his face ends up killing him in the boys bathroom. The ending of the movie leaves you with this thought.."Will Derek revert and become hateful towards black people again?" American History X was a movie about one dominate race amongst another, that being the whites as being superior to any other race. Racial hate crimes still happen today. But do people come out of prison as a reformed person like Derek Vinyard did? We don't hear about that too much these days. I found out that American History X was based on a true story. I read this in a IMDb movie review. The guy, who the reviewer could not remember his name, comes to the high school where he used to attend to a speech about racial prejudice and hate crimes. To this day I believe that no matter what we try to do to abolish racial prejudice that leads to hate crimes, it's just not going to be a permanent thing. I feel you can maybe change a person and their views about the subject but you cannot change everybody's opinion. It all goes back to the history of how and why racial prejudice began.