A Brutally Raw Take on a Sensitive Topic

Rating: 8/10 (26 November 2019)

What a fantastic raw film that focusses on showing not only the brutal acts that hate groups commit, but also showing the human elements that contributes to the corruption of adolescence. Everything about this movie is incredible from the themes that it tackles to the stylistic choices made by the filmmakers. One in particular is Tony Kaye's choice to use black and white footage to represent the changing of opinions had by Derek Vinyard(Edward Norton), physically showing how black and white everything began. Along with these awesome choices all the actors performances were on point in this film, Edward Norton is at his best giving the audience a look into his characters personal psyche. Another incredible part of this movie that I think is worth mentioning is the use of violence. I think the reality of violence in films is almost glamorized in a lot of films taking away the horror of simple acts, but not in this film. The first sequence of this film is of a brutal depiction of violence which physically makes the audience sick, and with every viewing you find yourself more and more upset with Darek Vinyard.
But before I rate this film I would like to say that I was not a fan of the aspect ratio they chose to use, I know that this might not be the largest detail but I still wanted to bring it up. But I digress, so I chose to give this film a 8/10 just because I think there are a couple parts where it gets a little choppy and over narrated.