Best of the ninety's liberal or not!

Rating: 10/10 (23 November 2009)

American History X is about brothers Derek (played by Edward Norton) and Daniel Vinyard (played by Edward Furlong) whose father was a fireman responding to a fire. When reviving to the scene he gets shot by gang members.
This leads to hatred against (mostly immigrants)foreigners from Derek and, being the eldest of the sons, he makes Daniel and the rest of his family grow up in a white supremacy surrounding. This will be shown in the movie many times, for example by hatred against a Jewish teacher who is trying to date his mother. Even though Daniel seems to be OK with the white supremacy surroundings, it's shown that he is more into having friends than being an outcast from his social surroundings. One day black gang members loose a basketball game against Derek's white gang. The looser would not show themselves ever again on the basketball court. This leads to retaliation and some of the black gang members are trying to steal the boy's deceased father's truck in the middle of the night. Daniel sees it and tells to Derek about it. Derek grabs his gun and kills two gang members in a brutal way. Derek is sentenced to prison for three years. Derek has a hard time fitting in to any group in prison and slowly becomes friend of another inmate who is black. This and many other factors make Derek finding him self in an ideological crisis. When he returns from prison reformed, his younger brother Daniel Vinyard who idolizes him is on the brink of becoming a Neo Nazi himself.
Edward Norton and Edward Furlong do a breathtaking performance and you can really feel their repressed feelings and brotherly love for each other. Edward Norton transforms from a hateful Neo-Nazi to an intelligent normal man and does it in a realistic way. Edward Norton shows really good how he is trying to live up to Derek and feeling ashamed about it at the same time.
Other actors like Beverly D'Angelo playing their mother are really good, too. She is being in a living hell after his husband's death and seeing her sons becoming racist. There are lots of smaller parts like Ethan Suplee's role as Seth Ryan, a dumb Derek idolizing, over weight racist, which makes the story just stronger. The movie is really violent in some parts but it is almost a must to keep the feeling so strong.
Tony Kaye does an amazing job directing and timing every shot so that you don't get confused on flashbacks and what is happening at the moment. The movie reminds the viewer that we live in a world of chain reactions that can be transformed into hate and love. The film itself is a sincere and yet unrelentingly harsh look at race hatred in our modern society.
The colour of the people is just what we see but as a human being we are all the same. Colour of the people is just what we see but as a human being we are all the same.
Still, there are some problems. For example Dr. Sweeny (a black teacher) assigns Danny, the younger brother, to write an essay on his family history and his older brother's impact on his life. The paper is a part of what Sweeny calls "American History X." The film leads us to believe, then, that the movie a story about Danny. But it isn't. It's Derek's story. I think that it was an unnecessary for Daniel to begin the story or it could have been done better.
Even though the movie is probably one of the best movies of the ninety's and leaves no one cold.