Absolutely riveting

Rating: 10/10 (10 February 2009)

This is one powerful movie. Not only is this movie an excellent showcase of dangerous thinking but also the misguided ways and wisdom that led to it.
Edward Norton's performance is nothing short of spectacular, playing basically two versions of the same man. Utterly convincing and extremely menacing as the hateful C.O.D. leader, recruiting armies of impressionable people in the fight against society's parasites. Completely convinced in his cause, there's no better soldier for White Power. Norton's equally convincing as the broken down, fully repentant "born again" man released from prison, after committing a brutal act of violence.
There's no sugar coating here; Norton is as brutal as they come. An intellectual filled with hatred finds just the right place to vent it and his mentor (a slimy and effective Stacey Keach) pushes all the right buttons.
No less effective is Edward Furlong, as Norton's impressionable younger brother. Idolizing his brother, Furlong attempts to impress his brother by following in his footsteps, though it's somewhat apparent that he's not at all like his brother in way of thinking. He can be force fed, but ultimately with right guidance he could be steered in the right direction.
Also interesting here is the film's statement about where the evil seed is sown. At a casual conversation at dinner time, the hard working father of Norton explains (somewhat clumsily) to him to question things and not take things simply at face value. Displaying some irritation over affirmative action the father exposes some racial concerns that may be attributed to racism. But the overall impression of the man is that he's decent, with some strong viewpoints which all may not agree with, but the scene clearly implies that racism can be passed on. Once his father dies in a shooting, the troubled son focuses his rage in all the wrong places and a figure like Keach provides him a dangerous feeding ground to nurture his rage.
But this rage only taints his soul and causes sorrow and heartbreak for all around him and in the end proves quite costly.
American History X is a sobering look at a massive world wide problem and it makes a strong case for what kind of people get involved with a cause like White Supremacy. Troubled or alienated kids, looking for a place in a detached cold world could easily find solidarity in a group like this. The same can apply for almost any group, be it a community of gay people, religious groups or activists against seal killing, whatever, people look to belong to some kind of community. The trouble here is that these people breed a dangerous, dividing way of thinking and, at worst, killers for a very misguided cause.
American History X is one of those must-see movies. I cannot recommend it enough. Rambling over.