Good, but unconvincing where it counts.

Rating: 10/10 (17 August 1999)

I have great respect for American History X. Norton's performance is stunning and worth all the accolades he's received for it. (Besides I'll watch any movie with Jennifer Lien just to hear her voice.) Good to see Beverly D'Angelo playing against her "Nat'l Lampoon Vacation" role.
As to the movie as a whole, however, I felt it tried to pack too much into too little time. I wasn't as convinced with the transformationS of Norton's character as I might have been. I also felt that the ending was unnecessary drama. Rather than conveying a message of hope and transformation, we're left, I guess, with the adage that "violence begets violence." I would rather have seen the cycle of racial violence left broken as it had been in the prison.