Edward Norton Deserves a Best Actor Oscar

Rating: Null/10 (24 November 1998)

Edward Norton probably deserves a Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of Derek Vinyard, a reformed neo-Nazi skinhead who is trying to keep his wayward younger brother Danny (Edward Furlong) from making the same mistakes. After excellent work in `Primal Fear' (1996) and `Rounders' (1998), Norton continues to deliver stunning portrayals of men of questionable character, much like Robert DeNiro has throughout the past generation.
This provocative film, with able direction and slick black-&-white-&-color cinematography by Tony Kaye, hurls you into the world of the Venice Beach, California, skinheads and the rest of the working class whites who feel pressured by the influx of black families escaping the battlegrounds of South Central Los Angeles. Kaye's willingness to examine the Vinyard family with an unabashed eye recalls John Singleton's unerring portrait of Furious Styles's household in `Boyz N the Hood.' As a matter of fact, I would recommend `Boyz N the Hood' as an ideal companion piece to `American History X'
`American History X' depicts some pretty explicit things, including rampant profanity, rape, violence, and sexual intercourse. But this film avoids lurid exploitation, and shows a judicious hand. It is not something to take your Grandma to, unless you're Adam Sandler.
This movie utilizes young actors and veterans alike. Avery Brooks (Principal Bob Sweeney) and Stacy Keach (neo-Nazi Cameron Alexander) are the father-figure idealogues tugging Danny in either direction. Beverly D'Angelo delivers her best work in years as Doris, the Vinyard boys' mother. In their efforts to help Danny, his social studies teacher (Elliott Gould) and his sister Davina (Jennifer Lien) are countered by corpulent skinhead Seth (Ethan Suplee) and the parasitical Stacey (Fairuza Balk). And it is in this delicate balance that writer David McKenna constructs a disturbing and magnificent story that, until the end, preserves the chance of ending in either tragedy or triumph.