one of the best movies ever made

Rating: 10/10 (23 December 2002)

American History X is a powerful, emotionally devastating opus of beauty that should be viewed and experienced by all. Tony Kaye and David McKenna have done something extroardinary in seeing hate and racism from the POV of the American neo-Nazi, and helped us see more than we could have hoped for. The film's underlying theme was simple: life is too short to be p****d off all the time. Edward Norton's dynamic performance was his best to date, showing a grand transformation of the intelligent yet simple-minded young man who, while in an emotionally hateful and racist frame of mind, speaks certain truths that most of us wish were not the facts. However, it is only after befriending a black inmate in prison that he learns see things from a wider perspective, through all the b******t and propaganda that he has learned and taught others. He realizes that yes, maybe it is true that one in every three black males is in some form of a correctional facility. Maybe most black Americans have been using their past history of slavery to promote white guilt and frighten white Americans into recession. But the even harder truth to face is that Norton's hate had so consumed him that he failed to see any options other than blaming blacks and minorities for all of the country's problems. Hate consumed his mind and disabled it. This is one of the best movies ever made and one of my favorites. I have been watching Norton since Primal Fear and I know that he will go far as an actor. It was a pity he did not win the Academy Award for Best Actor.