Powerful, pointless

Rating: 9/10 (30 March 1999)

I'd like to start by saying that this is a fantastic movie that you should go and see. It is gripping 100% of the way through. The acting is superb, the imagery is breathtaking, the violence is thoroughly brutal.
However I did have some gripes about the actual intent of the movie. The story follows the lives of Derek (Edward Notron) and Danny (Edward Furlong) Vinyard. Danny, the younger brother of Derek, is instructed to study the life of his brother after he submits a paper on Mein Kampf for school. Danny looks up to and admires his brother and they are both neo-Nazis. Derek ends up in prison after a race related manslaughter, yet his time in prison shows him the error of his ways and after release he attempts to reform his younger brother as he himself has been reformed.
The first part of the movie explores Derek as a character and his white power motivation and ideas. Derek is not your stereotypical thug. He is intelligent and articulate. The whole first section presents both racism against whites and racism against blacks. Both black and white are seen to be equally discriminatory and violent, a war of two equal sides. Yet we only ever see the motives of the neo-Nazis. We are given the propaganda that the neo-Nazis feed on, social problems are dredged up and the blacks and immigrants are blamed for all of it and Derek is Hell-bent on putting those wrongs right. Apart from the awful violence there are no strong reasons given why Derek is in any way 'wrong.' We have no real reason to hate or despise him, after all the men he killed were trying to kill him. His father was killed by black people as he tried to save their lives. This whole idea prevails...both 'sides' are 'wrong' yet both are justified
In prison, however, Derek becomes disillusioned with his 'own kind' and turns from them realising they have shallow motives and are unguided. He feels the thugs in prison don't share his ideas; they are simply thugs. He decides to become a loner, neither friends with the white gang or the black gang. This leaves him wide open as to even survive you have to take at least one side. The only reason he makes it out alive is due to a friendship he develops with a black inmate.
This is the rather flimsy basis of his conversion. Separated from everyone he begins to realise that he has been fed a lie and vows to distance himself from his former gang lifestyle.
It is all-well and good seeing that Derek is no longer a racist thug...but what about all of the white-power ideas? All of the social problems that Derek points out still exist in society. Nothing he says throughout the movie is rebutted. So neo-Nazism isn't the answer, but what is? The movie leaves you dangling on this point, not really resolving anything.
Another interesting point was the cinema dynamics. I can't remember any other movie where I have squirmed in my seat, practically ashamed to be white. Half way through the movie I was praying that all would turn out good lest I be lynched outside...it really is that powerful. However as both black and white exchanged words onscreen I squirmed as 'my race' demonstrated their racism toward the blacks, yet the black members of the audience felt it acceptable to laugh out loud as the onscreen blacks were racist toward the whites...
So I would like to finish by saying that not only was I practically ashamed of being white, I am proud to say that at least I was ashamed.