One of the most powerful movies ever made!

Rating: 10/10 (19 August 2005)

American History X is one of the most important films of are generation which tells us about the true horrors of racial prejudice(from both white and black citizens) that still goes on in our world today.
In the state of California a young Neo-Nazi skinhead called Derek Vinyard(Edward Norton) is arrested and jailed for the violent killings of two coloured men who were trying to steal his van. Then while serving his sentence Vinyard slowly begins to realise just how wrong he was to do all the savage things he did. Derek vows that on the day of his realise he shall be a reformed man and is determined to save his younger brother Danny(Edward Furlong) from adopting to the same life style he had once lead due to the fact that he has already fallen under the influence of Cameron Alexander the older man who had convinced Derek to set up the white power movement that he use to lead, while destroying shops in their area which were owned by foreign businessmen. The story is very well written and makes it easy to understand all the characters. The ending is a bit of a shocker but still powerful as it remains us that every racial group on this earth can be racist not just the while people.
Edward Norton's acting as Derek Vinyard in this movie was legendary and easily his best performance so far, passing Fight Club by miles in my opinion. I here he was up for an occur back in 1998 for his role in American History X and was only denied it due to all the controversial scenes in the movie, which I fell was a real shame as he really deserved it much more that anyone else that year.
Edward Furlong is also excellent in his role as Danny Vinyard and was a really good narrator throughout the film. The rest of the cast which included Avery Brooks, Ethan Suplee, Fairuza Balk and Stacy Keach are also terrific.
This movie is one of the best and most powerful pieces of acting I've ever seen in my life and I'm actually quite surprised its only ranked at number 60 instead of in the IMDb top 20, but oh well I guess popularity polls can never be the exact why you would wish them to be. Anyway this movie has lots of important lessons to teach its viewer and I would suggest everyone to watch it. I overall give American History X a definite 10/10 stars.