Powerful imagery; lacking in originality

Rating: Null/10 (8 October 2004)

This is a powerful film with a great performance by Ed Norton, and I believe a must see for many people of all colors. So, if you aren't interested in wrecking some of that imagery, go ahead and watch it. If you are fascinated that a man would deign to criticize American History X, than read on.
(potential spoilers ahead)
The fact is, this movie is so busy painting a stinging, unblinking portrait of racism (on both sides) in America that, with the exception of Ed Norton, it doesn't take the time to create characters that we care about, or cause its characters to develop in any kind of realistic way. The story is primarily about Norton, and how he becomes the leader of a white supremacist gang, then turns away from racism while in prison, and finally tries to convince his younger brother of the errors of neo-Naziism. We never really see much of the development of Ed Norton's racism, nor do we see the neo-Nazi kingpin that works on him and his brother but in a few scenes. The Principal that supposedly represents all that is right and good in this movie is incredibly, profoundly two-dimensional. The movie wears increasingly conventional toward the end, and closes with a monologue given by a character that sounded like Cardinal Tutu, not a kid who has undergone a values shift a matter of hours before. Which brings me to another point about this movie. I cannot think of a situation where a 16-year-old would be able to throw away everything he has been taught all his life on the basis of one conversation. He would probably get very confused, then mad at being confused, and lack any kind of security whatsoever. True value shifts take time, and even the most conventional movies will generally allow some time for that to develop. It almost begs the question if this whole movie is really a pro-racism movie done tongue-in-cheek.
Many scenes of the movie I enjoyed, and many more scenes challenged me. But this movie has far too many characters that work so hard to represent one side or another that they miss the first point of any movie: to be interesting characters we can care about. So it works well as a movie that shows the seediest sides of modern racial bigotry, but as a real movie with an original plot and a message you can really buy, it fails.
6/10